Foster Care System – South Carolina

Some children spending less time in foster care, By Ron Barnett, October 17, 2012, Greenville News: “The state Department of Social Services has stepped up the rate of moving long-term foster children back with their parents or to adoptive families by 50 percent in the past fiscal year, a trend that has drawn both praise and criticism. DSS increased the number of foster children moving into permanent homes from 789 in 2010-11 to 1,184 in the 12-month cycle that ended June 30. Nearly two-thirds of the children who left long-term foster care during the year went to adoptive families rather than being reunited with their biological family, according to DSS figures. Faster movement through the foster care system is part of a national trend, but South Carolina had the second-highest percentage drop in the nation in the number of children in foster care between July 2011 and July 2012, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services…”