§ 50-12-03 — Requirements for licensure and employment - Term - Moral or religious conviction not bar to licensure or employment

conviction not bar to licensure or employment.
The department of health and human services shall issue licenses for the conduct of
child-placing agencies upon application. A child-placing agency shall require a criminal history
record investigation on the owner and each employee, volunteer, or student for field placement
of a child-placing agency who has direct contact with families, with children, or with both. The
department of health and human services shall consider any criminal history record information
available about the owner at the time a licensing decision is made and about an employee prior
to the owner or the employee having direct contact with families, with children, or with both.
Licenses must be granted for a period not exceeding two years. Licenses must be issued to
reputable and responsible applicants upon a showing that they, and their agents, are equipped
properly by training and experience to find and select suitable temporary or permanent homes
for children and to supervise the homes when children are placed in them, to the end that the
health, morality, and general well-being of children placed by them will be properly safeguarded.
The department of health and human services may not deny a license because of the
applicant's objection to performing, assisting, counseling, recommending, facilitating, referring,
or participating in a placement that violates the applicant's written religious or moral convictions
or policies.