Texas Foster Care Bill

By Terri Rimmer

The Texas House of Representatives began floor debate on HB 1, the General Appropriations Bill on March 29th that could affect whether gay people can be foster parents.

The bill is intended to be the state’s budget and not a vehicle for the writing of policy.

Equality Texas was urging all citizens to contact their state representatives two weeks ago and ask him/her to vote against any amendment which seeks to restrict or ban qualified gay and lesbian parents from serving as foster parents.

“Banning or restricting qualified families will hurt Texas children,” an Equality rep said. “17,536 children were removed from homes by the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) after investigation in 2006.”

According to research, 34,275 children were under state legal custody last year and from 1999 to 2003, the number of children in foster care rose 40 percent.

DFPS projects that the number of children in foster care will increase nearly 30 percent by 2009.

The result of a ban would reduce the pool of qualified foster homes which is already insufficient to meet the need, the Equality rep wrote.

“A ban would limit resources available to family members under kinship care and could disqualify them from taking care of family members, placing even more children into an overburdened system,” she writes. “A ban or ‘preference’ system would cost Texas an estimated $8-$15 million due to increase cost of eligibility screening, costs of removing children from safe, stable, and otherwise qualified homes, increased administrative and group home costs, and costs of related litigation.”

According to Equality literature, every dollar spent enforcing a ban is a dollar that could have been spent on direct care for Texas children and their families and professional should make child placement decisions.

Several freshmen state reps were new to the House and were not present in 2005 when the House passed the Talton Amendment to SB6 by a vote of 81 to 58 banning gay and lesbian foster parents. Ten state reps voted for the amendment.

For more information, go to house.state.tx.us.

In other Equality Texas news, staff is urging citizens to support HB 247 for non-discrimination in insurance regarding sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. The American Bar Association’s policy states “State laws should prohibit insurance discrimination based on sexual orientation.”

According to an email sent out by Equality, “Transgender people throughout the state are excluded from the health insurance industry and/or denied coverage for medically necessary procedures at alarming rates.”