COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCSC) – If a child is unable to live with their parents, the best alternative is oftentimes for them to stay with a relative or someone they already know, like a family friend or a coach, according to child advocates.
This is called kinship care, and the state of South Carolina has implemented a number of changes in recent years to make it an option for more kids in the foster system.
Data shows they have been effective: In 2019, less than 10% of kids in South Carolina’s foster system were placed with kin, but that has now grown to nearly 30%, according to the Department of Social Services.
Another change could be enacted as well.
Kinship foster parents in South Carolina can receive the benefits and services that other foster parents get, like case management and monthly payments.
But there is a tradeoff: They must meet certain qualifications to be licensed with the state.
“Our children deserve the chance when they’re in a traumatic situation and removed from the home for good cause, to be placed in an environment that’s safe and the only thing that caregiver has to worry about is loving and healing toward their trauma,” Middle Tyger Community Center Executive Director Haley Grau told a Senate Family and Veterans’ Services subcommittee this week.
But other challenges are often a reality for kinship caregivers like Grau, who took in her niece’s two children nearly a decade ago.
Grau had never met the children, both of whom were younger than 2, but she did not hesitate to answer the call.
“The only time I ever thought, ‘I can’t do this, and I can’t keep us a family,’ is because of finances, and that should not be something that our families have to face,” she said.
A bipartisan bill advancing in the state Senate aims to alleviate these challenges.
It would create a new license for kinship caregivers in South Carolina, a step several other states have already taken since changes at the federal level in September 2023 permitted states to do this.
Right now, South Carolina requires they hold the same licensure from DSS as other foster homes.
“When we talk about kinship care, we are trying to minimize the effects, minimize trauma, and try to keep children with likeminded individuals that they know, that they have a relationship with,” DSS Chief External Affairs Officer Connelly-Anne Ragley said, labeling the bill as the agency’s top legislative priority this year.
This bill would make kinship care more available by lowering the age of eligible caregivers from 21 to 18.
It would also remove some licensure requirements foster parents have to meet that supporters contend don’t directly benefit child safety and wellbeing, like undergoing quarterly regulatory visits and meeting State Fire Marshal regulations.
“This bill recognizes that being a grandfather is very different than being a traditional stranger, if you will, foster parent,” said Jed Dews, executive director of the Lowcountry-based nonprofit HALOS, which works with families and children in kinship care.
Dews, Grau, and other advocates told senators these changes would help them put more focus on their top priority: the children for whom they are caring.
“This really opens doors and pathways for families that would not have them otherwise,” Dews, who is also a kinship caregiver, said.
The subcommittee unanimously advanced the bill Thursday to the full Senate Family and Veterans’ Services Committee, achieving the first of several approvals it will need to reach the governor’s desk.
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