What Does the Department of Social Services Do?

A phone call. A knock at the door. A DSS caseworker who showed up at your home, your workplace, or your child’s school. These are scary situations, and you need to know your rights.

Attorney Ellen H. Babb has more than 20 years of experience representing families in DSS investigations and defending against allegations of child abuse or neglect. She has handled these exact situations and can provide you with legal guidance, peace of mind, and a path forward.

What Is the Department of Social Services?

The South Carolina Department of Social Services (DSS) is a state agency responsible for child welfare and protecting children from abuse and neglect. Its stated mission is “to serve South Carolina by promoting the safety, permanency, and well-being of children and vulnerable adults, helping individuals achieve stability and strengthening families.” In addition to investigating allegations of child abuse and neglect, DSS also administers the South Carolina foster care program and benefit programs like SNAP and TANF.

Perhaps just as important as what DSS does is what it does not do. DSS has no authority over you or your family unless there are allegations of child abuse or neglect. Even then, it is not a therapeutic agency and has no qualified treatment professionals on its staff. Instead, in cases of suspected abuse or neglect, it can make a referral for an evaluation designed to diagnose the issue that led to the suspected abuse or neglect. It can also petition for emergency removal of a child from their home and, in severe cases, seek termination of parental rights.

How Does a DSS Case Start?

Anyone can make a report to DSS. Reports typically come from a teacher, a doctor, a neighbor, or an anonymous tip. Certain professionals, known as “mandated reporters,” are legally required to report suspected child abuse or neglect.

Once DSS receives a report, it can open an investigation, refer the family to a community-based support project, or reject the case.

If DSS opens an investigation, they have 45 days to complete it. During the investigation period, you will likely be contacted by a caseworker who will want to interview you and your child, often without you present. A DSS caseworker may also wish to inspect your home.

Understanding the DSS Process in South Carolina

Once DSS becomes involved, the investigation can move through four stages: emergency removal, a merits hearing, permanency planning, and, in the most serious cases, termination of parental rights.

Emergency Removal

If law enforcement officers or a judge believe a child’s life, health, or safety is in immediate danger, they can take the child into emergency protective custody. DSS cannot remove children. When a child is removed through this emergency process, South Carolina law requires that a family court judge hold a probable cause hearing within 72 hours of the removal (excluding weekends and holidays). At the hearing:

• DSS must justify the removal by showing there was probable cause to believe the child was abused or neglected or that the child’s “life, health, or physical safety was in substantial and imminent danger.”
• To keep the child in DSS custody, DSS must prove probable cause still exists.
• DSS may present testimony from witnesses, such as caseworkers, law enforcement officers, and medical providers.
• You or your attorney has the right to cross-examine DSS witnesses.
• Generally, you cannot call witnesses to testify on your behalf at the probable cause hearing, but you can submit typed and notarized statements.
• If DSS does not establish probable cause, the judge must order that the child be returned to your home.

In cases of emergency removal, the judge will not issue a final ruling on whether abuse or neglect occurred. Instead, they will issue a written order indicating whether the child should remain in DSS custody until a full hearing on the merits has occurred.

The Merits Hearing

In cases where abuse or neglect is indicated, within 35 days of DSS filing its initial paperwork, a family court judge must hold a hearing on the merits where DSS must establish by a preponderance of the evidence that abuse or neglect occurred. If the judge determines abuse or neglect occurred and the child cannot return home, DSS will present you with a “treatment plan” to determine whether you are in need of specialized treatment, such as alcohol, drug, or mental health services. You are not required to agree to the treatment plan and should speak with experienced legal counsel before agreeing to any treatment plan.

Permanency Planning

A permanency planning hearing occurs once a judge has determined that a child should be removed from the home and placed in long-term care. The first permanency planning hearing must be held within 12 months of a child being placed in foster care. Hearings continue approximately every 12 months. At each hearing, the judge reviews the child’s status in foster care and the parents’ compliance with the family permanency plan.

Termination of Parental Rights

In severe cases, DSS can file a separate action to seek termination of parental rights. Under South Carolina law, there are 12 reasons a judge may terminate parental rights. They are as follows:

• Severity or repetition of abuse or neglect, and the home cannot be made safe in 12 months
• Parent has not remedied the conditions of the child’s removal, and the child has been out of the home for six months following the issuance of a court-ordered placement plan or by agreement between DSS and the parent
• Willful failure to visit for six months
• Willful failure to support for six months
• The parent has a diagnosable condition unlikely to change in a reasonable period of time and, because of that condition, is unlikely to provide minimally acceptable care for the child (except that a parent’s rights cannot be terminated solely on the basis of a disability)
• Abandonment
• Child in foster care for 15 of the most recent 22 months
• A child, as a result of physical abuse, has died or been admitted to the hospital and the parent has been convicted of an offense against the child
• Child’s parent is convicted of the murder of the child’s other parent
• Child’s parent has been convicted of the murder, voluntary manslaughter, or homicide by child abuse, of another child of the parent

How a Lawyer Can Help in a DSS Case

DSS caseworkers are not necessarily your enemy. Most are genuinely trying to help families and children. Nonetheless, DSS caseworkers have their own legal position in a case, and they are not there to protect your rights.

The best way to protect yourself, your rights, and your future is by hiring an experienced DSS defense attorney as quickly as possible. DSS defense attorney Ellen H. Babb has a career that spans more than 20 years. She understands the DSS investigative process, the procedures investigators are required to follow, and the legal standards that must be met to prove allegations of child abuse or neglect.