DSS: 15 Months in Foster Care
One of the grounds to terminate a parent's rights is if the child has spent 15 of the last 22 months in foster care.
The Courts in ruling on this ground for termination of parental rights will need to ask why the child has been in foster care for 15 months and is this delay in reuniting the child with the parent or parents the fault of someone other than the parent or parents. The facts concerning the delay are key to whether or not you can terminate the parents' rights on this ground.
In a recent South Carolina Supreme Court Case, the Court stated that "[w]here there is 'substantial evidence that much of the delay...is attributable to the acts of others,' a parent's right should not be terminated based solely on the fact that the child has spent greater than fifteen months in foster care."
You can find the above-mentioned opinion at http://www.sccourts.org/opinions/advSheets/no352011.pdf at page 14 through 25.
