The state board that initiated administrative rules that eventually became laws restricting unmarried Utah couples from becoming adoptive or foster parents has a new rule under consideration: raising the minimum age requirement.
Foster parents would have to be 23 or older, according to a proposal the state Office of Licensing board sent to the Board of Child and Family Services. (It would not apply to adoptive parents.) Foster parents currently must be at least 21.The licensing board didn't offer an explanation in a letter requesting the change, which left child and family services board members scratching their heads Friday during their monthly meeting. The board sets policy for the Division of Child and Family Services.
"Is there something broke here?" board member Becky Oakley wondered. "Is there something wrong with the 21- and 22-year-olds?"
Ken Patterson, DCFS director, said he's "not aware of young people providing bad care."
But Kit Hansen, a state licensing board member and president of the Utah Foster Families Association, told the Deseret News she knows of at least one "ugly" situation, which led her to push for raising the minimum age. A 21-year-old woman who had two foster children and two of her own, all under age 4, was criminally charged with abuse about 18 months ago, Hansen said.
"It overloaded them," she said of the young couple, whom she said apparently had nothing but good intentions when they signed up as foster parents. "I didn't want to see another person destroyed."
Hansen said she would have preferred the age be set at 25, but the licensing board compromised on 23 after a nearly yearlong debate.
"You need a certain level of maturity to know, 'I've reached my breaking point. I need to pull back.' I don't think kids have that at 21 or 22," said Hansen, a foster parent the past 23 years.
The proposed policy would permit exceptions to the age requirement if a DCFS regional director finds it in the best interest of the child. Placing a child with a relative under age 23 or with a young family close to the child's home would be the two most compelling reasons, Patterson said.
Patterson's overall opinion of the proposal was on the fence.
"In some ways it makes sense to have older foster parents because they might be more prepared," he said. "On the other hand, I was the father of two by age 23. And they're doing OK."
Setting a "best practices standard" is sensible, said board member Jim Anderson. But, he said, the board should move cautiously and with much deliberation before adopting the proposed policy.
The DCFS board decided to send the proposal to its advisory boards for comment before taking action. Meantime, the board approved policies and procedures to reflect a restrictive new foster parent and adoption law the Utah Legislature passed last month.
Roz McGee, executive director of the advocacy group Utah Children, shakes her head at the continual tinkering with a foster care and adoptive placement program that she said in the past had wide latitude to match parents with children.