South Carolina Code of Regulations › Chapter 114 - DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES › Article 5 - LICENSING › Subarticle 5 - FOSTER CARE › Section 114-550 - Licensure of Family Foster Homes and Approval of Adoptive Homes for Children in Foster Care

Current through Register Vol. 48, No. 6, June 28, 2024
A. Applicability:
				The department will apply these regulations to decisions related to licensing
				family foster homes and approval of adoptive homes for children who are in
				foster care at the time of the application and ongoing throughout the licensing
				process.
B. Definitions.
(1) "Adoptive Parent" means a person who is
				seeking or has adoptive placement of a child in foster care.
(2) "Agency" means the South Carolina
				Department Social Services (SCDSS).
(3) "Applicant" means a person who has
				submitted an application and is seeking a license to operate a family foster
				home or who is seeking approval to adopt a child from the State's foster care
				system.
(4) "Assessment Study"
				means documentation of the assessment of an applicant, completed by designated
				SCDSS staff, a certified investigator, designated staff of a child placing
				agency, or other persons approved by SCDSS.
(5) "Board Payment" means funds appropriated
				for the care and maintenance of children in foster care.
(6) "Child Placing Agency" means a person or
				entity who holds legal or physical custody of a child for the purpose of
				placement for foster care or adoption or a private placement, or a person or
				entity who facilitates the placement of children for the purpose of foster care
				or adoption or a private placement and which retains its own system of foster
				homes. Homes assessed by child placing agencies are licensed in accordance with
				SCDSS licensing regulations and are issued a license by SCDSS.
(7) "Community standards" means local norms
				bounding acceptable conduct. For housing, the term means acceptable building
				standards based on the neighborhood and similar homes.
(8) "Corporal punishment" means physical
				punishment inflicted directly upon the body.
(9) "Family foster care" means continuous
				24-hour care and support services provided for a child in a family foster
				home.
(10) "Family foster home"
				means the private home of an individual or family that is licensed by the
				department and in which a child in foster care has been placed in the care of
				an individual; who resides with the child; who has been licensed by the
				department to be a foster parent that the department deems capable of adhering
				to the reasonable and prudent parent standard as defined in Section
				63-7-20(24); that
				provides 24-hour substitute care for children placed away from their parents or
				other caretakers; and that provides care for children subject to capacity
				limitations set forth in Section
				63-7-2400. This term includes a
				kinship, relative, and child-specific home.
(11) "Foster parent" means an individual who
				provides family foster care with a license from the department.
(12) "Home study" means the screening of the
				home, life, and parental fitness of a prospective foster or adoptive parent by
				a certified investigator through face-to-face encounters
(13) "Household member" means any relative or
				nonrelative who regularly lives, shares common areas, and sleeps in a
				home.
(14) "Kin" means an adult who
				is related to a child by blood, marriage, or adoption and means, an adult who
				is not related to a child by blood, marriage, or adoption, but who has a
				relationship with the child or the child's family (fictive kin).
(15) "License" means the approval,
				verification, or certification of a home and applicant to provide family foster
				care or adoptive placement.