Governor's Foster Care and Adoption Task Force Reports Findings
TASK FORCE MAKES RECOMMENDATIONS AIMED AT STREAMLINING THE ADOPTION PROCESS
Columbia, S.C. - March 14, 2008 - Gov. Mark Sanford today announced the findings of his Children in Foster Care and Adoption Services Task Force - a group he formed last year and 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 task force report makes a number of recommendations, including: 1) a registry for birth fathers to help expedite the termination of parental rights process; 2) streamlining the process for serving notice in adoption hearings; 3) accelerated hearings for termination of parental rights; and 4) more aggressive recruitment of foster and adoptive parents. The report also calls for more DSS and court personnel dedicated to reducing the termination of parental rights caseload.
The Task Force was Co-Chaired by Carl Brown, 68, and George Milner, 58. 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.
“First off, I want to thank Carl, George and the entire task force for their work on this important issue,” Gov. Sanford said. “This work is ultimately about the Biblical principle of caring for ‘the least of these,’ in not only removing roadblocks for adoptions but also improving the quality of life for hundreds of children in South Carolina. Creating a more efficient adoption process is something this administration believes very strongly in, and we’re eager to review this report in detail and begin the work of implementing some of its proposals.”
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. The state’s goal is 24 months. Governor Sanford’s 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.