Subcommittee adopts rule to license kin caregivers, enabling federal funds for board payments

Connolly Ann Ragley, chief external affairs director at the South Carolina Department of Social Services, told the Health and Health Care Industry Subcommittee that regulation 5296 would update state rules to match a federal rule change from September 2023 and create a separate pathway to license kinship caregivers for children in foster care.

The measure, “Approval of Kinship Family Foster Homes and Kinship Adoptive Homes,” would allow relatives and others with an established relationship to a child — including grandparents, aunts, uncles or “fictive kin” such as teachers or coaches — to obtain licensure so they could receive monthly board payments. Ragley said the change would let the state draw down additional federal funds to help pay caregivers. “This regulation is looking to update based on the changes that were made at the federal government in September of 20 23 … to make less burdensome regulation on kinship…