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State Foster Care Official Retiring Amid Controversy

Kansas Department for Children and Families

A key official in the Kansas Department of Children and Families is retiring amid a controversy about the agency’s handling adoption cases involving same-sex couples.

Michael Myers, who oversees the foster care and adoption, is retiring at the end of the month after about a year in the job.

A DCF spokesperson says there is no connection between Myers’ retirement and recent charges that the agency has discriminated against gay Kansans seeking to adopt children or serve as foster parents.

Critics are using a 2013 decision from Johnson County District Court Judge Kathleen Sloan to support their charges. Sloan singled Myers out in the decision that says the agency conducted a “witch hunt” against a lesbian foster-care couple to prevent them from adopting a 16-month-old boy.