Child welfare records maintained by a department of social services (DSS) contain sensitive information that parties in various proceedings are often interested in seeing. A complex web of state and federal law governs the disclosure of these records – more than I can cover here. For purposes of this post, it’s sufficient to know that G.S. 108A-80 is a broadly applicable confidentiality statute that applies to DSS and covers client information generally. Absent limited statutory exceptions, G.S. 108A-80(a) prohibits disclosure of information related to individuals who apply for or receive public assistance or social services, including child welfare services.

Child welfare information is also subject to an additional set of confidentiality restrictions under Chapter 7B of the North Carolina General Statutes. For example, G.S. 7B-302 makes information that is obtained by DSS related to a juvenile’s alleged abuse, neglect, or dependency (A/N/D) confidential. Similarly, G.S. 7B-2901(b) requires DSS to maintain confidential records of juveniles it has in its custody. Both statutes provide exceptions to the confidentiality requirement.

This post explores how the exceptions in G.S. 7B-302 and 7B-2901(b) apply when a party—either in a North Carolina civil case where DSS is not a party or in a criminal or delinquency matter—wants DSS child welfare records about someone other than themselves. Note that in this post I use the term ‘DSS records’ to refer to child welfare records maintained by DSS, including those from juvenile A/N/D proceedings. Continue Reading

This is my third post discussing S.L. 2025-16, the Fostering Care in NC Act. The various sections of this significant 32-page session law have different effective dates: June 26, 2025, October 1, 2025, December 1, 2025, and April 1, 2026. This post discusses two significant changes to child welfare law that are effective October 1^st:

• the right to seek expungement from the Responsible Individuals List (RIL) through a district court action under the new G.S. 7B-325, and
• post-adoption contact agreement and orders between parents and prospective adoptive parents for children who are in DSS custody through an order entered in an abuse, neglect, or dependency (A/N/D) action under the new G.S. 7B-909.2, -909.3 and 50-13.2B.

Because the changes made in S.L. 2025-16 and some other shorter session laws addressing child welfare are so numerous, my colleague, Kristi Nickodem, and I made a 1.5 hour on-demand webinar discussing these changes. It is free of charge and can be viewed at any time. There are no continuing education credit hours available. You can view the webinar at https://vimeo.com/1121169767. The end of this post has a list of all the posts addressing the legislative changes discussed in the webinar. Continue Reading

In my last blog post about the confidentiality of adult protective services (APS) information, I described a five-step framework for determining when a department of social services (DSS) may release APS information (see flowchart here). The first step in that framework asks whether a state or federal law requires the disclosure of the confidential information. This blog post discusses some statutes and rules that require disclosure of APS information (to specific parties in specific circumstances) or give a particular agency or individual the right to access or inspect APS information. Note, however, that this post does not provide an exhaustive list of the various federal and state laws that may require the disclosure of certain APS information—nor does it discuss laws that allow (but do not require) DSS to disclose information.

House Bill 620, chaptered as S.L. 2025-54, enacted several changes affecting judicial authority and administration that may be of interest to practitioners generally. This post will review the legislation’s provisions affecting removal proceedings, the jurisdiction of specially assigned superior court judges, substitution of one trial judge for another, age limits for service as a trial judge, protocols for recovery courts, the disclosure of courtroom audio recordings, training and educational materials for jurors, and the appointment of magistrates.

It is well established in North Carolina law that before a court can award custody of or visitation with a minor child to a nonparent over the objection of a parent, the nonparent must allege and prove that the parent is unfit, has neglected the welfare of the child, or has otherwise acted in a manner inconsistent with his or her constitutionally protected status as parent. Price v. Howard, 346 N.C. 68 (1997). [a discussion of the court’s authority to award visitation pursuant to the grandparent visitation statutes is beyond the scope of this post.] If that allegation is proven, the trial court may proceed to determine custody or visitation by application of the best interest of the child standard. If the nonparent third party cannot show that the parent is unfit or has lost their protected status, all custody and/or visitation claims against a parent must be dismissed.