The South Carolina Senate subcommittee on child welfare on Thursday forwarded House Bill 3654 to the full committee after hearing testimony from the state child advocate that the measure primarily cleans statutory language and aligns practice with current agency operations.

Amanda Whittle, state child advocate and director of the Department of Children's Advocacy, told the subcommittee that the bill affects five statutes and is intended as a technical cleanup rather than a substantive policy change. "This has been a long time coming," Whittle said, adding the agency and stakeholders including the governor's office and the Department of Social Services have reviewed the changes.

Whittle said the bill would clarify that appointed guardian ad litem volunteers and the agency's staff may share reports and information with county guardian ad litem program staff, the guardian ad litem division and the state child advocate. She told the committee that the current confidentiality statute (63-7-90) references "appointed guardian ad litem" in a way that has created uncertainty about whether supervised staff may access the records.

The bill would also remove a misplaced cross-reference in 63-11-550 that currently cites a provision (63-7-190(c) as read in testimony) tied to Department of Social Services releases rather than to the guardian ad litem program. Whittle described that edit as a cleanup so the statutes read with "plain and ordinary meaning."

Other changes described by Whittle include: making the foster care review board's division director an established full-time employee rather than an at-will gubernatorial appointment (63-11-700), aligning the continuum-of-care director position with current personnel practice (63-11-1340), and consolidating the continuum-of-care annual report so the Department of Children's Advocacy delivers the required reporting instead of duplicative publications (63-11-1360). Whittle said there is no fiscal impact to converting positions to full-time equivalents because the positions already are filled and handled as FTEs.

Whittle noted practical details from her experience as director: the foster care review board regulations have not been updated for years and the agency has produced a single annual report each year rather than the multiple reports the old statutes could be read to require. She said printing two separate reports would be unnecessary and that combining reports saves money — she estimated paper printing costs "about $14 a piece" when reports were produced in print.

Senators moved and seconded a motion to give House Bill 3654 a favorable report. The committee recorded affirmative proxies from Senator Clymer and Senator Cash and the motion carried to the full committee.

The subcommittee hearing record shows Whittle and agency staff repeatedly framed the bill as clarifying statutory language to match current practice and reduce confusion about record access and hiring authority. No fiscal impacts were identified in testimony, and no substantive new authorities or new information-sharing powers beyond supervised staff access were described in the hearing.

Looking ahead, the subcommittee sent H.3654 on to the full committee with a favorable report; further debate or amendments could occur at that stage.