Laurie Downey

I am in support of this bill as I believe it will encourage more individuals to become foster parents by removing this requirement. Six years ago I began the process of becoming a foster parent. My heart is to help teens. I completed the first step of taking the FACES classes and was ready to move forward until we were told about the vaccine requirements. I am not anti-vaccine, but I firmly believe it should be individual choice. Whether or not someone is vaccinated has no impact on an individual’s ability to provide love and care for a child in foster care. These requirements provide additional challenges to an already difficult process of becoming licensed, and also reduces the number of loving homes to provide for the most vulnerable of children. If the State were to conduct exit interviews of those of us who halted or stopped the process they may be surprised at how many chose to not foster because of them. When I decided to halt my process, no one cared to ask why. No one asked what they could do better to make the process more conducive to encourage more people to foster.