An independent voice for ethical adoption
S. Carolina: Sanford signs adoption measure
From The Post and Courier:
Gov. Mark Sanford signed a bill Tuesday that will shorten the time children must wait to be adopted…
The new law is intended to reduce the time it takes for children in foster care to be adopted.
It allows the courts to immediately terminate parental rights in the most severe abuse cases, and it requires the courts to be less lenient in the time given to biological parents to address problems that caused the child to be removed from their care in the first place.
Sanford has made it a priority to shorten the time children spend in temporary homes. He has done so in part by encouraging his Cabinet agency, the Department of Social Services, to make some policy changes and by creating the Children in Foster Care and Adoption Services Task Force in 2007.
The governor’s office said the changes include:
–Fully restoring the adoption incentive benefit from $250 to $1,500.
–Looking for ways to give foster parents some of the same rights as biological parents.
–Working with faith-based groups to recruit potential foster families.
–Helping with the court system to identify ways to speed up the adoption process.
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