Foster Parents as Advocates: Fighting for What's Best for the Child
It is the goal and policy of the South Carolina Department of Social Services to attempt to reunite a child with his or her birth family after being separated due to abuse or neglect. You may be a foster parent who has placement of a child that you don’t believe would be served by being reunited with their birth family.
A few years ago, I represented foster parents through a horrific situation with DSS. On a warm fall evening they two sisters into their home. One child about a year old. The other only a few weeks old. When the children came into their care they were filthy. The oldest child could not yet walk, though she stood bow-legged because she spent almost all of her waking hours in a child’s bouncy seat. For two years they cared for these children as DSS gave the birth parents chance after chance to get things right. DSS blamed the foster parents for the delay because of their desire to maintain custody and to adopt the children. While I believe in the process to reunite families, this case was clear that the birth parents were never going to get their act together. They had few parenting skills or instincts, lacked life skills despite completed parenting classes, and could not stay off of drugs.
DSS ignored our warnings and calls to reconsider and the parents went from supervised visits, to unsupervised daytime visits, to weekend visits and ultimately sought a return of the children. DSS continued to push towards reunification though the signs were there that the birth parents had not improved their situation and were not ready for custody of the children to return. We tried a two day contested permanency planning hearing where the family court determined the parents had sufficiently remedied the conditions that initially led to the removal of the children by DSS. That day, my clients’ hearts broke as they returned those two little girls back to their birth parents. At that time, the children had spent about 80% and 90% of their lives with my clients. They were the only parents they knew. And just like that they were gone. Traumatized again and returned to their birth parents - who were all but strangers. But, the Court made sure there was a long review period where DSS had to keep up with the family before closing the case.
The story does not end there. Prior to the return in the DSS we had also filed a private termination of parental rights and adoption action seeking privately what DSS would not. In this case we had another Guardian ad Litem who was also investigating. We continued to observe and keep tabs on the children. Until another report was made to DSS. This time with medical concerns for the children. This time the Court found it appropriate to return the children to my clients in the private action. Now, they were the legal custodians.
More investigation ensued and another two day trial followed. We learned that shortly after the children were placed by with the parents, there were failed drug screens. The house was filthy again, and the children were not well taken care of. Ultimately, these foster parent clients were able to adopt these two children. After three years of fighting, litigating, investigating, appeals, and untold expense, this family was created.