From Deseret News archives:
Parents gain child welfare rights
Overall, concession and compromise marked the drafting, redrafting and amending that shaped a number of bills introduced this session. The bills were aimed at carving out a place for acknowledging and protecting the rights of parents in child abuse and neglect cases.
By late Wednesday, with just a few hours left until the session's end, the two most controversial measures had yet to be passed and at least one — the most sweeping — appeared as if it would perish on the vine as time ran out.
Both measures, HB202 and HB338, resurrected tenets of bills introduced last year by the same two lawmakers, Reps. Wayne Harper, R-West Jordan, and LaVar Christensen, R-Sandy.
Harper and Christensen have been outspoken critics of the state Division of Child and Family Services and other key players in the state's child welfare system, asserting the scales of justice are tipped firmly in favor of the system.
Their efforts, along with those of a couple of other lawmakers, have been about giving more protections to parents.
Measures that did pass include:
• SB83, by Sen. David Thomas, R-South Weber, relates to medical neglect cases and grants parents the right to a second medical opinion, provides that the state must prove the decision by the parent is not reasonable or prudent and allows parents to pursue alternative treatment options that are reasonable and in the best interest of the child.
• HB89, by Christensen, amends the state's current judicial code to repeal the rebuttable "presumption" of responsibility related to the abuse or neglect of a minor. The measure repeals a section of the code related to injuries that occur to a child when only a particular person is present.
• HB42, by Rep. Mike Morley, R-Spanish Fork, makes clear that teachers cannot recommend psychotropic medication to children as a condition of being in school. Parental rights advocates urged its passage, arguing medication decisions should be the parents' prerogative, not a teacher's.
"It has gone very, very well," Utah Eagle Forum's Gayle Ruzicka said. "We have had a very good year with all of our bills . . . Every year we chisel away at the things in the law that are not family-friendly, and what doesn't pass, we'll bring back the next year."
DCFS division director Richard Anderson said he believes the learning curve in this session on the issue of child welfare has been less strenuous for lawmakers because they cut their teeth on last year's volatile debates.
"What has happened is, I think more people are gaining a better understanding about the successes and improvements in child welfare. Because of that, this session was much more reasonable."
Still, Anderson said he hopes for a time when he doesn't spend all of his time at the session repeating the same explanations about policies and procedures to state lawmakers.
"One day soon, I was hoping it would be this session, legislators will actually give humble praise to work that is being done in the child welfare system in the state of Utah. It won't be because everything is fixed. It will be because they have seriously looked at the facts and the data and know they have a really solid child welfare system."
E-mail: amyjoi@desnews.com
