Articles related to department of social services

I recently received a question about whether and how the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) applies to an infant who is safely surrendered. The short answer is ICWA applies to […]

Like every other state, North Carolina has a mandatory reporting law for child abuse and neglect. North Carolina’s law requires any person or institution with cause to suspect a child […]

The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina (Lumbee) has received full federal recognition through the Lumbee Fairness Act, which was included in the National Defense Authorization Act. The law was signed by the President, granting full federal recognition to the Lumbee on December 18, 2025. This is an extraordinary time for the Lumbee, who will have access to services and resources (such as support with education, health care, and housing) from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) as well as the right to self-governance.

One immediate change is the application of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) to the Lumbee. This change impacts abuse, neglect, dependency (A/N/D) and termination of parental rights (TPR) action. (It also impacts all adoptions of minors (including stepparent adoptions but that is beyond the scope of this post)

There are additional protections ICWA provides in A/N/D and TPR proceedings when an Indian child is involved. An Indian child now includes a juvenile who is either (1) a member of the Lumbee or (2) eligible for membership with the Lumbee and who have a biological parent who is a member of a fully federally recognized Indian tribe. See 25 U.S.C. 1903(4) & 25 C.F.R. 23.2 (definition of “Indian child”). There are new steps the court and participants must follow when an Indian child who is affiliated with the Lumbee is the subject of the suit. Although these changes are effective now (and started on December 18, 2025), this is a time of significant transition for the Lumbee, where procedures and policies are being created and implemented.

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.

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.

On November 1, 2025, legislative changes to North Carolina adult protective services (APS) law take effect pursuant to Session Law 2025-27, Part V. There are three primary changes reflected in […]

*This post is co-authored with my colleague, Kristi Nickodem. For years, local stakeholders in North Carolina have been forming adult protective multidisciplinary teams (MDTs)—groups of professionals from different disciplines who […]

This is my second 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. Some sections became effective on June 26, 2025 and are discussed in my previous post – https://civil.sog.unc.edu/the-fostering-care-in-nc-act-changes-to-child-welfare-and-dss-that-are-effective-now/ – and my colleague’s post discussing changes to DHHS oversight https://civil.sog.unc.edu/state-oversight-of-county-departments-of-social-services-changes-in-session-law-2025-16/).

Other sections are effective on October 1, 2025. The focus of this blog is on most of the provisions in Part I of S.L. 2025-16 that become effective on October 1, which is not that far away.

Assume a hearing in a juvenile abuse, neglect, or dependency (AND) matter has just concluded. The judge announced the broad strokes of their ruling from the bench.  Questions about who is responsible for drafting the order, the need to circulate the order, what happens when a draft order is received by the judge, and the effect on this process if a party appears pro se are discussed in this post.

On June 26, 2025, H612 was signed by the Governor and became S.L. 2025-16. This session law makes significant amendments to the laws addressing juvenile abuse, neglect, and dependency (A/N/D) and the oversight provided by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) over county departments of social services (DSS). The session law also affects termination of parental rights, adoptions of minors, permanent no contact orders, felony child abuse, and criminal history checks for applicants for city and county jobs that involve working with children. Finally, this session law enacts a guardianship assistance program for certain children who were in DSS custody when guardianship was ordered. The various sections of this significant 32-page session law have different effective dates, with some sections effective on June 26, 2025 and others not effective until as late as April 1, 2026. This blog only summarizes the changes that are effective now.