(1) The General Assembly finds that foster parents providing care for children who are in the custody of the Department of Human Services play an integral, indispensable, and vital role in the state's effort to care for dependent children displaced from their homes. The General Assembly further finds that it is in the best interests of Arkansas's child welfare system to acknowledge foster parents as active and participating members of this system and to support them.
(2) When policies regarding foster care and adoptive placement are developed by the Division of Children and Family Services of the Department of Human Services and other child placement agencies, those policies shall be designed to support and aid foster parents.