The main goal of foster care through the South Dakota Department of Social Services is to safely return children to their birth family.
Secretary Laurie Gill says foster families play an important role in facilitating healing in both children and families so kids in foster care can go home to a healthy birth family. She says foster care is meant to be temporary and ultimately, the state hopes it gives the child and their birth family a fresh, new start– together.
Gill says DSS, in partnership with South Dakota Kids Belong, is working to recruit, prepare and support more foster and adoptive families through the Stronger Families Together campaign. She says more foster families are needed to provide a safe place for children when they need it, and to support birth families with reunification.
Gill says safe reunification is far more common than many people may realize. She says foster care is not about separating families, it’s about strengthening them and giving them the support they need to be healthy.
At this point in state fiscal year 2021, 494 children in state custody have been successfully reunified with their parents. Of the children who have entered state custody so far in state fiscal year 2021, 71% have been reunited with their family.
For more information about Stronger Families Together or becoming a foster parent, visit FosterOne.sd.gov.
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