The Arkansas House of Representatives on Friday passed a pair of bills on re-homing adoptive children, including one that bans the practice.
Members voted 88-0 in favor of House Bill 1676 after hearing from the bill's sponsor, state Rep. David Meeks, R-Conway, who characterized it as an effort to prevent "a parent from just finding somebody and giving the child away and then not having anything to do with the child."
Among those voting for the legislation and a companion bill, House Bill 1648, was Rep. Justin Harris, R-West Fork. He acknowledged earlier this month that he sent two of his adopted daughters to live with a man who later sexually assaulted one of them.
The two re-homing bills were filed after the situation involving Harris' adoptive children came to light.
HB1676 would make re-homing to anyone other than a family member a felony and also would exclude a family from facing an abandonment charge in "a situation in which a child has disrupted his or her adoption and the adoptive parent has exhausted the available resources."
Harris has said the children he re-homed had reactive attachment disorder, which caused serious behavioral problems, and he said he chose to re-home them because he feared he would be charged with abandonment.
Meeks didn't mention Harris in his remarks before the chamber, but he did note reactive attachment disorder sometimes occurs in adoptive children and that fear of being charged is also an issue.
"We want them to be able to come to our state, DHS, whoever, and ask for help without the fear that they're going to get charged with abandonment of the child," he said.
Meeks called re-homing a "small issue" and said officials had only identified 9 cases where it had occurred.
HB1648, which also passed 88-0, requires the Department of Human Services to set rules so parents of of adoptive parents understand their options if troubles develop with an adopted child. It would also make illegal to collect a state subsidy to an adoptive parent if the child has been given to someone else.
Its sponsor, Greg Leding, D-Fayetteville, said HB1648 will ensure "that no child or parent is left out in the cold."
Read Saturday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.