Text of KY HB 160 (2019)

UNOFFICIAL COPY 19 RS BR 960 Page 1 of 3 XXXX Jacketed AN ACT relating to foster care and adoption services. 1 Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky: 2 SECTION 1. A NEW SECTION OF KRS CHAPTER 199 IS CREATED TO 3 READ AS FOLLOWS: 4 (1) As used in this section: 5 (a) "Foster care or adoption services" means social services provided to or on 6 behalf of children, including but not limited to the following: 7 1. Assisting abused or neglected children; 8 2. Teaching children and parents occupational, homemaking, and other 9 domestic skills; 10 3. Promoting foster parenting; 11 4. Providing foster homes, residential care, group homes, or temporary 12 group shelters for children; 13 5. Recruiting of foster parents; 14 6. Placing children in foster homes; 15 7. Operation of foster homes; 16 8. Promoting adoption or recruiting adoptive parents; 17 9. Assisting adoptions or supporting adoptive families; 18 10. Performing or assisting home studies; 19 11. Assisting kinship care givers or fictive kin caregivers; 20 12. Providing family preservation services; 21 13. Providing family support services; and 22 14. Providing temporary or permanent family reunification services; and 23 (b) "Religious organization" means any religious corporation, association, 24 educational institution, or society. The determination of whether an 25 organization is "religious" for purposes of this section shall be based on the 26 following factors, no one (1) of which shall be determinative: 27 UNOFFICIAL COPY 19 RS BR 960 Page 2 of 3 XXXX Jacketed 1. Whether the entity operates for a profit; 1 2. Whether the entity produces a secular product; 2 3. Whether the entity's articles of incorporation or other pertinent 3 documents state a religious purpose; 4 4. Whether the entity is owned, affiliated with, or financially supported 5 by a formally religious entity such as a church or synagogue; 6 5. Whether a formally religious entity participates in the management, 7 such as by having representatives on the board of trustees; 8 6. Whether the entity holds itself out to the public as secular or 9 sectarian; 10 7. Whether the entity regularly includes prayer or other forms of worship 11 in its activities; 12 8. Whether the entity includes religious instruction in its curriculum, to 13 the extent it is an educational institution; and 14 9. Whether the entity's membership is made up by coreligionists. 15 (2) A religious organization or an individual employed by a religious organization 16 while acting in the scope of that employment shall not be required to provide 17 foster care or adoption services to a person if the action would cause the 18 organization or individual to violate a sincerely held religious belief. 19 (3) (a) The refusal of a religious organization or an individual employed by a 20 religious organization while acting in the scope of that employment to 21 provide foster care or adoption services to a person under this section shall 22 not be the basis for a civil or criminal cause of action or any other action by 23 this state or a political subdivision of this state to penalize or withhold 24 benefits or privileges, including tax exemptions, governmental contracts, 25 grants, or licenses, from any protected organization or individual. 26 (b) A religious organization or an individual employed by a religious 27 UNOFFICIAL COPY 19 RS BR 960 Page 3 of 3 XXXX Jacketed organization while acting in the scope of that employment shall have a 1 defense to any private cause of action for its refusal to provide foster care or 2 adoption services to a person under this section due to a sincerely held 3 religious belief. 4