South Carolina DSS Audit to Begin in January or February 2013 UPDATED

By on 12-10-2012 in Child Abuse, Child Welfare, Foster Care Reform, South Carolina

South Carolina DSS Audit to Begin in January or February 2013 UPDATED

“Reports of children starved to death, sexually abused for months and dying of treatable illness prompted a local legislator Monday [November 26, 2012]  to call for an audit of the state Department of Social Services.

“I represent all the children of this state. It’s a systemic problem that needs to be addressed,” said state Rep. Jenny Horne, R-Summerville.
Horne called on the Legislative Audit Council to take a closer look at how DSS manages cases involving at-risk children. On Monday, the council agreed in a unanimous vote during a meeting in Charleston.

Although the audit will look at a number of concerns at DSS, the request for it focuses extensively on child safety.

“This is really more of a look at Child Protective Services,” Horne said.

Her concerns are based on constituent complaints about how cases involving children in harmful situations have been managed.

“We’ve had way too many dead children lately,” she said. “Children of this state are being placed at great risk.”

Horne said she discussed her concerns with DSS leaders, and they have shown a willingness to work with her to address her worries. The last audit of the agency was in 2006, she said.

“I think they (DSS) need another look,” she said. “Where there is smoke there is fire.”

More than 30 members of the state House Republican Caucus, including Horne, expressed concerns about child protection in South Carolina in a three-page letter to the council.

The letter asks whether federal and state laws and regulations pertaining to child protective services are being followed by county DSS offices. It seeks information on children who died from abuse and/or neglect during a DSS investigation. It also asks for a review of cases initially deemed unfounded by DSS but later found to involve child abuse and/or neglect.

In addition, caucus members who signed the letter want details of cases that were closed after a child was placed with a relative of a family under investigation. The letter cites an instance in which a child was placed by DSS with a registered sex offender who abused the youngster for 15 months. It also raised concerns about a child admitted to a hospital instead of being placed in a safe home.

“Why does the DSS fail to utilize these resources when a child is at risk of trauma?” the letter asks.

After hearing from Horne, council Vice Chairman Mallory Factor of Charleston made a motion to approve the DSS audit. Council member S. Jahue Moore of Lexington said he “wholeheartedly” endorsed the audit.

The audit will begin in January or February, officials said.

DSS spokeswoman Marilyn Matheus said the agency would not be able to comment on plans for the audit until today.

DSS Director Lillian Koller said on the department website that it has eliminated a backlog of nearly 25,000 child abuse and neglect reports pending for 60 days or longer.

She also cites an agency goal to reduce the number of children who experience maltreatment within six months of an investigation in which allegations of abuse or neglect are determined to be unfounded. The number of children in that category needed to fall from 700 to no more than 446 by Sept. 30 of this year, she said.

“While DSS is meeting or exceeding all of the child safety measures imposed by the federal government, there is real cause for concern in an area that the federal government does not measure. By adopting this child safety measure, DSS is now leading the nation in this area,” she said.

The caucus letter seeks a particular focus in the audit on a sample of county DSS offices and how child neglect and/or abuse cases were handled from 2006 to 2012. Other areas of concern include employee and caseworker training as it relates to child welfare.

The lawmakers also seek information about complaints caucus members have received regarding bidding for group home contracts and federal penalties imposed on DSS.

The Legislative Audit Council conducts independent, objective performance audits of state agencies and programs. Its purpose is to assist the General Assembly and the public in determining whether state agencies are efficiently, effectively and lawfully managing public resources and meeting their intended objectives.”

DSS, child protective services will be audited in light of safety concerns

[Post and Courier 11/27/12 by Prentiss Findlay]

“In a letter to the Legislative Audit Council, the group asked the audit to focus on Child Protective Services and the training of caseworkers.

The group also wants to know about the DSS field office in Dorechester County where they ask, “How many children have died resulting from abuse and/or neglect while under the jurisdiction or in the custody of the DSS office?”

“We’ll come up with findings and our recommendations,” said Perry Simpson, Director of the Legislative Audit Council. “They can be directed to the agency, telling them to revise policy or to implement new policies, and there can also be recommendations to the General Assembly saying ‘state law needs to be amended to address this issue’.”

The agency submitted an audit report to the General Assembly in 2006.

Legislators say complaints from their constituents prompted their audit request.

“They were in Lexington. They were in Spartanburg. They were in Greenville. They were in Richland,” said Horne. “We kept hearing the same thing over and over again and it is an unwillingness of DSS to step in and protect children when they are in imminent danger.”

Legislative Council Will Audit DSS

[WLTX 11/27/12 by Clark Fouraker]

REFORM Puzzle Pieces

Update: “In South Carolina, people accused of sexually abusing children do not face trial for years. Children who report abuse are not interviewed for weeks. Churches often stand between victims and help.
Those were among the findings of a privately financed report that comes as South Carolina is working to shore up its child protective system. The state is facing lawsuits and legislative scrutiny after a series of deaths, rapes and other assaults on children who were in state custody.

The report was welcomed by Gov. Nikki R. Haley, who said it offered useful recommendations for improving how the state — both the government and its citizens — can better address childhood sexual trauma.

It also prompted Ms. Haley to recount her own experience as a physically abused child.

While her mother worked she spent her days in day care at a neighborhood home, the governor said.

“One day I came home and I had a lot of bruises and a lot of issues,” she said during a news conference to discuss the report, by the National Child Protection Training Center.

She said her mother confronted the neighbors, who soon packed up and left without any repercussions.

“When it happened to me, my parents didn’t know what to do,” Governor Haley said. “They didn’t know who to go to. No one knew how to handle it.”

The report, “Silent Tears,” was based on interviews with hundreds of people who work directly with abused children. It called for more training at colleges and universities and for a uniform system of investigation.

State law enforcement records show more than 3,000 children reported being sexually abused in 2011. Most people who handled those cases received little training in college related to child abuse, the report said.

Felony child abuse trials, which should begin within six months, according to bar association standards, often take three years to get to court. And evidence collected when a case is reported varies widely.

“Everybody should know how to interrogate a subject, and everybody should know why crime scene photographs are important and why corroborating evidence is important,” said Victor Vieth, executive director of the training center, which is based at Winona State University in Minnesota.

The study found that church communities were least likely to report abuse and sometimes covered it up, urging victims to forgive their abusers instead of reporting them, Mr. Vieth said.

Because South Carolina is ranked as the fourth most religious state in the country, targeting churches and seminaries for more training is key, he said.

“When people don’t report it’s most often out of ignorance,” he said. ”

South Carolina Is Faulted on Child Services

[The New York Times 7/9/13 by Kim Severson]

“Michael Riordan, president and CEO of GHS, said the report is proving to be a catalyst for change in detecting and treating child abuse.

“Between all of us, we demonstrate that by working together, we have an opportunity to do more than any of us can do ourselves,” he said. “Together, we can put an end to child abuse.”

The Silent Tears study was funded with $250,000 from local businessman and GOP donor Bob Castellani and his wife, Lisa.

The report found that most of those directly involved in handling child sexual abuse cases have no undergraduate or graduate training directly dealing with child abuse cases.

Other recommendations include encouraging all colleges and universities in the state to improve their instruction on “child maltreatment” and setting a 21-credit minor offered at USC Upstate called Child Advocacy Studies as a minimum bar for college-level training.

The report also urges seminaries, law schools and medical schools to develop or expand child-protection instruction, and it advises child-protection employers to actively recruit candidates with adequate training.

Further, it urges speeding up the resolution of child sexual abuse cases. Some can take two years or longer to bring to trial, and Silent Tears suggests a goal of six months or less to resolve all child sexual abuse cases.

Thirteenth Circuit Solicitor Walt Wilkins, responsible for prosecution in Greenville and Pickens counties, has told GreenvilleOnline.com that his office is dealing with a burgeoning caseload involving criminal sexual conduct with children.

Wilkins said he wants more prosecutors to handle those cases and is urging more education and prevention, additional child-advocacy centers and training.”

Gov. Haley outlines steps to improve response to child abuse

[Greenville Online 7/9/13 by David Dykes]

The nonprofit Silent Tears website is here. It says “7 South Carolina Counties …have been selected for our Statewide Needs Assessment.

  • Greenville/ Spartanburg
  • Aiken
  • Richland
  • Dillon
  • Allendale
  • Charleston

These counties were selected based on a number of factors including, but not limited to, population, demographics, and geographic location.  Victor Vieth and his team from the National Child Protection Training Center will visit each of these areas to speak with hundreds of front line professionals who work with children and families who are involved in child sexual abuse investigations.”

14 Comments

  1. I was told you actually care about the life of a child. I have written my SC governor many many times with no satisfaction. I have written senators, congressman, clergy, every state official I can find an email address to, even the president of these United States. I have mailed many more.
    I wrote a judicial review board, who quickly wrote me back stating their jobs were not to improve my case but to see everyone gets fair treatment. I told this lazy politician that my son had been taken from me by way of a corrupt DSS and family court system telling me that I must have used illegal drugs, but there is NO PROOF of drug use, NO PROOF OF ILLEGAL DRUG USE.
    This corrupt bunch in Aiken South Carolina has been allowed to keep my son from me for nearly a year. My 13 year old white middle class boy of well above average grades has been put in a group home with 14 other children, where he was beaten up more than 25 times, and the racist all black staff allow this to happen regularly. That’s right, my son was beaten by 2 or 3 at a time by large boys over 300 lbs. And you and anyone that has been told this has, and is letting it happen, by letting this corrupt nepotism, sex discriminating bunch in Aiken SC do what they’re doing.
    All of what I say is easy to prove it’s on many court transcripts numerous times that DSS prosecutor Dennis Gmerick, and a family court judge have openly discriminated against my son and I. All to improve my abusive drug addict adulteress wife’s chance in court.
    My home burnt down new year’s day 2012, I and my son were 300 miles away for the holiday with my grandchildren in a hotel with hundreds of witness. The courts questioned me about the fire, which was a complete loss(my son’s and my personal belongings were all lost) while all of my drug addict wife’s personal belongings had been moved out conveniently a month before. Insurance paid for the house to be replaced. The judge and DSS has forced me to live on this, out of hotels and rentals, I owe nothing on house and 15 acre’s I had paid for it more than 10 years ago. I could and would have built two homes, one for my ex-wife and one for myself and child. Instead all of this nearly 300 thousand dollars has been spent trying to get my son back from an abusive DSS and family court. We will likely be homeless in the coming months. This really sounds like a family court judge’s duty. My son and I have passed the scrutiny of two court ordered physiological reviews. The Doctors both said my son should be with me, not my wife, and not in foster care. We, my son and I have both been tested by a forensic FBI polygraph examiner about what I’m saying and about my wife’s constant drug use and child abuse and the test came back with no deception. The examiner felt so bad about the very clear abuse of my son he has spent hours calling people who might give a damn. Do you give a damn?
    That’s right, a corrupt family court judge in Aiken, SC has put a child’s life in danger for nearly a year. I ask for the drug test. My wife failed miserably as I said she would. She steals flowers from fresh graves with her only child watching this grave robbery hundreds of times to make potpourri. I’ve made over75 k per year for 15 years she could have bought the flowers. I owe for nothing home, and cars paid for, more than ten years ago. I have the same job for 14 years. I’ve been in an accident, and can’t work now, Im subject to be homeless even though there was 300 k in the bank when this started a year ago.
    Im not a lazy bum asking for free anything. Im a man, a father who has spent my entire life savings including retirement trying to protect my 13 year old wonderful son from a drug addicted woman who has been caught with men in the house having sex with my son watching! Boyfriends who pushed my child around. My in-laws work for the sheriff department Im sure is part of the reason my son and I are being clearly sex discriminated against by a corrupt family court judge and DSS. I will continue to tell the whole world about this injustice until it has been reversed until the made up charges against me have been removed and this corrupt county has paid for the wasted legal fees that I’ve been forced to pay. The media is next. Along with names of every politician that has ignored this terrible abuse of a child. If I’ve wrote you, your name will be in it.
    Terry Menefee
    terry3381@gmail.com
    803/439/3360
    My 13 year old needs someone who gives a damn to stop this. All he wants is to be safe with his loving father like what 3 professional therapists have told this corrupt family court system.

    • Terry,
      Thank you for sharing your plight. It is outrageous what they have done to you and your son. It is good that the doctors are on your side.It sounds like you need both legal help and help with getting DSS and the judiciary to properly do their jobs. We are not lawyers,so we cannot help in that way, but we would recommend seeking some free legal help. One SC resource is http://www.lawhelp.org/sc/.

      There is no Children’s ombudsman for SC that would be charged with overseeing DSS, but the governor’s office has a children’s affairs group that may be able to help. Contact information is at http://www.oepp.sc.gov/ca/index.html

      I would recommend going to your local media.

      Since you have a specific judge that is part of the issue, I strongly recommend filing a complaint with the SC judicial department Disciplinary Counsel. The contact information is at http://www.judicial.state.sc.us/discCounsel/ They are required to investigate the judge.

      I don’t know if your son is still in the abusive home, but if he is and he is able to, he needs to call 911 and get the police involved.

      We wish you the best and if we think of other resources, we will post them here.

    • Please let me say I feel what you are going through, My son has reported abuse of his daughter on several over night visits. DSS decided that being picked up by her tiny arms and bruises on her wrists and sides from being slammed to the floor was not enough to constitute abuse. Second time her counselor turned in the abuse and DSS didn’t even investigate, we never got a call so I began to email every politician in the state and the governor and the president and I even called Sled to investigate the judicial system because the third time my son had to take his seven year old to the Hospital she had been punched in the back and she told the doctor who did it. My son lives in Horry County, the abuse happened in Spartanburg County, so can you believe we went to court in Horry County and a SPARTANBURG JUDGE who just happen to be on the bench there moved the case to SPARTANBURG County for the convenience of the perpetrator??? DEAL MADE!!!! Where is the justice in this? I assure you I do give a damn, I want to see these people accountable for their jobs! Please don’t give up and don’t stop writing to let everyone that you can know what is happening to you. I will do the same. The system is corrupt and games are played and deals made in the court house halls, until this is stopped our children are going to suffer, they become case numbers and DSS doesn’t investigate and really doesn’t care!!
      Judy Fowler
      jude0809@bellsouth.net

  2. Terry, I see the same thing with Lexington County’s DSS. Ex-wives use the agency to exact a revenge on ex-husbands. In the case I am helping with Lexington County overlooked that a challenge had been filed against their findings one week after the findings were stated. The DSS employee who had the case did not know this until my BIL asked her in Dec. if she had read the file, she said she had but she did not see the challenge until he pointed it out. It has been 5 weeks since they were told they had dropped the ball from Sept to Dec and not one.single.step forward has been taken. No court filing, no nothing. The DSS employee who has the case has given him two different explanations of what will happen next, TWO DIFFERENT explanations. DSS is an all powerful agency with no accountability and due process is denied. I cannot think of another situation where a case would linger on bureaucratic desk from Sept to Jan. It appears they feed off of “I don’t give a damn” on a daily basis.

    • I to am having to deal with Lexington County DSS and there apparent “I don’t give a damn” My 14 year old daughter ran away because she got in trouble for skipping school. One of her friends mother’s hid her for 3 days while I frantically searched for her. The Friday the woman decided to tell police my child was at her house she also called DSS to make a report against me. The woman did this only to get the attention off of herself for hiding my child. In order to keep my daughter out of DSS custody I had to do a safety plan so that she could stay with some friends until the investigation was over. I was told the only thing I had to do was an alcohol assessment. I immediately did the assessment and tried to contact the DSS worker over and over again with no return call. I finally heard from the DSS worker 39 days after the false allegations were made and she had not even started. She claimed to not have received my assessment results although I had received them 4 weeks prior to her call. She had not once called to see how my daughter was doing although I brought my daughter home once I did the assessment so she didn’t even know she was back home. She had never talked to anyone to try to clear the lies that were told about me. She then made an appointment with me for 2 days after the phone call (which puts us at day 41) and never showed up or called me to tell me she couldn’t make it. The next day she went and saw my daughter at school (day 42). The day after that which was a Friday (day 43) she called me at 5:30 at night to tell me she needed to come to my house and I told her NO that I was done dealing with her and she needed to send her supervisor or another case worker but I was done with her incompetance. She denied ever making the other appointment with me and then when I repeated the conversation we had she said it must have been an error on her part. She then told me I had my daughter without consent which then I told her she was incorrect as I have a custody order from my divorce which gave me full physical and legal custody of my daughter and she did not over ride that. It is now Monday (day 45) which makes her time up. I called her supervisor earlier and left a message and have heard from no one. There really needs to be an avenue for us to address our concerns with how DSS is running there show. I have tried and can’t find anyway to report how they are handling my case although it states in the parents rights that we have every right to do so. I feel they violate ours and our childrens rights and I wish there was someway for us to address our concerns as innocent parties to the harrassment of DSS and the persons whom make false accusations against us.

  3. S.C. DSS doesn’t care about our children . They care about that fat paycheck when they get them adopted out to someone else. In essence, legally kidnapping our children so they can have their profit. I suppose the funds help them sleep more sound at night , considering they have no heart!

  4. Just a few comments I have discovered. No one knows what goes on with DSS, except those abused by it. Everyone outside of the abuse, who have not been touched by their Gestapo tactics, automatically think that “there must be a reason.” They cannot bear to think that our government is so corrupt to do anything it jolly well pleases without rationale.

    Here is the game, and there may be more, but what I know for sure is that it is about quotas, they have to indicate so many. They will take suburb excellent parents, if they make an income that cannot fight back, and will purely make stuff up out of thin air to indicate these parents to meet the quota. The uppers tell the lowers they must meet the criteria to keep their jobs. Secondly, anyone who has been with DSS a long time, has no conscience. A person would have to become more and more jaded to work there. Those with any conscience left will leave, and they will never comment about DSS thereafter.

    Secondly, DSS does not investigate, they go down a list of accusations they can pin on a person. They need the number, not the results.

    Thirdly, they block every effort for one to defend themselves, by accusing a parent of something else, and then something else, and something else…..none of which is close to reality.

    Fourthly, if someone reports that you are excellent parents, and speak highly of you, they will not include it in their report.

    Fifthly, if you ask for the DSS records in writing, multiple times, they will never give them to you, even though their policy book says they will.

    Sixthly, if a family’s favorite doctor gets word that there is DSS involvement, even if he/she has told the parents they are good parents, that doctor will start writing in the report all the things he/she “has recommended,” and the parent didn’t do, to cover their butt, and throw the parent under the bus. They fear DSS too.

    Seventhly, for whatever reason, the governor, congressman, state agencies, and police, will not come to the parents’ rescue. Everyone, everyone is afraid. Why? I have not figured that out yet. Maybe it has something to do with being a “required reporter.” They align themselves?

    Eighthly,they will draw out undocumented unprovable accusations for as long as they can, because there is money to be made for the state, if they can draw it out, and destroy the parents lives and finances.

    Ninthly, Special Needs kids, whose parents do more hand on hand parenting than anyone else, DSS seeks out. Special needs kids bring maybe 3x as much money as normal kids. These parents, who do all the child’s hygiene, and far more fighting for their child under normal circumstances, are subject to cruel mental torture. To top if off, these parents receive questions like, “Why do you give your child meat and vegetables; what is wrong with cupcakes?”

    Tenth, CASA, the so-called ad litem agency, is worse than DSS. Anyone who has worked for them, more than a year is a criminal. They are the lap dogs of DSS. They will lie, with no holes barred. It is astounding what they have found themselves empowered to get away with.

    Eleventh, and very unfortunately, much of the illogicality of it all, is based in racism. When the entire staff of DSS is black, and an extremely high percentage of people being founded are white, it becomes quite obvious. And when babies who are dying because things are overlooked are in their race’s care, you have to wonder. When a white parent brings clothes for their child in foster care, but DSS refuses to give them to the black foster parent keeping the white child, and instead cuts a check for clothing allowance, you have to wonder.

    Twelfth: DSS workers are above the law. The law says they have to have a court order or a police order to take a child into custody, but they thumb the law, and take kids against the law, on sheer desire to feed their insatiable appetite for more children. They care not about the protection of a child. They care not about the heartbreak. They care not about the need for a search warrant. They are the judge, jury, and prosecutor, while they are all criminals themselves.

    The old saying, the patients are running the mental hospital, is an understatement. DSS has no respect for good families; they have no respect for law; they have no respect for the Constitution. They are criminals of the highest order allowed to condemn and destroy good people’s lives.

    Sadly, the only thing the state of SC wants to concentrate on is the deaths of children. This is most necessary, but not to the neglect of the real issue of those workers abuse of families, by acting at whim. They have been given all the power known to man, without any consequences. There is no innocent until proven guilty, which our laws are supposed to guarantee. The state investigators need to see the whole criminal picture, and place these monsters and mobsters in prison.

    • Leslie, what a wonderful essay. You hit on every factor I’ve seen in action as well.

      Only one addition: African American foster or adoptive parents are a social workers’ “wet dream” because there is a shortage of applicants in that subset. It’s an area that many agencies do active recruitment efforts for domestic newborn adoption.

      In domestic adoption, one of the criteria for placement is convincing the expectant parent to choose the adoptive parent. If she wants a parent of a certain race, that often will be the deciding factor. If she can’t find an agency to meet that criteria, she may decide to parent. “Best interest of the child” is decided by the courts during the adoption petition, not solely by the agency placing the child.

      IL is facing class action lawsuits because they created an illegal catch-all abuse/neglect “indicator” called “environment injurious”. Any caseworker can quote a parent or child out of context and make it appear if some wrongdoing occurred.

      More details on the IL situation here.

      https://reformtalk.net/2013/09/12/lawsuit-illinois-department-of-children-and-family-services-still-using-allegation-60/

      Whole lot of good it does to send a letter to someone indicated on Allegation 60 years ago who lost parental rights to inform that parent that DCFS lacked any authority under statute to terminate those rights. If the child was adopted by foster parents who weren’t needed to protect that child at all, that adoption will not be dissolved and the child returned to the innocent parent, will they?

      The “environment injurious” allegation is designed to bully parents. Also, social workers do need a search warrant but they use intimidation to force their way into homes, interview children without parental consent in schools and in one case I can think of, ignore confidentiality laws entirely to get “evidence” to use against someone.

      Social worker immunity, there are exceptions for actual malice. Rare but that exception sometimes is considered by the court.

      It’s also not limited to state-employed social workers. The private agencies engage in all twelve categories Leslie described so well.

      • Part of the game is that it’s hard to fight back when the rules are secret. It’s also hard to fight back without copies of your records so you know the exact allegations against you.

        The legal advocacy center headed by Diane Redleaf managed to get a court order forcing IL DCFS to put the rules, procedures and forms online so the accused could actually defend themselves pro se in administrative hearings, where normal prohibitions against hearsay evidence do not apply.

        Now, finding the rules and procedures may be too challenging for someone who is being traumatized by a toxic caseworker.

        As one federal judge put it, signing a safety plan is voluntary and he compared it to choosing a martini or a Manhattan. (DuPuy v. Samuels, http://www.familydefensecenter.net/images/stories/CA_Decision_7-31-07.pdf

        This separated families and put some horrendous financial or emotional burdens on them. Parents accused often had to move out of the home for months on end until they could get an administrative hearing.

        Often, the wait time for an administrative hearing was close to 21 months circa 2001-2004. DCFS (DSS or CPS) can then ask for extensions of time in a totally capricious manner. If the family doesn’t ask for an administrative hearing in a very limited time frame, they could be denied a hearing entirely.

        In the meantime, supervised visitation provided yet more openings to manufacture allegations.

        I read one case where a woman with drug problems cleaned up her act without any help from DCFS. Total rehabilitated herself and was able to prove it to the court. The foster parents however were political connected and during a supervised visitation, the mother offered her child a cheese flavored puff, name brand icon of a tiger. All her hard fought efforts were nullified and the child placed with the foster parents.

        The mother was there to be sure the child didn’t choke, the caseworker who saw the snack didn’t intervene and the child was not harmed.

        For more details, google the Baby T case (2001) in IL. The private agency involved was Lutheran Social Services of Illinois. Tina Olison was the mother. The foster parents were Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke and her Chicago alderman husband.

  5. I desperately need help/advice from anyone dealing with or having overcome SC DSS and SC Gaurdian Ad Litem
    ‘s failure to meet guidelines, prove probable cause within the designated time frame, have no recommended programs or classes to take for the parent and still continue to keep your children in protected custody. PLEASE RESPOND, PLEASE HELP, PLEASE REFER ME TO WHOM EVER CAN HELP MY CHILDREN!

    • Have you contacted the SC ombudsman yet? They are supposed to deal with issues that citizens have with government employees. If not, here is the info:
      Governor’s Office of Ombudsman
      1200 Senate Street, Room 104
      Columbia, South Carolina 29201

      Telephone: (803) 734-5049
      New FAX:(803) 734-1428

      I would also check out resources at SC Bar association. There are free legal clinics and links to find a lawyer. http://www.scbar.org/PublicServices/FreeLegalClinics.aspx

      There are free legal services if your income qualifies at SCLS http://www.sclegal.org/Home/ApplyForService/tabid/213/Default.aspx

    • Rally provided some good info on the ombudsman but another option to consider is to see if the NC administrative code is online so you can do some research on this issue. You will also need to find applicable statutes online too.

      I won’t give specific advice but I will point to a google search engine.

      I would suggest not to use your full name on a blog however. DSS can use google too.

      I also am aware of how blasted slow agencies can be actually doing what the court orders and actually making a referral to a recommended program. It’s a repeated tactic I’ve seen in many appellate opinions in many states. Delay, delay and delay until the client is so frustrated that the caseworker can then write a case note that the client was “uncooperative”, “agitated”, raised her voice, lost her temper or was otherwise “unreasonable”. Cooperation and reasonableness is hard to measure and is based on circumstances but that case not won’t admit it.

      It’s not unusual for the caseworker who is writing her case notes to omit how her own behavior or failure to act caused the agitation, lack of cooperation, lost temper.

      DSS as Leslie pointed out has mastered the game of wearing down a client so things go their way in a courtroom.

      Another favorite game is to only offer the most restrictive services to a parent when less restrictive options exist and will satisfy the court. The social worker is the gatekeeper to the services and even if you turned heaven and earth upside down and did it some other way, it’s possible the social worker will just reject everything out of spite or because the rule book they follow is made up as a client goes along. It’s very difficult to meet this “reasonable progress” standard for the court when the gatekeeper locks the gate.

      That same caseworker is more than likely going to get on the witness stand and pretend that there is only one way to do what needs to be done and not even consider the less burdensome alternatives.

      Document, document and document some more. If you’ve attempted to get services solo, make a detailed note of it. If you’ve asked DSS or the ad litem for help, keep a diary and if at all possible, do it in writing. Insist on a service plan in writing. Email correspondence so there is a paper trail.

  6. I too have seen the injustice of the DSS in Pickens County. My granddaughter was molested and moms boyfriend was the accused. Mom could not pass drug test when it was first told so she or the father did nothing so i in turn called DSS. The parents took up for the molester and even though it was proven all he got was some counseling but the child was never removed from harm. There was a safety plan set up and the parents did not comply. DSS did nothing. We in turn hired an attorney to at least get visitation because we were cut off from the childs life as soon as we reported to DSS.The judge ordered a 15 panel drug screen, both fathers failed for meth and mom would have too had it not been so long before anything was actually done. Needless to say my granddaughter is scarred for life and DSS sided with the parents and molester through the whole process even though my granddaughter had told both grandmothers and the counselors at DSS. He is still around this child and it makes me sick to my stomach that he is allowed to walk the streets knowing what he did to her…And even though the fathers failed the drug screens for meth, they were still allowed unsupervised visitation with their children. The system is very corrupt and Pickens County needs to be investigated right along with the rest of them. They cover up what they want too, trust me!!! And their attorney is the one who recommended counseling and to not be listed on the registry as a sex offender so he is free to do this again to another child!!!

  7. Pickens County DSS for sure needs to be investigated.My two great grandchildren was removed from the grandmothers home,due to her failing a drug test,three weeks later the oldest one was placed back with the same grandmother,who fails two more drug test,at this point DSS removes the same child and the grandmothers own daughter, places them next door with a neighbor. both children was returned to the same home last week.each time I questioned DSS ,all I could get out of them was (this is just the way we do things. that place needs to be closed down, most dishonest people I have meet.Pickens County courts not any better.I know these children are living with meth addicts, no one seems to care.

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