The state Board of Child and Family Services isn't sure how more restrictive adoption and foster care policies approved to conform with a new Utah law will play out.
But it is sure that 21--year--old foster parents are OK.The board, which sets policy for the Division of Child and Family Services, Friday shot down a proposal to raise the minimum age for foster parents from 21 to 23. The state Office of Licensing board last month asked the DCFS board to consider the change, suggesting younger people may not be mature enough to handle parenthood.
Board member Jim Anderson said DCFS should look at maturity and aptitude but not age. Board members also wanted to head off any claims of age discrimination.
Only about 2 percent of the state's foster parents fall into the 21 to 23 age category, he said.
Meantime, there are questions about whether the new guidelines will make it more difficult for unmarried relatives to adopt children taken into state custody.
"It's premature to say it will affect lots of kinship placements. Undoubtedly, it will affect some," said Ken Patterson, state Division of Child and Family Services director.
Patterson acknowledged at Friday's DCFS board meeting "some tension" between kinship adoption and HB103, new legislation that bans unmarried couples from adopting children and becoming foster parents. The law, which goes into effect Monday, also directs DCFS to give married couples preference over single people.
The child welfare agency's new policy, however, gives regional directors discretion to consider factors such as the single relative's prior relationship with the child, cultural or ethnic background and medical, mental health and educational needs.
Board Chairman Scott Clark said he doesn't have a lot of confidence in the division's ability to place children in homes on the basis of culture or ethnicity, citing a case in which an English-speaking child was sent to a Spanish-speaking family.
"I think we should place children in the best home. The way the division manipulates culture and ethnicity works to the disadvantage of the child," he said.
Patterson said those situations are due to having more abused and neglected children than foster homes to put them in. DCFS, he said, won't be able to match children with more appropriate homes until the foster parent pool expands.
As a result of the new law, DCFS also is charged with inquiring into the nature of prospective foster and adoptive couples' relationships. The law prohibits cohabitating couples -- defined as living together in a "sexual relationship" -- from adopting children and providing foster care.
The board last month struggled to come up with words to explain what sexual relationship means, ultimately opting to define it as "any sexual activity and conduct between persons."
Board member Regnal Garff, a retired judge, said Friday that language is too vague. "I don't know how you can define sexual conduct without being specific," he said."
However, board members had no intention of listing what they consider sexual activity.
You can reach Dennis Romboy by e-mail at romboy@desnews.com