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.