Washington’s foster care agency will hold a public hearing Nov. 10 on proposed licensing rules that would no longer require foster parents to use a child’s pronouns and chosen name.
The Department of Children, Youth, and Families filed the proposal Oct. 7, according to its rulemaking notice. The notice says the rewrite lines the foster home rules up with “the DeGross Permanent Injunction.” An earlier version filed in September was withdrawn Oct. 2. The new hearing starts at 10 a.m. at agency headquarters in Olympia, and the soonest the rules could be adopted is Nov. 11.
That injunction came out of a lawsuit by Shane and Jenn DeGross, a Christian couple from Port Orchard. They fostered four kids over nine years. Then their 2022 renewal application asked about pronouns, Pride events and gender-affirming medical appointments, KUOW reported.
“Saying that we would love and care for any child was not enough,” Jenn DeGross told KUOW. She said those were “things that, as Christians, we could not be supportive of or affirm.”
What Washington’s 2022 Foster Care Rule Said
The requirement took effect June 18, 2022. Subsection 9 of the state rule says foster parents “must support a foster child’s SOGIE by using their pronouns and chosen name, and respecting the child’s right to privacy concerning their SOGIE.” SOGIE means sexual orientation, gender identity and expression.
The state declined to renew the couple’s license that October, according to Alliance Defending Freedom, the conservative Christian legal group that represented them.
How DeGross v. Senn Ended in a $250,000 Deal
ADF sued in federal court in Tacoma in March 2024. This April, U.S. District Judge David G. Estudillo let the couple’s First Amendment claims move ahead. The state settled a month later.
The May 20 judgment bars DCYF from turning away applicants solely over religious beliefs about marriage, gender or sexual relationships. It can’t make foster parents agree “to use prescribed words or language.” It ordered subsection 9 removed. The state also paid $250,000 in attorney’s fees and reinstated the DeGrosses’ license, KHQ reported.
“We are thrilled to see common sense and religious liberty prevail,” ADF senior counsel Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse said in a news release.
Vermont and Massachusetts have settled similar cases, and one in Oregon is still going, The Imprint reported.
DCYF Promises Placement Matching for LGBTQ+ Foster Youth
DCYF Secretary Tana Senn said in a May 22 statement that the deal “respects the religious beliefs of foster parents, while ensuring LGBTQIA+ youth are placed in an environment that is safe and supports their well-being.”
The court order leaves placements up to the department. DCYF told KUOW it won’t place kids it knows are LGBTQ+ with foster parents who wouldn’t support them. The proposal retains a bar on refusing a placement when doing so violates state antidiscrimination law, including because of a child’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Starting in 2027, applicants will be asked how they’d support kids’ sexual orientation and gender identity, though the agency says answers won’t be used to deny licenses.
Bailey Peterson of the state Office of Civil Legal Aid told KUOW that plan means “relying on a large and constantly turning over base of frontline workers” to keep up with what each child needs.
Nathan LaChine, a longtime foster parent near Tacoma, backed the old rule. “The basic principle of a relationship is correct name and correct pronouns,” he told KUOW. He said kids in foster homes are often still working out who they are. “It’s a journey of self-discovery.”
Nobody tracks how many Washington foster kids are LGBTQ+, KUOW reported.
Written comments on the proposed rules are due by 11:59 p.m. Pacific time Nov. 10. DCYF lists ways to submit comments and attend the hearing on its rulemaking page.
