The State
by The Associated Press
Tuesday, January 5, 2010

South Carolina has joined nearly three dozen other states that have registries for biological fathers, which adoption advocates hope will shorten the time children spend in foster care.

Columbia adoption lawyer Paul Meding said the registry could shave a couple of months from completing adoptions, ending the practice of running “John Doe” ads in newspapers seeking a biological father.

The new law requires men who believe they may have fathered children to register with the state or they can lose the ability to have a say in whether a child is put up for adoption. The registry cannot be used to pursue child support, according to the law.

Previously, the state Department of Social Services or adoptive parents had to publish an ad weekly, for three consecutive weeks, notifying an unknown father of a pending adoption and the loss of his parental rights.

“You’ve got a waiting child; you’ve got…

Almost half of children referred are matched to ‘forever’ homes

The Heart Gallery is a national program that uses the power of photography to help find adoptive homes for children lingering in foster care.  Begun in New Mexico in 2001, the program was brought to SC in 2005.  Since then, up to 45% of the SC children referred have been matched with families by the Department of Social Services Adoption Division.

Millie Qualls, Program Coordinator, manages and directs the program through a special partnership between the Children’s Foster Care Review Board and the SC Department of Social Services (DSS).  Children in foster care who are legally free and waiting for adoption are referred by DSS.  Local photographers donate their services to provide beautiful, black and white portraits of the children, reflecting each child’s unique spirit and personality.  The portraits are displayed in public venues around the state and on the Heart Gallery website at http://www.scheartgallery.org The children also…

The State
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
By JOAN BRADY, Guest Columnist

Every child deserves loving parents and a permanent home.  For more than 6,000 S.C. children in foster care, the chances of finding a loving home are not always promising and sometimes are made more difficult by a complicated and expensive adoption process.  The state has a compelling interest in promptly providing stable homes for adoptive children.  A Responsible Fathers Registry will help make a slowed adoption process more effective by eliminating the requirement for published notices to find so-called rumored fathers.

Currently, in order to identify a rumored or possible unknown biological father regarding an adoption or a termination of parental rights action, the Department of Social Services or adopting parents must publish an advertisement in newspapers.  The notices must be placed once a week for three consecutive weeks notifying “John Doe” of the pending action.  This requirement costs DSS hundreds of dollars for each publication and can delay an…