Gov. Sanford Establishes Department of Social Services
July 19, 2007
Columbia, S.C. -Gov. Mark Sanford today issued an Executive Order creating the Children in Foster Care and Adoption Services Task Force and its accompanying Advisory Committee – groups tasked with identifying ways to improve the efficiency and quality of the state’s foster care and adoption processes, and in particular reducing the time it takes to find permanent adoptive homes for the most vulnerable children across South Carolina.
The governor has named Carl Brown, 68, and George Milner, 58, as Co-Chairmen of the Task Force. A life-long resident of Columbia, Carl Brown has been involved in foster care for more than three decades, serving as the President of the National Foster Parent Association, founding the South Carolina Foster Parent Association – which has over 42 local associations across the state today – and fostering more than 115 children over the past 30 years with his wife, Mary. George Milner, a Summerville businessman, has worked in group homes for vulnerable children across the nation and fostered fifty children with his wife, Karen.
The Task Force’s remaining members – stakeholders from the public and private sector, including legislative and legal representatives as well as adoptive and foster parents – will be named in the next few weeks, and they will submit their official recommendations to the state by February 1, 2008.
“It’s long been our belief that the state plays an important role in protecting and providing for those whom the Bible calls ‘the least of these,’” Gov. Sanford said. “The truth is, red tape is often a roadblock to adoption, and anything that starts us on the path toward more efficiency and reduced wait times for adoption is both welcome and necessary. It’s important to remember, though, that we’re not only talking about streamlining government, but also about improving quality of life for hundreds of children and parents across South Carolina.”
Kathleen Hayes, Director of the state’s Department of Social Services, will work closely with both the Task Force and Advisory Committee. “Foster care and adoption services don’t happen in a vacuum,” Director Hayes said. “Instead, there are networks of people engaged in the process – including families, the courts, and the Guardian ad Litem and Foster Care Review Board in the Governor’s Office. I look forward to both groups’ recommendations as we try to take steps toward reducing the number of delays in the adoption process, increasing the effectiveness of DSS services and ultimately making life more stable and positive for the foster kids in our state.”
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.