SOUTH CAROLINA News

The month of May marks two occasions, Mother's Day and National
Foster Care Awareness Month. To celebrate the first occasion, we thank
our mothers for the love, nurturing and guidance they provide.

We celebrate the bond that ties us to the world and creates a sense
of belonging. Mothers love us unconditionally and, therefore, we belong.
The second occasion brings to light the thousands of foster children
across the state for whom Mother's Day has a different meaning.

Today in South Carolina there are more than 5,400 children in foster
care. More than 1,100 of those children are, or will be, available for
adoption. They are waiting for the day they can celebrate the sense of
belonging that comes with a loving family -- the bond with a mother who
will love and care for them. These children come from circumstances most
of us could hardly imagine and face enormous obstacles before they will
find a place, and a family, where they belong. They are our most
vulnerable children, and yet possess a great potential to succeed, if
only they can find a place to call home.

Some of the obstacles to finding a stable and permanent home for
these children can be resolved through legislation. In South Carolina,
many children in foster care will stay nearly three years before they
find permanent placement -- well beyond the 24-month national standard. A
significant amount of time can be reduced by enacting policies that
remove certain barriers to permanency.

This year we are working to expedite the cases for those children who
have endured the most extreme cases of abuse and neglect. My
colleagues and I have sponsored legislation, H.4540 and S.1172, that
would move a child through the system more quickly in cases where the
child entered foster care because of severe abuse and neglect. The
legislation also would require birth parents to demonstrate due
diligence in their treatment plans before the court grants the parents
more time to complete their rehabilitation. The proposed changes would
bring focus and accountability to how these extreme cases of abuse and
neglect are handled in the child welfare system.

The bill would also prohibit non-licensed entities from advertising
adoption services in South Carolina and enable S.C. courts to retain
jurisdiction to review the procedural and substantive aspects of
adoptions, including costs, fees and expenses. We do not want our state
to be an unethical market for baby shopping.

This legislation builds on the foundation started last year with the
establishment of the Responsible Father Registry -- which will shorten
the length of time children spend in foster care by speeding up the
adoption process. I'm proud that I was the lead sponsor of that
legislation and with its passage, South Carolina became the 34th state
to enact a law of this kind. Almost half (45 percent) of all S.C. births
are to single mothers, with the dad acknowledging paternity for fewer
than half of those children. Permanency for these children can be
delayed, contested and disrupted when paternity is in question. The
Responsible Father Registry will eliminate the expenditure of time,
money, and public resources searching for fathers who do not want to be
found.

As a mother, my job is to love and protect my children, and provide
them with every opportunity. As an elected official, my constituents
have empowered me with the challenge to protect and secure those
opportunities for all the precious children of our state.Mother's Day
means something more to me this year. I hope this month encourages all
of us to become aware of those children waiting for a mother's love and
need our support.

Joan Brady, a Republican, represents House District
78 in Richland County. She is vice chair of the S.C. Joint Citizens and
Legislative Commission on Children.

The choice has come down to recommending that a child return to an
inner-city apartment and a struggling alcoholic mother just released
from another rehab program or remain with female foster parents who have
tutored a poor student into a happy academic star with lots of friends
in his new suburban neighborhood.

The case remains unresolved and, like many volunteer guardian ad
litem cases, it might not reach a conclusion for years.
Volunteer guardians ad litem are assigned by states or counties to
represent the "best interest" of a child or children in cases of alleged
abuse or neglect brought to Family Court by the state Department of
Social Services. They are paid nothing but have broad influence on
judges. At one guardian's suggestion a judge ordered a father suspected
of fondling young girls to undergo analysis including the attachment of a
remarkably effective device used to measure sexual preferences.

One Charleston County guardian ad litem recently was introduced to
her assigned child -- at a morgue.

Another case involved an alleged prostitute seeking another shot at
custodial motherhood after several failed attempts.

Interested?

Classes start soon.

S.C. Guardian ad Litem offices in each county are in need of helpers
to serve as court-appointed advocates in the wake of a S.C. Supreme
Court ruling last year making the program all-volunteer beginning in
July. Previously, attorneys were appointed to pick up the slack when
there was a shortage of volunteers, which was often.


"This has always been our goal, to take every case. We are not
opposed to this mandate at all," said Lois Richter, the S.C. Volunteer
Guardian ad Litem Circuit Coordinator for Charleston and Berkeley
counties.

"However, because we've never had enough volunteers, we always had to
send some cases over to attorneys," Richter said. "Now, if there is a
shortage, my case-management staff will serve as GALs. They are the best
GALs around, but if they have to take cases, that means they are not
going to be here for case management. Ultimately, the children pay a
price for that. Unfortunately, I haven't figured out how to put more
hours in a day."

Within South Carolina's Guardian ad Litem Program, volunteers must
complete 30 hours of training plus court-observation time. Volunteer
guardians ad litem, unlike paid guardians whose work typically includes
Family Court custody cases, receive no compensation -- except a license
to cry, or celebrate placing a kid in a better situation.

"For me, it's my passion," said veteran Charleston County guardian ad
litem Georgia Ann Porcher, 68. "I feel like I'm finally able to do what
I want to do."

Dave Mann, owner of Professional Marketing Associates, has juggled as
many as five Charleston County cases at a time.

What's the best tip for someone interested in volunteering?"Contact somebody who is currently doing it and ask a lot of
questions," said Mann, 67.

A guardian ad litem usually will spend about 10 hours a month
investigating a case brought forth by the Department of Social Services.
The work includes interviews with children, teachers and/or day care
workers, relatives, DSS case workers and the alleged perpetrator before
filing a court report and representing the child in Family Court.

"I try to match a case with a person based on their preferences and
what type of case we think they would be comfortable taking," Charleston
County Guardian Ad Litem Case Manager Rachel Fitzpatrick said. "As long
as they have a compassion for children, we can teach them the rest."

The stated goal of the S.C. Guardian ad Litem Program
(www.oepp.sc.gov/gal) is to "provide a volunteer advocate for every
child who is the subject of an abuse and neglect proceeding."

Richter has 150 active cases involving 275 children. She has 166
guardians ad litem but needs more, believing a rugged economy creates
hardships leading to "self-medication" and other frequent themes of
neglect and abuse.

Richter's guardians range from recent college graduates and law
students to retirees.

"People are signing up for my June class," Richter said. "I am the
eternal optimist, probably ridiculously so. We are going to do it. It's
not a question of 'Can I do it?' I've been told I will do it."

Richter said she sees no negatives in the S.C. Supreme Court ruling
removing attorneys from the guardian ad litem system.
"Because my guardians are well-trained and well-supervised, I think
they do an excellent job representing children," Richter said.
"Attorneys operate under a different mandate."

John R. Ungaro III agrees.

"I really think the new ruling is all pro, no cons," said Ungaro,
dean of the Trident Technical College Division of Law-Related Studies
and an attorney with Papa, Ungaro and Falkiewicz who has served as an
appointed guardian ad litem. "I'm not saying appointed attorneys don't
do their best; some do. And some don't because some are offended by
having to do these cases involving virtually no compensation. Attorneys
are extremely busy and these (guardian) cases can go on the 'backest'
back burner. Volunteers, on the other hand, have to be motivated and
they will give these cases the time they deserve."

The duty can be "dirty and depressing," Ungaro said.

"But, frankly," he said, "I don't think I called on my lawyer skills
to do what I had to do."

Porcher, a retired teacher and retail executive, has three children
with husband, Philip, also a guardian ad litem. But the pictures on her
refrigerator are of kids she has represented in court, kids she keeps up
with long beyond obligation.

"Of course, the abuse cases stick with you," Porcher said, "and cases
involving the termination of parental rights."

Ungaro's advice for a would-be volunteer guardian comes from
experience, much of it unpleasant.

"You have to have a thick skin," he said. "You must have an open mind
because things are not always as they initially seem. And you cannot be
bullied into a decision when it comes to what's best for a child."

Guardian ad Litem 101

Volunteer guardians ad litem are known in some states as
court-appointed special advocates. By any title, the volunteers
represent the best interest of children who are taken into Department of
Social Services custody for reasons of alleged abuse or neglect.

The four primary roles of a volunteer guardian ad litem are
investigation, facilitation (finding resources to help fill a child's
needs), advocacy (court recommendations) and monitoring.

--Ad litem definition: For the suit, for the court case.

--Birthplace of the concept: The 1974 Child Abuse Prevention and
Treatment Act mandated the appointment of a guardian ad litem in child
abuse and neglect cases, taking away a judge's discretion. King County,
Wash., in 1977 initiated a program of community volunteer guardians ad
litem.

--First year of the volunteer guardian ad litem program in South
Carolina: 1984.

--Lowcountry treatment options for children and their parents or
guardians: A guardian ad litem may ask a judge to mandate treatment at
one or more of 30 facilities.

--Representation for the advocate: A guardian ad litem is represented
in court by a S.C. Volunteer Guardian ad Litem staff attorney.

--Violence?: Lois Richter, the Volunteer Guardian ad Litem Circuit
Coordinator for Charleston and Berkeley counties, said she knows of no
cases recently in which a Charleston County guardian ad litem has been
attacked or harmed by an alleged perpetrator.

--Care vs. anger: "I don't think this kind of work is for everyone,"
Richter said. "I think it's something we are called to. We want people
who are responsible, who care about children and who have the ability to
set aside their personal feelings."Guardians ad litem work with the Department of Social Services but
sometimes clash with DSS recommendations: "If we didn't have volunteers
who gave of their time and their talents to speak for these children in
court, there really would be no independent entity to speak just for the
best interest of the children," Richter said. "DSS looks at the entire
family. Which is not to say they don't care about children - of course,
they do. But DSS is mandated to look at the whole family and guardians
are there to be that voice for that child."

For a child who has been abused, removed from his home and thrust
into the complicated process of adoption, even just a month in limbo is
devastating. Thirty-nine months can seem like his entire childhood.

Legislation signed into law by Gov. Mark Sanford last week aims to
streamline the process that is so painful to children. And while it
won't fix South Carolina's underfunded and overwhelmed adoptive system,
it does move the state in the right direction.

In a series of stories last week, Adam Parker and Gene Sapakoff
described the depressing reality facing children in this state, even
after they have been removed from abusive situations. There were nearly
13,000 of them last year, each of whom needed medical care, mental
health counseling, legal help and especially a safe, supportive foster
home.

That's a daunting task for the state Department of Social Services,
which lost more than $100 million in state and matching federal funding
from July 2008 to December 2009 when the Legislature slashed budgets
across the board.

Because of the funding shortage, the process goes more slowly, making
it more costly and, more importantly, making it less efficient for
children.

The Child and Family Services Review recently found DSS did not meet
national standards for "timeliness of adoptions, permanency for children
in foster care for extended periods, or placement stability."

The new law should help some. It allows the courts to terminate
parental rights immediately in severe abuse cases. It gives biological
parents less time to prove to the courts that they have addressed their
problems and are able to be good parents. And it restores the adoption
incentive from $250 to $1,500.

But it doesn't stop there. The law directs DSS, an agency in the
governor's Cabinet, to find ways to give foster parents some of the same
rights as biological parents and to work with faith-based groups to
recruit foster families. It also instructs DSS, along with the courts,
to identify ways to speed up adoptions.

There is no time to delay pursuing those directives.

Every day that something is not done is a day that children who have
been abused or neglected spend in emergency shelters because there are
not enough foster homes. Or a day they spend wondering where they will
end up as overloaded courts decide their futures.