SC Governor Sanford signs bill to improve foster care to adoption transition

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA (BNO NEWS) — South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford signed the legislation S.1172 on Tuesday, a bill which focuses in speeding up and improving the process transitioning children in foster care into permanent adoptive homes, the Office of the Governor announced.

The bill is a result of direct recommendation by the Governor’s Children in Foster Care and Adoption Services Task Force, a group created in 2007. This organization identifies ways to improve the efficiency and quality of the state’s foster care and adoption processes.

“This administration has consistently advocated for making the adoption process easier for South Carolinians trying to adopt, and this bill represents a small but meaningful step in that direction,” Sanford said.

“Whether it’s fully restoring the adoption incentive benefit, or allowing more in the way of flexibility for state employees to become foster parents, we’ve always tried to encourage adoption and quality foster care in South Carolina,” he added.

Governor Sanford, through the Department of Social Services, enacted a number of reforms to streamline and expedite the adoption process during his first term. Over the last seven years, finalized adoptions have steadily increased in South Carolina. In the last two years, the average time a child in South Carolina waits to be adopted has been reduced to six months from 39 to 45 months before.

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