Illinois department streamlines online licensing system
[March 14, 2025]
By Jade Aubrey and UIS Public Affairs Reporting (PAR)
SPRINGFIELD — The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional
Regulation updated lawmakers Wednesday on its new online licensing
system to streamline the process and eliminate backlogs.
Rep. Bob Morgan, D-Deerfield, called for the subject matter hearing in
the House Health Care Licensing Committee to discuss the progress IDFPR
has made on the system so far, as well as their timeline to implement
all license applications online.
“I’ve been around state government for over 15 years now, and I really
am hard pressed to think of a turnaround like this,” Morgan said.
One of IDFPR’s main roles as a state agency is to regulate and handle
all business licenses in Illinois.
However, the department has struggled to keep up with the influx in both
initial licensing and renewals since 2019, as applications were almost
entirely submitted on paper via mail. In 2020, the problem was
compounded as the COVID-19 pandemic affected the country’s mailing
systems.
By late 2023, IDFPR Director Mario Treto, Jr. said applicants were
experiencing “historic wait times” and officially called the situation a
“crisis.”
In December 2023, Illinois lawmakers passed legislation that enabled the
department to create an online licensing application process. And in
October 2024, IDFPR officially launched its online licensing system —
the Comprehensive Online Regulatory Environment, or CORE.
The initial system rollout in October only included three licensing
types: clinical psychologists, music therapists and nail technicians.
During his testimony in the committee meeting Wednesday, Treto said the
department has outlined six specific phases in order to fully implement
a complete, comprehensive online licensing system. The CORE startup in
October completed Phase 1.
Phases 2 and 3 include the continuous rollout of the rest of the license
types, which Treto said will come in rollouts of small numbers of
license types until all types have been launched online.
In January, the department kicked off both phases when it launched
online applications for four more license types: professional midwifes,
behavioral analysts, assistant behavior analysts, and behavior analysts
continuing education sponsors.
“Rather than waiting to roll out 15 applications all together in one big
batch, the department, understanding that our licensed professionals are
eager to begin using CORE, has added applications to the system as soon
as they are available,” Treto said.
Camile Lindsay, director of IDFPR’s division of professional regulation,
said the department hopes to rollout all license types by the end of
this summer. This would complete both Phases 2 and 3.
However, Lindsay said the current phases aren’t simply about getting new
license types online. After new license types are rolled out, her team
will be analyzing the efficiency of those application process. What they
learn from those analysis will be applied to the wave of license types
they roll out, and the same process will be applied until all the
license types are online.
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Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation
Secretary Mario Treto Jr. testifies during a committee in the
Statehouse on Wednesday. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Jade
Aubrey)
“I expect not only will your constituents be happy because they are able
to use this new and improved system, but they will see differences in
even the way that we are requesting information,” Lindsay said. “The way
that they are able to keep track of what the status is of their
applications, how they submit money, etc. I just think that your
constituents will be very pleased.”
Although she said the system has more to implement and processes to
improve, Lindsay praised the actions taken to get the system where it
currently stands.
“Our customer surveys satisfaction results are in the 98% and the record
breaking 120,933 licenses were issued in 2024,” Lindsay said. “That is
an almost 14% increase from the previous record set in 2023.”
The majority of applications the department is currently processing were
submitted this year, which is what Lindsay called “a far cry from two
years ago.”
She boasted that her team’s process of constantly improving the
implementation of license types is contributing to the decline of
inquiries from applicants needing assistance. From September 2024 to
February 2025, IDFPR experienced a 33% decrease in inquiries, and their
call center volume decreased almost 40%.
“It is clear that IDFPR is issuing more licenses to qualified
applicants, improving customer service, and implementing a variety of
thoughtful improvements to our processes and procedures to ensure
licensing is convenient for applicants and efficient for the
department,” Lindsay said,
Treto said that IDFPR’s goal is to implement the last phase of CORE’s
online integration, or Phase 6, by August 2026.
Morgan admitted that when Illinois lawmakers passed the legislation for
IDFPR to create CORE 2023, he wasn’t “totally sure” that the agency
would be able to implement the online system and fix their growing
application backup. He praised not only Treto and Lindsay’s work, but
the work of all IDFPR staff on the issue.
“It’s a little surreal, because to me, this is exactly the kind of
progress that we would want to see,” he said. “You both said that we
have more work to do. There are more licenses by the month that you will
be having, but I think it’s safe to say you are absolutely moving in the
right direction, and I want to thank you for that.”
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