An Act promoting the placement of foster children with family members and preventing discrimination against potential foster parents based on irrelevant convictions

This bill changes how Massachusetts evaluates criminal history for foster parent applicants. It requires that if a crime occurred more than five years before review, professionals must presume it's irrelevant to child safety and the department cannot reject applications based on it. The bill also bans presuming most crimes (except those in specific subsections) create a risk of harm, and prohibits rejections based on criminal history outside those limited exceptions. This directly affects potential foster parents with past convictions, particularly those older than five years. The key mechanism is a strict five-year presumption of irrelevance and a broad prohibition on using criminal history to deny foster care placements.