By Lindsay Street, Statehouse correspondent | The state’s often-maligned social services agency could undergo massive changes this year as lawmakers seek to reform it at the same time the governor continues a search for a new leader.
A lawsuit prompted by child deaths in 2014 in the state forced incremental change at Department of Social Services (DSS), but much more is needed to correct lingering problems, according to the agency and a federal court.
As lawmakers are setting the stage for additional legislative oversight and the governor’s office concludes interviewing candidates, the House voted this week to refuse funds that the agency said it needs to comply with a 2016 court order. The state Senate may reverse course on that funding, but legislative audits loom as lawmakers push for overdue DSS reform and accountability.
“We need to make some changes at DSS. Whatever we’re doing hasn’t been working,” Lexington Republican Sen. Katrina Shealy told Statehouse Report. Shealy has long led efforts in Columbia to reform the agency.
Agency came into public focus after 2014 deaths
Several children died in DSS care in 2014. Two years later, a federal court ruled the agency needed to hire more child welfare caseworkers, improve health care for children under its care and move more children into foster care. For the next two years, then-DSS Director Susan Alford worked to alleviate issues at the beleaguered agency. While she earned praise for her work, court monitors said the agency was slow in enacting needed changes.
When Alford retired in July 2018, the agency continued making progress, although admittedly slow, according to the acting director.
“DSS remains committed to comprehensive child-welfare reform, and we are proud of our progress in several important areas,” Acting State Director Joan B. Meacham wrote lawmakers Feb. 20. DSS was reached for comment, but did not return the request to talk to Meacham prior to publication.
In the letter, Meacham implored lawmakers to fund the agency’s requests so it could comply with the federal court order and not incur further litigation.
“The court recently made clear that it will not wait on future budget requests to support implementation of what it considers the most pressing priorities from the plans,” Meacham wrote. “Much work remains to be done.”
She asked lawmakers include two key critical components in the agency’s budget: $33.6 million to raise caseworker salaries and $1.9 million to raise foster care board rates.
In late 2018, the judge overseeing that case, U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel, urged the agency to work with lawmakers to increase its number of caseworkers. While the governor’s proposed executive budget funded the request, the House’s budget, which was passed this week, did not .
A deeper dive into finances
House budget writers allotted $195 million toward the cabinet agency, which also receives $508M from federal funding. But they balked at sending additional money toward DSS — a sum that totaled $44.6 million.
S.C. Rep. Bill Herbkersman, the Beaufort Republican who spearheaded the drafting of the House’s DSS budget, said the move to balk at more funding was due to the agency’s questionable handling of state funds.
“We do not feel confident that the agency is capable of handling more funding at this point and time,” he told lawmakers in a February meeting. He cited $38 million in additional funding over the last two years that has led to “no progress” in caseloads and placement, and $14 million in additional funding in 2015 that gave new employees a raise and had “an adverse effect on staff morale.”
“It was not about the amount of money requested, it was about the lack of efficient use of the money that the agency received,” he told Statehouse Report this week.
For two weeks beginning March 19, subcommittees of the Senate Finance Committee will work through agency requests, like that of DSS. Shealy said the Senate will likely move to fund some of DSS’s request, even while putting its finances under the microscope.
‘Intensive reform process’
Shealy will chair the Senate Select Oversight Committee on DSS Class Action Suit. In a March 4 memorandum calling for the committee, Senate President Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, said he has concerns about the agency’s spending.
“I charge this select committee with delving into the programmatic and financial areas of the agency. Schedule hearings, take testimony, require the agency to produce documents. Work as long and dig as deep as you feel necessary,” Peeler wrote.
Shealy said Monday: “It isn’t going to be a short meeting.”
The first meeting of the committee has not been scheduled yet. Shealy previously served on Senate committee scrutinizing DSS immediately following the child deaths in 2014. The meetings pre-dated the court-ordered reforms but uncovered many of the issues addressed later in the lawsuit. Now, senators want to see how DSS is complying with the court orders and how it is spending money to achieve its goals.
Meanwhile, Herbkersman championed a budget proviso that creates a gubernatorial-appointed joint study committee with a similar mission.
“I have grave concerns about DSS,” he said. “(A study committee) is long overdue.”
He said the goal will be to bring the sprawling agency back to “core functions” and make it “more accountable.” He said the committee members will explore putting food stamps under the Department of Health and Human Services (the state’s Medicaid agency) and possibly move elderly and vulnerable adult services to the Office on Aging.
“This should have happened a few years ago,” he said. “It’s a mammoth task but it couldn’t get any worse.”
Herbkersman said he was hopeful reform could begin by next year.
Director search underway
Shealy called the direction of DSS “very concerning.”
“We have got to get someone in there,” Shealy said this week. “Let’s get a director, someone very qualified.”
She said that concern wasn’t a referendum on Meacham, adding that it’s difficult to enact meaningful change as an interim.
Shealy said McMaster is currently interviewing 15 candidates for the post. McMaster spokesman Brian Symmes confirmed that McMaster was interviewing candidates this week.
“We expect to be making an announcement of the governor’s decision shortly,” Symmes said. However, he did not give any estimate as to what that timeline may be. He added the governor was “at tail end of the process.”
Symmes said the governor was looking for “someone with experience in that realm and someone who he is confident will be able to run a large agency with so many different missions and so many employees.”
Children’s Trust of South Carolina CEO Sue Williams said in a statement to Statehouse Report that a new director is a vital piece of the puzzle for reforming the agency.
“DSS is a critical piece of the protective safety net for vulnerable children. Finding the next agency director who can lead that organization to deliver on its obligations is a task state leaders are approaching with thoughtful and careful consideration,” she wrote. “Our hope is that the next director will embrace prevention so that more children and families remain out of the system and reduce the workload for the overburdened department.”
Any gubernatorial appointment will need Senate confirmation.
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We Can Do Better, South Carolina!
I agree 100% that accountability is needed for elderly, disabled, & vulnerable adults. How does DSS waste the employee time and effort to throw this group of people $15.00 a month on EBT monthly food allowance. What does this buy? A months worth of Roman Noodles from Wal-Mart. What happened to the food triangle this group was taught in school. Why is it necessary to go to food banks and other community resources to eat a healthy balanced meal? Respect your elders, and disabled population in that age group please. We can’t stand in long lines at food banks and shame on you for not providing this population a decent end to our years.