Lawmakers seek overhaul of NC's child welfare system

Tuesday morning, the Senate Judiciary voted unanimously to advance Senate Bill 625, a thirty-page omnibus reform bill that sponsors say will make the system fairer and more responsive to children and families.

North Carolina is one of a handful of states in which parents can have their parental rights terminated for failure to pay child support to the state while their children are in foster care. That has put the state in national headlines, noted bill sponsor Sen. Sydney Batch, D-Wake, who added that 'a number" of parents currently owe the state and could therefore be at risk of losing their children.

Batch said S625 will resolve that problem and change the law that allows it.

"Many of the families that are in the child welfare system are already poor," Batch said. "This is just another tax, so we are removing that section."

Batch said it would also prevent county social services or a Guardian Ad Litem from changing the plan for a child and removing them from a foster home where they've lived for more than a year, even when the foster family or relative has expressed the wish to adopt.

Under current law, Batch said, there's no legal process for the foster family or relative in that situation to object.

"This initiates an entire new procedure that does not exist in law, that allows for that foster or relative to basically motion the court through DSS to say that the child cannot be removed until they have the ability to go in front of a judge, and to specifically have the judge weigh in," Batch explained. "This will allow, hopefully, for children to be able to stay in homes and not be removed."

Batch said the bill would also allow the foster parent or relative to have legal representation and ask questions, something the current system does not permit.

The bill would also allow post-adoption contact agreements between parents who've relinquished their rights and their child's new families. Sponsor Sen. Steve Jarvis, R-Davidson, said current law doesn't allow that, driving many parents to appeal their termination to the NC Court of Appeals.

"Many parents, I believe, would be willing to relinquish the rights to their children if they had the right to and an assurance that they could receive emails, pictures and contact, potentially, with the children thereafter," Jarvis said. "It also allows for the court to modify or terminate an ongoing contract if, in the future, the court determines that it is no longer in the best interest of the child."

While sponsors said the bill had "overwhelming support" from most groups involved in child welfare, some advocates cited concerns about the proposal.

Reginald O'Rourke with the state's Guardian Ad Litem program said GAL is concerned that some of the changes will put additional demand on court systems that are already stretched thin. He said 40,000 child welfare cases in North Carolina were continued last year, and the bill, which could require more judicial time in some cases, could cause that to increase.

Karen McLeod is CEO of Benchmarks, an umbrella group of agencies that support children and families. She called S625 "a legacy bill that's going to impact the system in a really powerful way."

"We have 100 county DSSes. Most of them do great work. But there are times where very inappropriate things happen," McLeod said. "The Department of Social Services at the state level needs the right to be able to intervene, and this finally provides that. It's a much needed change."

The bill could be on the Senate floor later this week.