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Originally Posted by Scrapsathome
Can you imagine if the bio parents were of a religion that requires you to pray X number of times a day and were able to get a judge or CW to demand that foster parents must ensure that the children pray that number of times? Or if they said the kids had to celebrate every one of their religion's holy days in their foster home? Where would you draw the line? What if there isn't a single foster family willing to devote an entire Saturday to focus on nothing but God like the 7th Day Adventists require every week? Where do you put the kids? Or if this were required of foster parents, wouldn't it also apply to public schools? Wouldn't teachers have to allow Muslim students to interrupt class for prayer and foot washing?
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Public school teachers do in fact have to allow Muslim students to leave class in order to pray during the day and they further have to provide an appropriate place in the school for them to pray facing Mecca.
Likewise, if the parents (and the child if capable) request that they want the child in foster care to pray 6 times a day facing Mecca, the foster parent is required to accommodate the request and make appropriate arrangements. If the child was given the room to say the prayers and then chose not to, that would be the child's choice. The line would be drawn on if the state deemed the practice of the religious belief was detrimental to the child's safety and wellbeing. It would not be a decision made lightly and would probably involve a determination made by a judge. As baptism clearly wouldn't qualify as being detrimental, if the bio parent requests it as being a part of the child's religious practice and the child is too young to object, the foster parents are required to accommodate (make the child available in this case).