S.C. Code Ann. § 20-7-763 – Reasonable effort to preserve or reunify family; when required; termination

(A) When this chapter requires the department to make reasonable efforts to preserve or reunify a family and requires the family court to determine whether these reasonable efforts have been made, the child's health and safety must be the paramount concern.
(B) The family court may rule on whether reasonable efforts to preserve or reunify a family should be required in hearings regarding removal of custody, review of amendments to a placement plan, review of the status of a child in foster care, or permanency planning.
(C) The family court may authorize the department to terminate or forego reasonable efforts to preserve or reunify a family when the records of a court of competent jurisdiction show or when the family court determines that one or more of the following conditions exist:
1. (1) the parent has subjected the child to one or more of the following aggravated circumstances:
  1. (a) severe or repeated abuse;
  2. (b) severe or repeated neglect;
  3. (c) sexual abuse;
  4. (d) acts that the judge may find constitute torture; or
  5. (e) abandonment;
2. (2) the parent has been convicted of or pled guilty or nolo contendere to murder of another child of the parent, or an equivalent offense, in this jurisdiction or another;
3. (3) the parent has been convicted of or pled guilty or nolo contendere to voluntary manslaughter of another child of the parent, or an equivalent offense, in this jurisdiction or another;
4. (4) the parent has been convicted of or pled guilty or nolo contendere to aiding, abetting, attempting, soliciting, or conspiring to commit murder or voluntary manslaughter pursuant to item (1), (2), or (3), or an equivalent offense, in this jurisdiction or another;
5. (5) physical abuse of a child of the parent resulted in the death or admission to the hospital for in-patient care of that child and the abuse is the act for which the parent has been convicted of or pled guilty or nolo contendere to committing, aiding, abetting, conspiring to commit, or soliciting (a) an offense against the person as provided for in Title 16, Chapter 3, (b) criminal domestic violence as defined in Section 16-25-20, (c) criminal domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature as defined in Section 16-25-65, or (d) the common law offense of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, or an equivalent offense in another jurisdiction;
6. (6) the parental rights of the parent to a sibling of the child have been terminated involuntarily;
7. (7) other circumstances exist that the court finds make continuation or implementation of reasonable efforts to preserve or reunify the family inconsistent with the permanent plan for the child.
(D) The department may proceed with efforts to place a child for adoption or with a legal guardian concurrently with making efforts to prevent removal or to make it possible for the child to return safely to the home.
(E) If the family court's decision that reasonable efforts to preserve or reunify a family are not required results from a hearing other than a permanency planning hearing, the court's order shall require that a permanency planning hearing be held within thirty days of the date of the order.
(F) In determining whether to authorize the department to terminate or forego reasonable efforts to preserve or reunify a family, the court must consider whether initiation or continuation of reasonable efforts to preserve or reunify the family is in the best interests of the child.