The state of Washington has settled a federal lawsuit brought by a Christian couple, agreeing to a permanent injunction that will again allow religious families to serve as foster parents without having to support beliefs that counter their religious faith and violate their constitutional rights.
Shane and Jennifer DeGross, a Christian couple who served as licensed foster parents in Washington state for nine years, sued Washington in 2024 for religious discrimination after it declined to renew their license in 2022 due to their sincerely held religious beliefs about the God-given, immutable nature of the human body.
The DeGrosses objected to the state’s policy requiring foster parents to affirm a child’s gender identity, including using pronouns that do not align with the child’s biological sex and supporting social or medical transitioning.
The state decided to settle this week after a key federal court ruling in April denied Washington’s motion to dismiss the case with respect to the DeGrosses’ First Amendment claims to the free exercise of religion and free speech, allowing the lawsuit to proceed.
During the nine years they served as foster parents, the couple cared for multiple children and were described by their licensing agency as exemplary foster parents, according to Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the religious freedom law group representing the couple.
As part of the settlement reached on May 20, Washington’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) will change its licensing policies to respect all religious families’ deeply held convictions and won’t “attach any conditions or restrictions to the license solely because of their religious beliefs, including speech and actions pertaining to marriage, gender, or sexual relationships.” State officials also agreed to pay $250,000 in attorneys’ fees.
“When children are sleeping on cots in child-welfare offices for lack of loving homes, states like Washington should be doing everything they can to bring in more qualified foster parents,” said Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse, ADF senior counsel, when the federal court issued its decision in April.
The federal district court cited another ADF case in its April opinion, Bates v. Pakseresht, where ADF had successfully challenged a similar law in Oregon on behalf of a Christian mother, Jessica Bates.
In 2023, Bates challenged the department rule that required those seeking to become adoptive or foster parents must agree to “respect, accept, and support the … sexual orientation, gender identity, [and] gender expression … of a child or young adult” who is placed in the home.
In 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ordered that the Oregon Department of Human Services must allow Bates to begin the process of adopting two children without first making her comply with the stateʼs gender identity affirmation policy.
According to a statement from ADF, the appeals court ruled that Oregon’s policy “engaged in viewpoint discrimination and violated Bates’ free speech and free exercise of religion. The Washington district court saw the same issues in how the state’s policy violated the DeGrosses’ constitutional rights.”
The settlement permanently resolves the dispute and requires DCYF to stop imposing viewpoint-based restrictions on religious foster parents.
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