Bills on adopted children in works

A bill to prevent the "re-homing" of adopted children is needed, but drafting one poses risks, experts in child welfare and adoption said.

Three bills before the Legislature would restrict giving adopted children of one family to another family to raise. The filings came late in the session, after the sexual assault of an adopted 6-year-old girl came to light.

The girl's adoptive parents were state Rep. Justin Harris, R-West Fork, and his wife, Marsha. The Harris family adopted two sisters in 2013, but later sent the girls to live with the family of Eric Cameron Francis, now 39, of Bella Vista. Francis is serving a 40-year sentence for sexual assault.

"Good legislation is never a simple task, and knee-jerk is never a good response," said Ed Appler, chairman of the state Child Welfare Agency Review Board.

Appler also is director of Grace Adoptions, a private adoption agency based in Conway. Legislators working on the problem appear to be acting in good faith, he said, but the suddenness and sense of urgency with which legislation was filed concerns him.

For example, one of the three bills being considered would forbid bringing a child into the state to live with someone who is not a relative.

Suppose an adopted child in another state was in need of a higher, specialized level of care at home because of a medical condition, Appler said, or suppose the child came from a foreign country, the medical condition was unknown before his arrival and the adoptive parents are unable to provide the needed care.

Now, suppose parents in Arkansas had experience with providing such care, he said. A law to discourage re-homing that requires a court order in Arkansas could create obstacles to transferring the child because neither the child nor the adoptive parents live in an Arkansas court's jurisdiction, he said.

That's not a hypothetical example, Appler said. There are such cases.

"I'm the first one who'll tell you that we need some effective legislation on this, but we've got to think of the good guys when drafting it. I've been doing this 15 years, and this is the first time I've heard of" a re-homing that ended in a child being sexually assaulted, Appler said.

Rep. Greg Leding, D-Fayetteville, sponsored the first bill filed to restrict re-homing. He said Friday that lawmakers are very aware of the risk and complexity of this type of legislation. However, lawmakers already were working on changing the state's adoption process before the Harris case made news, he said.

Many of the lawmakers working on the bills, not just the sponsors, have long histories of being advocates for child welfare, he said.

"It's fair to say that the issue of re-homing is new to us, but the fact that the state's adoption system needed an overhaul is not," Leding said.

The bills on re-homing are House Bill 1648 by Leding; HB1676 by Rep. David Meeks, R-Conway; and Senate Bill 874 by Sen. Bobby Pierce, D-Sheridan.

HB1648 is being fleshed out, and a more comprehensive version should be ready by Tuesday, Leding said. The bill as filed is a short prohibition against sending a child to live with someone who is not a relative of the child.

Meeks' bill would prohibit an adoptive parent from placing a child in a home "to avoid permanent parental responsibility" but includes exemptions for placing the child in the home of a relative or step-parent. It also includes provisions against human trafficking, such as selling children.

SB874 is largely blank, filed just before the session's deadline for filing new bills. Pierce will fill in the details later. The bill can be amended as long as the Legislature is in session.

The Legislature will probably agree on a bill to restrict re-homing this session, but other issues related to adoption, such as how much the state Department of Human Services should track the statuses of foster children adopted from the state, will probably remain for future legislative sessions, Leding said.

The legislative session is expected to end in less than a month.

Jennifer Ferguson, deputy director of Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, confirmed that lawmakers are aware of the need for more protection of children in adoption cases and were working on the issue before the Harris case came to light after Francis' conviction. Arkansas Advocates is a nonprofit group concerned with family and child welfare issues.

Lawmakers in Arkansas also have the experiences of other states to build upon, Ferguson said. Meeks' bill is modeled after a Louisiana law, she said.

"You're going to see some amendments to these bills pretty quickly as the issues they raise are addressed," Ferguson said. "A lot of what's being enacted will put teeth into policies we already have."

For instance, DHS has a clause in a contract with adoptive parents that they will not let the child be raised by others, but the state imposes no penalties for ignoring that provision, she said.

Appler said the biggest challenge is the relative lack of homes as compared with the number of children who would benefit from adoption. Lawmakers need to take care that they don't unintentionally discourage qualified families from considering an adoption, he said.

Although both House bills contain specific exemptions that allow a family member to raise an adopted child, one thing lawmakers need to be particularly careful about in their wording is to make sure there are no unintended barriers to a loving, qualified family member taking in a child, said Brenda Zedlitz.

Zedlitz is director of children's services for EOA Children's House in Springdale, a therapeutic child development and crisis intervention center.

"Someday, hopefully, I'll have grandchildren, and I hope I don't have to have a home study done if something happens and I have to take care of them," she said. "Being raised with the system hanging over your head is not optimal for any child."

Even if there is no direct prohibition on a family member taking a child, adding requirements such as follow-up visits by the state and reporting requirements carry the risk of widening the gap between adopted children and the other members of their adoptive family, she said. Such distinctions can make a child feel less like a true part of the family, she said.

Metro on 03/15/2015