Topeka ? A special legislative committee voted Monday to recommend that when state officials are making decisions about placing children in foster homes, they should consider “evidence-based factors about family structure,” a statement that was quickly seen as an attack on same-sex couples.

Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, R-Shawnee, said she believes family structure is an important consideration when determining what is in the best interests of the child.

“If there are two like families, they’re alike in everything else, but there is evidence that one family structure is better for that child than another, that should be considered,” she said during a meeting of the Special Committee on Foster Care Adequacy.

Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook

But the agency has also been accused of systematically discriminating against same-sex couples when making decisions about where to place children in state custody, and Democrats on the panel viewed Pilcher-Cook’s motion as a continuation of that practice.

“This just seems like a blatant attempt to discriminate against same-sex couples,” said Sen. Laura Kelly, D-Topeka.

That special committee was formed last year to look into the practices of the Department for Children and Families, the agency that administers the state’s foster care system. That agency has been under intense scrutiny in recent months following deaths and injuries of children who were living in foster homes.

The committee held only one day of hearings over the interim. At that meeting in November, it heard testimony from Donald Paul Sullins, a sociology researcher at the Catholic University of America, who wrote a paper last year arguing that children with same-sex parents are more than twice as likely as other children to suffer from certain kinds of emotional problems.

Sullins’ report, however, has been roundly criticized by other researchers for ignoring certain factors, such as whether the child being studied actually lived with, or spent significant time with, the parent involved in a same-sex relationship.

Tom Witt, executive director of Equality Kansas, a statewide gay rights advocacy group, said he is less concerned about any report the Legislature adopts than he is about the day-to-day practices of DCF.

“They have been actively discriminating against same-sex couples since at least 2012,” he said. “Whether we have bills come up in the Legislature or not, discrimination within DCF is something we expect to continue as long as Phyllis Gilmore is the secretary and Sam Brownback is the governor.”

Separately, the Legislative Post Audit Committee tentatively agreed last month to authorize an audit to examine whether DCF has been discriminating against same-sex couples. That is to be part of a broader audit looking into many policies and practices of the agency.

That panel is scheduled to meet Wednesday to decide on the final wording of the audit question, and some Republicans on the panel have argued for toning it down to make it less politically charged.