Dr. Zhenlong Li receives funding from South Carolina Department of Social Services (SCDSS) to analyze the accessibility of children and youth foster care in South Carolina

South Carolina has a shortage of providers, and many children must be placed away from their original communities. This makes it difficult for birth parents, for children, for visitation and for providing health care. This project aims to produce statistics and maps on the distances from the children and youth original “home address” to their current foster care “provider” address and the distances from the child to the county office and from the provider to the county office for the South Carolina Department of Social Services (SCDSS). While SCDSS understands that many children and youth are placed outside of their county of origin, this project will provide additional insights and specificity.