Latest news with #HouseBill2311
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kansas LGBTQ+ foster kids' rights in jeopardy under new law protecting religious parents
Rep. Susan Ruiz, a Shawnee Democrat, on April 10, 2025, on the House floor condemned a veto override of legislation allowing LGBTQ+ kids in foster care to be placed in religious households that may disagree with their gender identity or sexual orientation. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector) TOPEKA — The way Kansas LGBTQ+ youths in foster care are placed into homes could change after lawmakers forced a bill into law that permits foster children to be placed with families who don't affirm a child's sexual orientation or gender identity based on the parents' religious or moral beliefs. Republicans argued that Kansas is at risk of losing needed foster families, and the bill prevents the state from discriminating against parents, even though their beliefs might conflict with a child's sexuality or gender identity. Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, vetoed the bill April 7, characterizing it as a departure from the Kansas Department for Children and Families' adherence to the 'best interest of the child' standard. 'Legislation like this detracts from this standard and stands in the way of best serving those in the child welfare system,' Kelly wrote in her veto message. She also feared the legislation could open the state up to lawsuits. The House overrode House Bill 2311 Thursday in an 87-38 vote, with Emporia Republican Rep. Mark Schreiber joining Democrats in opposition. Senate Republicans overrode it the same day in a 31-9 vote along party lines. Kerrie Lonard of the Kansas Office of the Child Advocate said her office recognizes the proponents' intent, the concerns of those opposed and the possibility for unintended consequences. It will be 'cognizant,' Lonard said, of the implementation of HB 2311, which includes 'recruitment and training of foster parents, and in placement decisions, specific to increased placement options or potential harm or actions that do not maintain best interest of the child as the guiding center.' Foster care youths are entitled to basic rights under the Gail Finney Memorial Foster Care Bill of Rights, which was codified in 2023. Embedded in that bill of rights, Lonard said, is the right to 'live in a safe, comfortable placement,' to 'be treated with respect' and to live with 'someone from such child's community with similar religious beliefs or ethnic heritage.' The office 'will advocate that placement decisions are made with respect to foster children's statutorily protected rights and in their best interests,' Lonard said. HB 2311, which is set to go into law as soon as it is published in the Kansas Register, forbids the state's foster care agency from creating policies for a child's placement, custody or adoption that require a foster parent to 'affirm, accept or support' a child's sexual orientation or gender identity that may conflict with the parents' religious or moral beliefs. It bars rejections of eligible foster parents based on their religious or moral beliefs on sexuality or gender. The state cannot reject parents if they intend 'to guide or instruct a child' consistent with their beliefs, the bill said. People can sue the agency for damages and attorney fees if barriers to foster care or adoption are enforced after July 1. The Kansas foster care system has endured a rocky history, and it is currently measuring court-mandated improvements to course correct. Brenna Visocsky of the Kansas Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, which submitted testimony to the House Committee on Child Welfare, said HB 2311 doesn't fix any of the state's prevailing problems. She said it furthers them instead. 'Considering that conversion therapy is still legal in this state, there is the potential for serious harm coming to LGBTQ children placed with anti-LGBTQ foster parents,' said Visocsky. Alliance Defending Freedom, a national conservative Christian legal advocacy group, applauded the effort and Kansas Family Voice, a Christian organization that lobbies on abortion, sexuality and parental rights. Greg Chafuen, senior counsel for the alliance, said other states have put politics over people when it comes to religious families in the foster care system, but not Kansas. 'The Kansas Legislature correctly voted to override Gov. Kelly's misguided veto,' he said in a statement. 'This is a critical step to prioritize the well-being of kids by prohibiting state and local government officials from discriminating against adoption and foster care providers and parents simply because of their religious beliefs and moral convictions.' Rep. Jarrod Ousley, a Merriam Democrat, said the bill puts the foster parents' sincerely held religious beliefs ahead of kids' sexual orientation or gender identity. 'This was a bad bill when we heard it last time,' Ousley said on the House floor. 'This sends a terrible signal to a vulnerable population in the state of Kansas. Rep. Susan Ruiz, a Shawnee Democrat, rebutted the idea that religious freedoms are under attack. 'Religious liberty is well-protected in Kansas,' she said. 'What is not well protected in Kansas are children and their rights.' The bill isn't needed, she said. 'The purpose of the bill really is to discriminate against a certain child,' Ruiz said, 'a child that may be talking, speaking about, that they may be transgender.'
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kansas gov. vetoes child custody bill
TOPEKA (KSNT) – Governor Laura Kelly announced on Monday that she has vetoed a bill she says would interfere with the welfare of children. Kelly announced in a press release on April 7 that she has vetoed House Bill 2311. She issued the following statement regarding why she thinks the veto decision was necessary: 'The top priority of the Kansas Department for Children and Families should be adhering to the 'best interest of the child' standard. Legislation like this detracts from this standard and stands in the way of best serving those in the child welfare in need of care already face unique and complex challenges. I will not sign legislation that could further complicate their lives. I also have concerns that this bill could expose the state to frivolous lawsuits and hinder the agency by taking time and resources away from critical services.' Gov. Laura Kelly on House Bill 2311 Kansas gov. vetoes six bills Friday, allows for two new laws House Bill 2311 would, if passed successfully, prohibit the secretary of the Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF) from adopting and enforcing policies for placement, custody and appointment of a custodian that may conflict with sincerely held religious or moral beliefs regarding sexual orientation or gender identity and creating a right of action for violations. The bill returns to the Kansas Legislature which will need to obtain a two-thirds majority in both the House and the Senate to override the governor's veto. House Bill 2311 passed the House at a vote of 84-38 and the Senate with 31-9. For more Capitol Bureau news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here. Follow Matthew Self on X (Twitter): Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Kansas House embraces bill on religious, moral liberty within state's foster care program
Rija Khan, of Overland Park, urged Kansas House members to reject House bill 2311 because it would, in her view, subject Kansas children in foster care to religious discrimination. The House voted overwhelmingly to approve the bill and forward it to the Senate. (Kansas Reflector screen capture of Legislature's YouTube channel) TOPEKA — Devout Catholic Stacey Chik pleaded with Kansas legislators to pass a law forbidding a state agency from requiring foster or adoptive parents to adhere to policies in conflict with their sincerely held religious or moral beliefs. Her idea was to embed in statute a way of blocking the Kansas Department for Children and Families from imposing a preference for foster care or adoption families committed to supporting DCF regulations on a child's sexual orientation or gender identity. The proposed reform in House Bill 2311 — easily passed this week by the Kansas House — would mandate DCF acknowledge and accept the moral or religious perspectives of potential foster or adoption parents. It would allow filing of lawsuits and recovery of damages and attorney fees from DCF if such barriers to foster care or adoption were enforced after July 1. The bill was sent to the Kansas Senate. 'It is the families who are firmly rooted in faith communities that tend to thrive as healthy and healing homes for foster children precisely because they are surrounded by a community who loves them and loves the service they are doing,' said Chik, who adopted four children and works as executive vice president of Life on Belay. 'HB 2311 is not just about protecting religious liberty. It is about protecting the thousands of children who rely on the generosity of faith-driven families to care for them in their most vulnerable moments.' In the House Child Welfare and Foster Care Committee, a handful of people spoke in favor of the bill. More than 50 shared views in opposition. Lawrence resident Chloe Chaffin, with a mother and grandmother who were adopted, said she came out as queer at age 22. She informed her mother Jan. 28 after absorbing testimony during a Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee hearing in support of Senate Bill 63, which banned health care for transgender Kansans under age 18. The Legislature subsequently overrode Gov. Laura Kelly's veto of that bill. 'Kids need the state's protection from all forms of neglect and abuse,' said Chaffin, who indicated she was strongly opposed to HB 2311. 'Allowing them to be placed in homes with foster parents who will invalidate their queerness and seek to change and fix that which is not broken only compounds existing traumas and risks dangerous mental health crises.' She denounced political targeting of LGBTQ children by members of the Legislature and argued their focus in terms of children in foster care or considered for adoption ought to be on leading 'with kindness and protection instead of compounding the pain of their hardest moments.' Kansas has struggled with a surge in children placed in foster care. Despite reductions of that population, there were 5,800 Kansas children in out-of-home placements in late 2024. During House floor debate on the foster care and adoption bill, an amendment was added by Rep. Cyndi Howerton, a Wichita Republican and chair of the House foster care committee. Her amendment assigned legal responsibility for religious or moral violations contained in the bill exclusively with DCF — not DCF contractors or individuals working on foster care or adoption. An amendment from Rep. Susan Ruiz, a Shawnee Democrat, to modify the bill's language so best interests of a child in foster or adoptive care remained the top priority at DCF was rejected by the House. She said the amendment was necessary because the bill was drafted in a way that could force a subsection of children in Kansas to endure more trauma. 'You have to remember why children come into the system in the first place,' Ruiz said. 'They come into the system because of abuse and neglect, and it comes in so many forms.' Ruiz told House colleagues that Kansas youth were physically beaten and emotionally traumatized by parents and church leaders who wanted children to adhere to a certain sexual orientation or gender identity. Some kids were expected to 'pray away the gay,' she said. Others were compelled to undergo so-called conversion therapy, she said. It has little basis in science, but proposes to erase a person's gender identity or sexuality — usually to conform to ideals of other people. 'This bill opens up the door to one of the most horrible forms of therapy that any human being can be exposed to,' Ruiz said. Rep. Tim Johnson, a Basehor Republican who carried the bill on the House floor, pushed back against Ruiz' conclusions. He said adults involved in foster care and adoption in Kansas shouldn't have to shelve their beliefs and values. It was wrong for DCF to disqualify people for roles in adoption or foster care because they weren't 'necessarily in favor of certain behaviors,' Johnson said. He said the bill offered a First Amendment shield to foster or adoptive children as well as foster or adoptive parents. 'This protects both sides. It makes sure that those with different views all get an opportunity,' Johnson said. He said there had been issues of discrimination in the evaluation of adoptive and foster care volunteers. It's referred to as 'shadow banning,' he said, and occurred in back rooms and office cubicles among government workers making decisions on foster care and ad0ption. He alleged DCF hadn't been forthcoming with the Legislature about its policies or practices at the heart of the House bill. 'Decisions are made. Not recorded,' Johnson said. 'Silence from DCF is deafening.'
