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OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma Department of Human Services is allowing foster parents with concealed-carry permits to have guns around their foster children as long as the firearms are securely in a holster.

DHS is working with foster parents who are gun owners while new firearm policies are completed, spokeswoman Sheree Powell told The Oklahoman on Monday.

Those efforts are a drastic change from just a few years ago when foster parents were asked to sign a written agreement requiring that weapons be locked up. That agreement became the subject of a federal lawsuit that was resolved last week.

An Oklahoma City federal judge dismissed the lawsuit against DHS. The lawsuit alleged that the agency violated foster parents’ right to bear arms.