This opinion piece from the Post and Courier, a South-Carolina, USA-based periodical, highlights the need to better regulate “re-homing” practices in South Carolina. “Re-homing” is the process by which adoptive parents seek to relinquish their adopted children and find new guardians who will take those children in. This process often happens over the internet or by other unregulated means with no oversight from government, adoption agencies, or other authorities. “South Carolina has recently taken hopeful steps toward ensuring the safety of foster children,” says the author. “Such measures include placing more children in foster homes rather than institutions and giving them better medical care.” However, inconsistencies and gaps remain. The article discusses the links between re-homing and child trafficking and the ways in which unregulated re-homing negatively impacts children, including its potential to place children into abusive homes.
