Title 63, South Carolina Children's Code

(A) The family court shall review the status of a child placed in foster care upon motion filed by the department to determine a permanent plan for the child. The permanency planning hearing must be held no later than one year after the date the child was first placed in foster c…

(A) Upon motion by the department or any party in interest at any hearing held pursuant to this article, the court may establish legal guardianship with supplemental benefits. (1) The department or any party in interest may request that the court establish legal guardianship with…

(A) When a child is in the custody of the department, the department shall file a petition to terminate parental rights or shall join as party in a termination petition filed by another party or may amend or supplement a petition for removal or a complaint for removal to include …

(A) Beginning on January 1, 2000, or on the date of compliance with subsection (D), whichever is later, and on the first day of each month thereafter, each county clerk of court must make a report to Court Administration concerning each child protection case pending in family cou…

(A) A child in the department's custody who is placed in a qualified residential treatment program is subject to assessment, case planning, and documentation requirements as outlined in this section. (B) Within thirty days of the start of each placement in a qualified residential…

(A) The court shall review the status of a child placed in a qualified residential treatment program as prescribed in this section. (B) Within sixty days of the start of each placement in a qualified residential treatment program, the court independently, shall: (1) consider the …

The purpose of this subarticle is to establish a system for the identification of abused and neglected children and those who are responsible for their welfare, to provide a system for the coordination of reports concerning abused and neglected children, and to provide data for d…

(A) The Department of Social Services must maintain a Central Registry of Child Abuse and Neglect within the department's child protective services unit in accordance with this subarticle and Subarticles 5 and 7 and Section 17-25-135. Perpetrators of child abuse and neglect must …

(A) At any time following receipt of a report, the department may petition the family court for an order directing that the person named as perpetrator be entered in the Central Registry of Child Abuse and Neglect. The petition must have attached a written case summary stating fa…

(A) At a hearing pursuant to Section 63-7-1650 or 63-7-1660, at which the court orders that a child be taken or retained in custody or finds that the child was abused or neglected, the court: (1) shall order, without possibility of waiver by the department, that a person's name b…

In cases where a person has been placed in the Central Registry of Child Abuse and Neglect, the outcome of any further proceedings must be entered immediately by the department into the Central Registry of Child Abuse and Neglect. If it is determined that a report is unfounded, t…

The names, addresses, birth dates, identifying characteristics, and other information unnecessary for auditing and statistical purposes of persons named in department records of indicated cases other than the Central Registry of Child Abuse and Neglect must be destroyed seven yea…

Information in the central registry and other department records may be released only as authorized in Section 63-7-1990 or as otherwise specifically authorized by statute. Information in records of the department other than the Central Registry of Child Abuse and Neglect must no…

(A) When a statute or regulation makes determination of a person's history of child abuse or neglect a condition for employment or volunteer service in a facility or other entity regulated by the department, the person must be screened against the Central Registry of Child Abuse …

(A) All reports made and information collected pursuant to this article maintained by the Department of Social Services and the Central Registry of Child Abuse and Neglect are confidential. A person who disseminates or permits the dissemination of these records and the informatio…

When used in this chapter or Chapter 9 or 11 and unless the specific context indicates otherwise: (1) "Abandonment of a child" means a parent or guardian wilfully deserts a child or wilfully surrenders physical possession of a child without making adequate arrangements for the ch…

(A) Notwithstanding other provisions of the law affecting confidentiality of child protective services records and use and disclosure of records of unfounded cases, records concerning unfounded reports must be retained and disclosed as provided in this section. (B) The alleged pe…

The Department of Social Services must furnish annually to the Governor and the General Assembly a report on the incidence and prevalence of child abuse and neglect in South Carolina, the effectiveness of services provided throughout the State to protect children from this harm, …

(A) To protect and nurture children in foster care, the Department of Social Services and its employees shall: (1) use its best efforts to normalize the lives of children in foster care by allowing a caregiver, without the department's prior approval, to make decisions similar to…

(A) As used in this section, unless the context otherwise requires: (1) "Department" means the Department of Social Services. (2) "Foster parent" means any person with whom a child in the care, custody, or guardianship of the department is placed for temporary or long-term care. …

(A) When the Department of Social Services has custody of a child and places that child with a relative who is licensed to provide foster care, the agency must provide the same services and financial benefits as provided to other licensed foster homes. Children placed pursuant to…

(A) A person applying for licensure as a foster parent or for approval for adoption placement, for approval as a prospective legal guardian for a child in the custody of DSS, or seeking employment or a volunteer role with direct, unsupervised contact with children under the age o…

(A) Notwithstanding the provisions of Section 63-7-2350, the department is authorized to pay from funds appropriated for foster care the costs of Federal Bureau of Investigation fingerprint-based background checks for foster care families recruited and selected as potential adopt…

(A) No child in the custody of the Department of Social Services may be placed in a foster home, adoptive home, legal guardian's home, qualified residential treatment program, or residential facility with a person if the person or anyone eighteen years of age or older residing in…

(A) No agency may place a minor in a foster home if the agency has actual knowledge that the minor has been adjudicated delinquent for, or has pled guilty or nolo contendere to, or has been convicted of a sex offense, unless the placement is in a therapeutic foster home or unless…

Prior to and at the time the department places a child with a foster parent, the department shall disclose to the foster parent all information known by the person making the placement or reasonably accessible to the person making the placement that is necessary to provide adequa…

The Department of Social Services shall establish standards for foster parent training so as to ensure uniform preparedness for foster parents who care for abused or neglected children in the custody of the State. These standards shall specifically prohibit the viewing of standar…

A state agency which places a child in a foster home may compensate a foster family, who has made its private residence available as a foster home, for the uninsured loss it incurs when its personal or real property is damaged, destroyed, or stolen by a child placed in its home, …

(A) A foster home may not provide full-time care for more than five foster children, with the total number of children residing in the household not to exceed eight, including the foster parent's own children, children of other household members, and other children residing in th…

(A) Every child placed with a caregiver for out-of-home care pursuant to this chapter is entitled to participate in age or developmentally appropriate activities. (B) Each caregiver shall use the reasonable and prudent parent standard, as defined in Section 63-7-20, in determinin…

The purpose of this article is to establish procedures for the reasonable and compassionate termination of parental rights where children are abused, neglected, or abandoned in order to protect the health and welfare of these children and make them eligible for adoption by person…

The family court has exclusive jurisdiction over all proceedings held pursuant to this article. For purposes of this article jurisdiction may continue until the child becomes eighteen years of age, unless emancipated earlier.

(A) A petition seeking termination of parental rights may be filed by the Department of Social Services or any interested party. (B) The department may file an action for termination of parental rights without first seeking the court's approval of a change in the permanency plan …

A petition for the termination of parental rights must set forth the: (1) basis of the court's jurisdiction; (2) name, sex, date, and place of birth of the child, if known; (3) name and address of the petitioner and the petitioner's relationship to the child; (4) names, dates of …

(A) A summons and petition for termination of parental rights must be filed with the court and served on: (1) the child, if the child is fourteen years of age or older; (2) the child's guardian ad litem, appointed pursuant to Section 63-7-2560(B), if the child is under fourteen y…

(A) Parents, guardians, or other persons subject to a termination of parental rights action are entitled to legal counsel. Those persons unable to afford legal representation must be appointed counsel by the family court, unless the defendant is in default. (B) A child subject to…

The family court may order the termination of parental rights upon a finding of one or more of the following grounds and a finding that termination is in the best interest of the child: (1) The child or another child while residing in the parent's domicile has been harmed as defi…

(A) If the court finds that a ground for termination, as provided for in Section 63-7-2570, exists, the court may issue an order forever terminating parental rights to the child. Where the petitioner is an authorized agency, the court shall place the child in the custody of the p…

(A) An order terminating the relationship between parent and child under this article divests the parent and the child of all legal rights, powers, privileges, immunities, duties, and obligations with respect to each other, except the right of the child to inherit from the parent…

All papers and records pertaining to a termination of parental rights are confidential and all court records must be sealed and opened only upon order of the judge for good cause shown.

The provisions of this article do not, except as specifically provided, modify or supersede the general adoption laws of this State.

This article must be liberally construed in order to ensure prompt judicial procedures for freeing minor children from the custody and control of their parents by terminating the parent-child relationship. The interests of the child shall prevail if the child's interest and the p…

The purpose of this article is to establish procedures for a child who is or was in the legal custody of the Department of Social Services on the child's eighteenth birthday and who has not attained age twenty-one to receive services and supports that promote emotional well-being…

For purposes of this article: (1) "Administrative case review" means a review open to the child and if the child consents, the child's parents, conducted by a panel of appropriate persons. Although at least one member of the panel must be a person who is not responsible for the c…

There is created within the Department of Social Services an extended foster care program for eligible children, as the term "child" is defined in Section 63-7-2710. An eligible child is under the placement and care responsibility of the department while participating in the prog…

(A) Before a child's eighteenth birthday, the child may provide written authorization to remain under the placement and care responsibility of the department after the child attains age eighteen and the court may conclude that it is in the child's best interests to remain under t…