State child advocate reports system improvements, rising complaints and new psychiatric facility funding

Amanda Whittle, the state child advocate and director of the South Carolina Department of Children’s Advocacy, told the Legislative Oversight Subcommittee that her office has implemented several system changes since its 2019 launch, expanded complaint and critical-incident intake, and helped secure state funding for a psychiatric residential treatment facility for justice-involved youth. She presented the updates at the subcommittee’s resumed Department of Children’s Advocacy hearing.

Whittle said the agency created an online secure referral form for the continuum-of-care program, replaced an aging SQL case management database with a nationally recognized system, and expanded staff in its investigations and system improvement units. She also described work to recruit guardian ad litem volunteers, to support the foster care review boards and to strengthen interagency coordination across nine child-serving agencies.

The agency’s changes aim to improve permanency, ensure timely court reviews and respond faster to child-specific problems, Whittle told the panel. She said the continuum-of-care and juvenile-justice wraparound work “helps children with serious emotional and behavioral issues to keep them in their homes, schools and communities when safely possible,” and that the foster care review process checks placements and services for children in care.

Whittle described specific operational results and initiatives. The department launched an 800-number and an online complaint form to receive complaints and critical-incident notifications about nine child-serving agencies. It gained secure access to the Department of Social Services’ case management system and to juvenile justice databases so staff can verify cases directly. The department’s phone volume rose from 4,870 calls in FY 2020 to 7,289 in FY 2024. Critical-incident notifications grew from 30 in the first year to 2,894 in the most recent year; Whittle said those incidents include fatalities, near-fatalities and serious occurrences that sometimes require staff to travel for on-site checks.

Whittle credited new and reclassified positions for enlarging the agency’s capacity: the system improvement and investigations teams increased from a staff of three at the end of FY 2020 to 17, and the agency has added dedicated critical-incident investigators. The agency hired Laurie Davidson as investigations unit director and promoted Wanda Baker to lead the critical investigations unit.

On foster care and guardianship work, Whittle said the foster care review division supports a state board and 43 local boards that review cases every six months to prevent prolonged foster placements. The South Carolina Heart Gallery, which recruits adoptive families by publishing photos and stories of children legally free for adoption, helped increase adoption inquiries from 383 to 851 in one fiscal year, Whittle said. The Guardian ad Litem program served 11,577 children in the last fiscal year, averaging about 6,600 children per month; it employed 128 staff and reported 999 volunteers. The agency reduced guardian ad litem staffing vacancies from 37% in 2019 to about 6% in the most recent fiscal year.

To boost volunteer recruitment, Whittle said the agency plans a pilot stipendiary payment of $250 per guardian ad litem case using carry-forward funds to test whether modest compensation increases volunteer participation and offsets travel costs. The program continues to provide 30 hours of initial training approved by National CASA, and Whittle said volunteers and staff receive the same training requirements.

Whittle also reviewed the department’s system-improvement role under its 2018 enabling legislation, which requires the agency to receive and respond to complaints about nine agencies (including the Department of Disabilities and Special Needs, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Juvenile Justice, Department of Mental Health and Department of Social Services), to examine services across the system, and to promote reforms. She described outreach such as posters in agency offices (available in English and Spanish), monthly newsletters and published annual reports to increase awareness of the complaint process.

On interagency projects, Whittle said the department partnered with the Department of Mental Health and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention to launch the Hope Connects SC Kids online screener and provide round-the-clock response. She also described an interagency effort that secured a $20 million state appropriation and led to a groundbreaking on Sept. 16, 2024, for the William R. Byers Treatment Center, a state-operated psychiatric residential treatment facility for seriously mentally ill, justice-involved youth.

Chairman Young and other subcommittee members praised Whittle’s work. Young said she had “done a tremendous job as our first state's child advocate.” Whittle said she expects to remain in the child-advocate role through late April, with a planned transition to a judgeship in early May; she noted a posting was opened in January for her successor and that the joint citizens and committee on children had closed the application period Jan. 31.

The subcommittee noted several follow-up action items and said staff would coordinate with Whittle’s team for additional materials and to schedule further hearings if necessary.

Sources: remarks and slides presented by Amanda Whittle, State Child Advocate and Director, Department of Children’s Advocacy, during the Legislative Oversight Subcommittee hearing as recorded in the meeting transcript.