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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- For the fourth year in a row, state Rep. Wayne Harper is proposing legislation to reform Utah's welfare system.
This year's bill is described by Harper, R-West Jordan, and child welfare officials as a compromise bill.
It was crafted after four months of negotiations, and seeks to refine the definition of child abuse by stating what is not.
Reasonable discipline of a child, the use of reasonable and necessary physical restraint or force, and measures of self defense would not be considered to be child abuse.
The measure also directs the state Division of Child and Family Services to train caseworkers on U.S. Supreme Court decisions underscoring that the state's "role is secondary and supportive to the primary role of a parent."
"We're not feeling as if we got everything we wanted or he got everything he wanted," said Adam Trupp, a legal adviser to the state Department of Human Services.
Previous proposals by Harper would have set higher standards of evidence before a court could remove children from the home or terminate a parent's rights. He also had sought to remove threatened physical harm, mental cruelty or repeated neglect as conditions for state intervention.
Lisa-Michele Church, executive director of the Human Services Department, hopes this compromise will end lawmakers' annual scrutiny of DCFS caseworkers.
"Every year there are 300 changes," she said. "The rules of the playing field shouldn't change every single year."
Harper anticipates offering as many as five other bills involving child welfare, but said they mainly provide technical corrections or reflect current practices.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
