“Child welfare agency” means a public or private child care facility, receiving any child or children for the purpose of placing or arranging for the placement or free care of the child or children in foster family homes, unlicensed pre-adoptive and adoptive homes, adoption-only homes, or other facilities for child care, apart from the custody of the child’s or children’s parents. The term “child welfare agency” includes all agencies established and maintained by a municipality or other political subdivision of the State of Illinois to protect, guard, train or care for children outside their own homes and all agencies, persons, groups of persons, associations, organizations, corporations, institutions, centers, or groups providing adoption services, but does not include any circuit court or duly appointed juvenile probation officer or youth counselor of the court who receives and places children under an order of the court.