ROCKINGHAM — More than a third of the children in custody of the Richmond County Department of Social Services have a plan for adoption — and several were recently adopted.
While presenting a proclamation for Adoption Awareness Month to the Richmond County Board of Commissioners on Nov. 4, Social Services Director Theressa Smith said that statistics had changed since the proclamation was written.
Three adoptions were finalized this week, dropping the number of those awaiting adoption from 13 to 10, which Smith said was “very exciting.”
Those kids, she said, were adopted by their foster families.
“We also have five others that have already been filed and we’re just waiting for them to be final,” Smith said. “So we hope, in the next couple of months, that five more adoptions will be final.”
Smith went on to say that a committee will be meeting later this month to recommend adoption and allow petitions to be filed for two more children.
“That will only leave three children in our custody that are free for adoption that do not have an adoption placement,” Smith said.
She noted that while the resolution states that there are 21 children with a primary plan for adoption, that number is now 39.
“During COVID, things really slowed down a lot and we’re working very hard to try to get cases to where they need to be and to get permanence for children,” Smith continued. “So now 43 percent of the kids that are in our custody have a permanent plan of adoption.”
Prior to the approval of the resolution, commissioners voted for the Richmond County Child Fatality Prevention Team/Community Child Protection Team to remain a single-county team.
Smith said that the state statute requires that each county decide if it wants the team to be a single- or multi-county team, which has been active for many years.
She added that the law has changed and the team now only looks at fatalities due to abuse or neglect instead of all child deaths.
The board also approved proclamations recognizing Veterans Day and Farm-City Week.
