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Local teacher says social-services worker favored stranger adoption over family placement, alleges payment motivation
Summary
In public comment Martha Grice Haney, a long-time Union County teacher, alleged a Union County DSS social worker declined to place her grandson with family and suggested payments influenced that decision; she cited higher federal funding for out-of-home placements.
During the meeting’s public-comment period, Martha Grice Haney, a 35-year Union County resident and longtime schoolteacher, said Union County Department of Social Services staff refused to place her infant grandson with family and cited money as the reason.
Haney said she was told by a social worker, identified in her remarks as Jackie Grignon, that family placement would not be made because the county “is not going to pay you for that grandbaby” and that the county had already “found another family.” Haney described contacting staff who told her she qualified to take the child and that she had no criminal history and sufficient caregiving capacity.
In her remarks Haney alleged the department receives “title 4 money” and that the federal payment structure provides more funds when children are placed with nonrelatives than with kin; she said she researched Title IV funding and believed it created a financial incentive to place children outside family. Commissioners cut off the speaker when her allotted time expired; no county representative responded during public comment.
The remarks were a personal allegation and were presented as Haney’s account of her interactions with DSS; the board did not take action on the matter during the meeting. The county’s public record of DSS policies, case specifics or staff statements was not part of the meeting record; the transcript contains the speaker’s assertions but does not include official DSS findings or responses.
