S.C. Code Ann. § 20-7-400 – Exclusive original jurisdiction of family court

(A) Except as otherwise provided herein, the court shall have exclusive original jurisdiction and shall be the sole court for initiating action:
1. (1) Concerning any child living or found within the geographical limits of its jurisdiction:
  1. (a) Who is neglected as to proper or necessary support or education as required by law, or as to medical, psychiatric, psychological or other care necessary to his well-being, or who is abandoned by his parent or other custodian;
  2. (b) Whose occupation, behavior, condition, environment or associations are such as to injure or endanger his welfare or that of others;
  3. (c) Who is beyond the control of his parent or other custodian;
  4. (d) Who is alleged to have violated or attempted to violate any state or local law or municipal ordinance, regardless of where the violation occurred except as provided in Section 20-7-410;
  5. (e) Whose custody is the subject of controversy, except in those cases where the law now gives other courts concurrent jurisdiction. In the consideration of these cases, the court shall have concurrent jurisdiction to hear and determine the issue of custody and support.
2. (2) For the treatment or commitment to any mental institution of a mentally defective or mentally disordered or emotionally disturbed child. Provided, that nothing herein is intended to conflict with the authority of probate courts in dealing with mental cases.
3. (3) Concerning any child seventeen years of age or over, living or found within the geographical limits of the court's jurisdiction, alleged to have violated or attempted to violate any State or local law or municipal ordinance prior to having become seventeen years of age and such person shall be dealt with under the provisions of this chapter relating to children.
4. (4) For the detention of a juvenile in a juvenile detention facility who is charged with committing a criminal offense when detention in a secure facility is found to be necessary pursuant to the standards set forth in Section 20-7-7210 and when the facility exists in, or is otherwise available to, the county in which the crime occurred.
(B) Whenever the court has acquired the jurisdiction of any child under seventeen years of age, jurisdiction continues so long as, in the judgment of the court, it may be necessary to retain jurisdiction for the correction or education of the child, but jurisdiction shall terminate when the child attains the age of twenty-one years. Any child who has been adjudicated delinquent and placed on probation by the court remains under the authority of the court only until the expiration of the specified term of his probation. This specified term of probation may expire before but not after the eighteenth birthday of the child.