South Carolina Code of Regulations › Chapter 114 - DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES › Article 5 - LICENSING › Subarticle 9 - RESIDENTIAL GROUP CARE FACILITIES FOR CHILDREN › Section 114-600 - Wilderness Therapeutic Camps for Children

Current through Register Vol. 48, No. 6, June 28, 2024
A. Definitions
(1) Administrative Office - The office where business operations, public relations, and the management procedures take place.
(2) Agency - Refers to the South Carolina Department of Social Services.
(3) Chemical Restraints - Are drugs administered to temporarily restrain a child who poses a threat to harm themselves or others.
(4) Child - For the purposes of these regulations, a person between the ages of eight and twenty-one.
(5) Child Care Staff - A paid professional who works at a wilderness therapeutic camp who has responsibility for direct care of the children.
(6) Corporal Punishment - Physical punishment inflicted directly upon the body.
(7) Executive Director - The person responsible for coordinating the general management, administration, and care of the children of a wilderness therapeutic camp in accordance with licensing requirements and policies established by the advisory board.
(8) Expedition - An off-site wilderness experience, including wilderness therapeutic camp staff and children, lasting no longer than twenty-eight (28) days. The experience may include hiking, canoeing/kayaking and other outdoor adventure activities.
(9) Group Care - Refers to the care and services provided by the wilderness therapeutic camp.
(10) Isolation - Defined as the involuntary confinement of a person in a room where the person is physically prevented from leaving.
(11) Permanent Building - A durable, fixed structure with a roof and walls that has indoor plumbing, electricity and heating and air conditioning.
(12) Program Director - The person who assists the executive director and is responsible for the day to day operations of a wilderness therapeutic camp.
(13) Restraint - Defined as any manual method, physical or mechanical device, material, or equipment attached or adjacent to the child's body, that the individual cannot remove easily which restricts freedom of movement or normal access to one's body.
(14) Standard License - Issued when a wilderness therapeutic camp meets all the requirements to obtain a license.
(15) Time Out - Defined as the temporary restriction of an individual for a period of time to a designated area from which the person is not physically prevented from leaving, for the purpose of providing the individual an opportunity to regain self control. Time out will last only for the shortest amount of time needed.
(16) Volunteers - Are persons, who of their own free will, provide goods or services to a wilderness therapeutic camp with no monetary or material compensation.
(17) Wilderness Therapeutic Camp - A therapeutic camp, organization, or facility with an outdoor or wilderness focus that is engaged in receiving children for care and maintenance, either part or full time, but shall not include any summer camp, day camp, or after school program, and shall also not include any other outdoor education or youth development program or facility where participants usually attend for less than 15 days, and does not include any licensed residential group care organization, child caring institution or group home or facility that meets the facility requirements of S.C. Code of Regulations Section 114-590.
(18) Wilderness Structures - A permanent or semi-permanent shelter constructed of wood and other materials used at a wilderness therapeutic camp for sleeping, cooking, eating, and/or other group activities. Wilderness structures might not be totally enclosed during all seasons and typically do not have electricity or mechanical heating and cooling systems.