HB283, which was passed this spring and takes effect May 7, introduces changes to rules on child foster care placements, welfare practices and protections on child gender identity and sexual orientation. The bill aims to address the needs of parents and children in Utah.

“Our country really loves families. We’re all about that as far as cultural values, political values, religious values. But, I think we do a poor job supporting families,” Dr. Macy Halladay, an assistant professor at the University of Utah in family and consumer studies, said. “We are one of a handful of countries without maternity leave on the planet, and early childhood support is not there. So, foster care programs are absolutely not funded well.”

The wage gap is very apparent in Utah. When that’s compounded with the lack of maternity leave across the country, childcare can be a struggle for new families. In the context of foster care, these struggles are intensified for families already dealing with the complexities of child welfare systems.

Halladay discussed the challenges foster parents might particularly face.

“What’s really challenging is that this concept of helping children is a lot different when they are screaming and not able to sleep and reacting because of the trauma they’ve experienced,” she said. “A child’s pathway could be determined before they’re even two and so how do you deal with that when you’ve got a 13-year-old who has these issues that weren’t even their fault?”

LGBTQ rights for children in foster care are also a contentious issue that the bill aims to address. Failure to provide safe, loving environments for children in need sometimes leads to trauma in adults. Chad Call, the executive director of the Utah Pride Center, explained some of these issues.

“There is friction, of course, when differing values and beliefs exist inside of a household around that,” Call said. “It’s not something that an individual, be it a child or an adult, chooses for themselves. It’s an identity that is them, and they deserve to live in a house and be raised in a household that affirms them.”

HB283 outlines some restrictions on a child’s access to transgender hormonal treatment without the permission of a guardian or caretaker.

“Access to gender affirming health care and medical care is something that we know from the Utah Pride Center to be a life saving measure, specifically for the trans youth community, and restrictions which are present in HB283 would restrict [Utah Division of Child and Family Services] representatives from initiating medical care or blocking it altogether,” Call said. “That is a concern for us in this bill.”

The bill also addresses children’s safety and protection by preventing them from being placed with foster parents who expresses discomfort with a child’s gender identity and orientation. However, the language used in the bill causes concern for Call and others at the Utah Pride Center.

“We recognize there’s complex challenges that DCFS is faced with trying to provide affirming and suitable homes,” said Call. “The current language in the bill protects parents’ discomfort around a child’s identity, and one of our concerns on this bill is that it could potentially lead to more placements in unsupportive or unaffirming homes.”

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