South Carolina DSS Reviews Rules
South Carolina Department of Social Services has updated how it will handle a federal law that "was designed to help provide out-of-state child protection agencies information about the environment of a home in which a child could be placed." These changes would have increased the odds that issues would be resolved in a case where a Conway man attempted to have his daughter returned to him from a New York foster home. This man's case has been going on for over two years.
According to an article from The Sun News, "National reformers don't believe the changes go far enough because there is no independent appeals process, something they have argued is necessary in every state, particularly in cases involving biological parents. Federal officials who oversee the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC) have said constitutional concerns, including the rights of parents to raise their kids, were not a priority when it was first implemented."
The article also states that "Most states don't have an independent ICPC review process, which is why most parents involved in such cases cannot go to a Family Court judge to dispute the findings of DSS. That places a higher level of power in the hands of a case worker than is the norm in other types of child protective cases."
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