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1 Final Project Milestone Andrea J. Musick, LBSW Master of Social Work, Walden University SOCW 6361A: Social Policy: Analysis and Advocacy Dr. Linda F. Samuel October 23, 2022

2 The Social Problem – Adoption Discrimination There were 21,442 children in foster care in the state of Texas as of September 2022. Although the majority are in kinship placements, or placements with people whom they know or relatives, 811 are what the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (“DFPS”) Children without Placement. These children are referred to as CWOP (DFPS Monthly Report, 2022). What this means is that 811 children from birth to 18 years of age are without consistent, loving homes and at any time one of the other 20,000 could be right alongside them. As staggering as these numbers are for Texas, nationwide in recent years there were over 400,000 children who age out of the foster care system without ever having had a permanent, loving, and supportive family ( AFCARS Report, 2018). Texas is in a foster care crisis with not enough foster homes and adoptive parents to provide for the desperate needs of these children. What is worse is that there are people in Texas who want to provide homes, families, and lifelong support to these children, but they are not permitted to because they are LGBTQ+ persons. Texas has chosen homophobia and discrimination over children and harmed our most vulnerable Texans as well as discriminating against a protected class of people in our state. Social workers are bound by an ethics code that outlines very specific ethical principles that direct our practice. We are challenged with fighting for social justice, advocating for the dignity and worth of all people, and recognizing the importance of human relationships (NASW, 2022). However, it doesn’t take a degree or a license to know that we must all stand and use our collective voice to topple discrimination at all levels of government, that we must fight for children who have no one in their corner, and to seek what is in the best interests of these forgotten, underserved, and undervalued children. These practices are not only harmful to the ones discriminated against but done so at an even greater risk to our children. In a recent federal

3 lawsuit against DFPS, United States District Judge Janis Jack Graham stated that children in Texas foster care “almost uniformly leave custody more damaged than when they entered” (Garrett, 2015). As evidence of this, 23,000 children age out of foster care without access to the support necessary to live independently and successfully. Alongside that statistic, we know that 25% of children who age out have PTSD and/or end up incarcerated within 2 years while 60% of end up in the sex industry and 20% end up instantly homeless, without a safe place to be the very second they age out (Balistreri, 2022). We as a people cannot allow our most vulnerable population to suffer because a solution doesn’t look like us, pray like us, or love like us. We should not be willing to sacrifice our children’s welfare and best interests to “prove” our faith. We must insist on better from one another and from those who amplify our votes and need our votes. Our policymakers and politicians need to staunchly oppose policies that infringe on the rights of citizens – adults and children alike. This isn’t just a matter of positive outcomes for children – although it should be. The truth is that raising children is costly and that includes the cost of various state governments who are responsible for the care of children in foster care. By expanding the pool of prospective adoptive parents to include LGBTQ+ persons, states are saving hundreds of millions of dollars which can be funneled back into their programs to support family-strengthening endeavors. With 15-28% of adoptions nationwide being with LGBTQ families, and those families being 7 times more likely to foster and adopt children of special needs and older children, we are not just allowing for the limiting of the adoption pool, but specifically for harder-to-place children. If those homes were opened up we would improve outcomes for children. Children who are adopted vs. children who age out are 50% less likely to be arrested, and 24% less likely to experience sustained unemployment. This is not on a change in the trajectory of individual

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4 children, but positive outcomes affect future generations and even the economy when we are producing citizens who are whole and well. States like Texas are creating loopholes for discrimination to exist within public policy and allowing organizations to discriminate based on religion when more than two-thirds of Americans oppose doing so (Bewkes et al., 2018). The Loophole – House Bill 3859: Freedom to Serve Families Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network summed up House Bill 3859 perfectly when she said "This law’s clear intent is to allow service providers that receive state tax dollars to misuse religion as a license to discriminate against LGBT families and children in the state’s child-welfare system” (Herskovitz, 2017). House Bill 3859 is a Texas bill sponsored by Representative James Frank that was touted as a way to help troubled children find homes and was supported by several Christian groups, but ultimately added nothing to the child welfare system or children and simply created a loophole that is more a freedom to discriminate than the freedom to serve. The policy, which has been in place since 2017, allows placement agencies that receive federal funds to discriminate against LGBTQ+ foster and adoptive parents if the organization has a religious objection. This paper focuses on the impact on children and LGBTQ+ persons, but the religious exemption includes any person which whom the organization my hold an issue with (Freedom to Serve Families, 2017). This bill contradicts federal protections in place for LGBTQ+ people by weaponizing the freedom of religion to allow for blatant discrimination and homophobia to override the needs of our children and the willingness of hundreds of LGBTQ + individuals and families who are ready to help them.

5 The Change We Need James Frank sponsored HB3859 and hyped the bill up to critics to find more homes for children when the bill does quite literally the opposite. When backlash arose, supporters claimed their intent wasn’t to discriminate and that the perception of negativity was not at issue. The slippery slope that this bill has created means that there is now an opening for religious-based organizations to operate outside the breadth and scope of the law by claiming a “sincerely held religious belief” which could lead to organizations not following guidelines for the care of children when religious organizations oversee the care of children in foster care. Although supporters have stated that the link there is inappropriately connected, it is still a possibility that should not be tolerated (Evans, 2017). These organizations can exist on their own and the opposition has never said they can’t – what they say is that they shouldn’t be funded with tax dollars. These faith-based organizations are free to be homophobic on their own time with their own dime. Their supporters who rose to vote and support this act can rise up with funds to support their endeavors, but the American people should not have their tax dollars used to fund this discrimination. The very people who have been discriminated against and denied the ability to have a family should not be required to pay for it. To overcome this Act, it will take a Judicial Review of the Supreme Court. To be able to overcome this wrong and overturn this act at that level, we need a person-to-person advocacy approach (Jansson, 2018). Education is key for change and not enough people are tuned in to these smaller Acts that receive little attention during other high-profile debates and political issues. The first and most critical step is to garner support from the people who can then direct their efforts towards campaigns to alert representatives to become involved and motivated to bringing this to the Supreme Court. Even a credible threat of losing the funding will make these organizations reverse their actions as

6 children are not the source of their focus, but their funding certainly is. This approach brings social justice into the real world and not simply a concept that people thing is held up by politicians and professional lobbyists and activists. It brings people together with a sense of purpose and shows them the power that we wield when we operate collectively for a mutual goal. We begin with a ripple, but we end up on the shores of justice as a tidal wave.

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7 References Balistreri, E. (2018, March 8). What happens to kids who age out of foster care? Foster Care . https://www.thehofp.org/articles/what-happens-to-kids-who-age-out-of-foster-care Bewkes, F., Rooney, C., Kroll, J., Durso, L., Wong, E., & Mirza, S. A. (2018). Discrimination against LGBTQ Foster and Adoptive Parents Hurts Children. In The Center for American Progress . The Center for American Progress. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/welcoming-all-families/ Evans, M. (2017, March 29). House panel hears testimony on child welfare religious liberty bill . The Texas Tribune. https://www.texastribune.org/2017/03/29/house-state-affairs-hears- testimony-child-welfare-religious-liberty-bi/ Freedom to Serve Families, no. 3859, Texas (2017). https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/85R/billtext/pdf/HB03859I.pdf Garrett, R. (2015, December 18). Federal Judge Finds Texas Has “Broken” Foster Care System, Says She’ll Order Changes . Texans Care for Children. https://txchildren.org/posts/2015/12/18/in-the-news-federal-judge-finds-texas-has- broken-foster-care-system-says-shell-order-changes Herskovitz, J. (2017, June 15). Texas governor approves adoption bill that critics contend discriminates. Reuters . https://www.reuters.com/article/us-texas-adoption-lgbt/texas- governor-approves-adoption-bill-that-critics-contend-discriminates-idUSKBN19631H Jansson, B. S. (2018). Becoming an effective policy advocate : from policy practice to social justice (8th ed.). Cengage Learning. National Association of Social Workers. (2022, October 23). Code of Ethics . NASW. https://www.socialworkers.org/About/Ethics/Code-of-Ethics

8 Texas Department of Family & Protective Services. (2022). Monthly Data September 2022. In Tx DFPS . https://www.dfps.state.tx.us/About_DFPS/Monthly_Data/default.asp United States Health and Human Services. (2018). The AFCARS Report: Preliminary FY 2017. In U.S. Department of Health and Human Services . https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/cb/afcarsreport25.pdf d112557b-1b85-4df5-b1c9-ee04cd0b5bdb e033a5aa-adf3-417d-9a0d-3b2b7330d967

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