The State Board of Social Services should restore to the final rules the protections against discrimination included in the proposed rules.

All children need love and care, and those agencies charged with placing children in adoptive homes or foster homes should be concerned with only with the intent of the prospective parents to care for the child and with the fit of the child for the home. The best interests of the child should be the sole factor in deciding whether a child should be placed with a prospective foster care or adoptive parent or parents.

State-licensed child placing agencies should not be allowed to disqualify or refuse to place a child because of the child's race, national origin, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, political beliefs, sexual orientation, disability or family status. Likewise, they should not be allowed to disqualify persons from adopting or foster parenting a child based on a prospective parent's race, national origin, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, political beliefs, sexual orientation, disability or family status.