(Doc Name h:\legwork\house\amend\h-wm\010\dss child placement.docx):
EXPLANATION: DSS must develop rules and regulations to prohibit discriminatory policies against faith-based private child placing agencies
Amend the bill, as and if amended, Part IB, Section 38,
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES, page 374, after line 6, by adding
an appropriately numbered paragraph to read:
/(DSS: Faith-Based Private Child Placing Agencies) From
the funds appropriated to the Department of Social Services, the
department shall make and promulgate such rules and regulations
relating to licensing standards and other matters as may be
necessary to carry out the purposes of Title 63, Chapter 11,
Article 1 of the 1976 Code as applied to faith-based private
Child Placing Agencies. For purposes of these regulations, any
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 and, which for the purposes of these
regulations, retain their own system of foster homes, is a child
placing agency as defined in S.C. Code of Regulations 114-550.
Such regulation must not discriminate or suggest the taking of
any adverse action against a faith-based child-placing agency or
an agency seeking to become a child-placing agency on the basis,
wholly or partly, that a faith - based child placing agency has
declined or will decline to provide any service that conflicts
with, or provide any service under circumstances that conflict
with, a sincerely-held religious belief or moral conviction of
the faith-based child placing agency./
Renumber sections to conform.
Amend totals and titles to conform.