Funeral director licensing in Illinois

What it takes, step by step

1. Be at least 18. Complete one academic year of college and at least one year at an approved mortuary school that teaches funeral directing and embalming.

   Sources for step 1

   • 225 ILCS 41/10-10

2. Get a funeral director and embalmer intern license; internship (supervised work in a funeral home; some states use this word for the apprenticeship) time only counts while you hold it.

   Sources for step 2

   • 225 ILCS 41/10-10

3. Serve a 12-month internship in Illinois under a licensed funeral director and embalmer: arrange at least 24 funerals, assist in preparing and embalming at least 24 bodies, and do removals and selection-room work. File 12 case reports every 3 months.

   Sources for step 3

   • 225 ILCS 41/10-10
   • 68 IAC 1250.130

4. Pass both parts of the Conference's National Board Exam (the NBE, the national licensing exam set by The Conference (the International Conference of Funeral Service Examining Boards), in two sections, Arts and Sciences; The Conference, National Board Exam): Part I (Science, including embalming and restorative art) and Part II (Arts). You must pass within 3 years of applying.

   Sources for step 4

   • 68 IAC 1250.140
   • 225 ILCS 41/10-25

Does a funeral home need an embalmer?

Every funeral home must keep a preparation room equipped for embalming, unless it is a branch of an Illinois main home that has one. The Code does not separately require the home to name an embalmer, but every new licensee is a funeral director and embalmer.

Licensed in another state?

Endorsement is only for someone already licensed as a funeral director and embalmer elsewhere, from a state with substantially equivalent requirements, with mortuary-science education and at least 12 months of funeral directing and embalming practice in the last 5 years. A funeral-director-only license does not qualify.

Good to know

• IDFPR still lists 'Funeral Director, Licensed', but that is the license held by people licensed before 1 June 1991; new applications are offered only for funeral director and embalmer.

  Sources

  • IDFPR, Funeral Director & Embalmer
  • 225 ILCS 41/5-25

• The section that bars new funeral-director-only licenses is marked as scheduled to be repealed on 1 January 2028 unless the legislature extends it, so the rules could change.

  Sources

  • 225 ILCS 41/5-25

Check with the board

Rules change. Confirm the current licensing requirements with the board before you enroll.

Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (Funeral Directors and Embalmers Licensing and Disciplinary Board)

Many Muslims would rather not embalm. Whether a Muslim may embalm someone who is not Muslim is a question for a qualified scholar. This page only shows what Illinois’s law requires.

Next

• How to become a Muslim funeral director
• Open jobs at funeral services serving Muslim communities
• Muslim funeral services in Illinois
• Every state, at a glance