“The most important piece of legislation this session,” according to lead sponsor Sen. Katrina Shealy, S.805 would establish an independent statewide ombudsman for agencies that serve children. It passed the Senate last week and is headed to the House.

An office of the child’s advocate, known as an OCA, receives and investigate reports of failures at child-serving agencies and transforms that information into improvements of the systems. Creation of a state Office of Child's Advocate would protect some of the most vulnerable children through data-driven, evidence-based, and independent decision-making processes, addressing weaknesses in existing efforts to serve children.

Bills to Watch

S.891 : Educating new parents, including adoptive parents, about safe sleep, SIDS, infant CPR and the dangers associated with shaking infants, has passed out of the Senate and is headed to the House. It mandates that hospitals make a safe sleep video available to parents of newborns and that child care facilities and health care providers also provide learning opportunities. The bill is being championed by the Joint Citizens and Legislative Committee on Children.

H.4480 : Limiting use of mobile phones to hands-free devices for drivers remains in the House Committee on Education and Public Works subcommittee but continues to gain additional sponsors.

Be There

The Senate Education Committee will meet Wednesday, March 14, at 10 a.m. in the Gressette Building, Room 308. On the agenda is H.4434 , providing for dyslexia screening at public schools.

The Children’s Affairs subcommittee of the Senate General Committee will meet Thursday, March 15, at 10 a.m. in the Gressette Building, Room 207. On the agenda is H.4705 , making school and college administrators, coaches, firefighters, Scout leaders, and counselors mandated reporters of suspected child abuse or neglect. The subcommittee also will take up S.1033 , defining torture, specifying torture as grounds for termination of parental rights, and blocking family reunification efforts by DSS in instances of torture.

The University of South Carolina Children's Law Center is providing training on identifying child sex trafficking for multi-disciplinary professionals throughout the state. There is a free training at USC Aiken Thursday, March 22.