A pair of bills criminalizing re-homing of adopted children in Arkansas unanimously passed through the Senate on Thursday.
Members approved both House Bill 1676 and House Bill 1648 with a 34-0 vote.
The legislation was prompted by a lawmaker who in 2013 re-homed his two adopted daughters to a man who later sexually assaulted one of them.
HB1676, sponsored by Rep. David Meeks, R-Conway, makes the practice of re-homing adopted children a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
The companion legislation, HB1648, filed by Rep. Greg Leding, D-Fayetteville, requires the state Department of Human Services to set post-adoptive rules to make clear what options are available to parents who are struggling with an adopted child. The bill also makes it a misdemeanor for adoptive parents to collect state subsidies if the adopted child is no longer in their care.
Rep. Justin Harris, R-West Fork, re-homed his two adopted daughters, ages 3 and 5 at the time, to Eric Cameron Francis, an employee of Harris’ Growing God’s Kingdom daycare. Francis sexually assaulted the older girl while she was in his care.
Harris said at a news conference earlier this month that the Arkansas Department of Human Services misled him about the girls’ emotional and mental issues stemming from past abuse, which caused behavioral problems that made caring for them a “living hell.”
Harris said he and his wife Marsha placed the children in Francis’ care after they were threatened with abandonment charges and the possibility of losing their own sons when they tried to return the girls to Department of Human Services because they were too difficult to raise.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson last week called for an examination into child-welfare services at the Department of Human Services.
Read Friday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
