Kinship caregivers "are angels among us," who "take children in difficult circumstances," Lisa-Michele Church said. But, she added, there are times when placing a child with grandma is ill-advised - or worse, negligent.

Church was responding to critics who say Utah is misapplying a new federal law that requires all adoptive and foster families, including kin, to undergo time-consuming FBI criminal screens.

Nowhere in the Adam Walsh Act of 2006 does it say criminal screens must be completed before placing a child. But that's how Utah officials understood it, and lawmakers changed state law to comply with that interpretation.

As a result, hundreds of children removed from abusive or neglectful homes are being placed in shelters, some for eight weeks or longer, waiting for kin to clear background checks.

Rep. Wayne Harper, R-West Jordan, is pitching fix-it legislation to allow temporary kinship placements.

But the bill may meet with resistance. Lawmakers on Wednesday promised to study the matter, but voiced concern about exposing the state to liability.

"If, [absent a background check], a child gets hurt, that will be your job and our necks, and no one will ever forgive us," Sen. Allen Christensen told Church. The North Ogden Republican added, "I, for one, think you're doing a great job."

Duane Betournay, director of the state Division of Child and Family Services, said up to a quarter of kinship screenings show criminal histories that would prevent the relative from being licensed as a foster parent.

National advocates for child welfare reform, however, question Utah's legal risk assessment.

The state opted "to protect itself over doing what's best for children," says Carole Shauffer, director of the California-based Youth Law Center. "You have a one in one million chance of placing a child with someone bad, which will wind up in the press and possibly in litigation," she said. "Or, there's the risk of harming kids by moving them around. It may be less severe, but certainly more prevalent."

Advocates know of no other state that has taken such a hard line on the Adam Walsh act. Church stressed her agency is getting mixed messages from the federal government on the interpretation.

She said Utah is working to speed background checks and better support kinship placements; currently about 56 percent fail.

In the first eight months of this year, kinship placements dropped slightly to 680, down from 700 at the same time last year. That doesn't account, however, for a 4 percent increase in the rate at which children are being removed from their homes.

kstewart@sltrib.com