News and Press Releases August 2007

GROUP TASKED WITH IMPROVING AND STREAMLINING ADOPTION AND FOSTER CARE IN SOUTH CAROLINA

August 28, 2007

Columbia, S.C. – Gov. Mark Sanford today named the remainder of his Children in Foster Care and Adoption Services Task Force, a group created last month by Executive Order and tasked with identifying ways to improve the efficiency and quality of the state’s foster care and adoption processes. In particular, the group will focus on reducing the time it takes to find permanent adoptive homes for the most vulnerable children across South Carolina. The governor had previously named Carl Brown and George Milner as Co-Chairmen of the Task Force. The Task Force’s remaining members are Senator Thomas Alexander, Representative Rex Rice, Sharon Cole of Fort Mill, Shelly Eicher of Goose Creek, Gloria Felder of Sumter, Jacquelyn Gadsden of Columbia, Lauren Killian of Myrtle Beach, Judge Aphrodite Konduros of Greenville, Cody Lidge of Columbia, Rhett Mabry of Charlotte, Vernon McCurry of Greenville, J.T. McLawhorn of Columbia, Patty O'Brien of James Island, Pat Patrick of Charleston, Mary Poole of York, Lynn Rogers of Columbia, Rachel Silver of Columbia, James Thompson of Spartanburg, Thomas Turner of Abbeville, and Judge Jerry Vinson of Florence. Ex-officio members are Harry Davis of Columbia, Denise Barker of Columbia, Louise Cooper of Columbia, and DJJ Director Bill Byars of Columbia. “We believe this task force will be the beginning of a process that can have a material impact on improving quality of life for hundreds of children and parents across South Carolina,” Gov. Sanford said. “Red tape is often a roadblock to adoption, and anything we can do to streamline that process and put us on the path toward more efficiency and reduced wait times for adoption is both welcome and necessary. I look forward to working with this new task force as they begin their work on that front.” Over the past 10 years, almost 4,000 children were adopted in South Carolina, with more than 400 of those adoptions occurring just this past year. Still, there are roughly 1,600 children eligible for adoption in South Carolina, with about 700 of those legally free to be adopted. It currently takes nearly four years to finalize the average adoption process in South Carolina, roughly six weeks longer than the national average, while a recent study has shown that South Carolinians expect the adoption process should take no more than two years. The administration has consistently called for improvements in the state’s adoption and foster care services – from leading the fight starting in 2004 to restore adoption incentives from $250 to $1,500 and looking for ways to give foster parents some of the same rights as biological parents, to pushing for more case workers and a 23% increase in adoption services at the Department of Social Services.