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Senate advances adoption‑study bill after compromise to keep background checks
Summary
First-substitute Senate Bill 173 was advanced to third reading after sponsors removed controversial waivers and committed to retaining criminal-background and abuse-registry checks for all adoptions; voice/roll-call recorded as unanimous among present senators.
Senators on Feb. 16 moved the first substitute of Senate Bill 173 (pre- and post-placement adoptive home-study provisions) to the third‑reading calendar after sponsors reached a compromise with adoption‑council stakeholders.
Senator Craig Taylor, sponsor, said he agreed to strike sections that would have allowed waivers of home studies in certain birth‑mother‑selected placements and to retain technical clarifications about who may perform home studies. The substitute keeps a universal requirement that every adoption include a criminal-background check and an abuse-registry check. Taylor said he reached agreement with the Utah Adoption Council on removing the most controversial portions to secure their support for related adoption legislation.
Floor discussion emphasized protecting children and maintaining needed checks. Several senators said home studies sometimes add cost and delay but that background checks and abuse‑registry checks are necessary safeguards. Senator Billiard, an adoptive parent, supported the approach that keeps status quo protections while eliminating portions the adoption council found objectionable.
The Senate recorded the vote on the first substitute as 25 ayes, zero nays, with four absent and placed the bill at the bottom of the third‑reading calendar for future processing. The transcript indicates additional technical amendments will be prepared by draft staff and taken up on the next day when the bill returns to the floor.
Quote: “All this will do is make technical changes to the definitions of those who can perform home studies, and it will also provide that in every adoption there will be a criminal background check and an abuse registry check,” Senator Taylor said.
Next steps: the sponsor will coordinate drafting technical renumbering and relettering changes; the bill remains subject to future floor amendments before final passage.
