South Carolina Pilot Helps Teens Stay With Families and Out of Foster Care

South Car­oli­na is test­ing a new approach to keep teens out of fos­ter care and with their fam­i­lies. The Teen Alter­na­tive Path­way Pilot (TAPP) is offer­ing cri­sis sup­port, ther­a­py and com­mu­ni­ty-based ser­vices to help par­ents and teens work through con­flict and unmet needs at home. Since launch­ing in March 2025, the pro­gram has helped more than 50 youths remain safe­ly with their fam­i­lies instead of enter­ing fos­ter care.

A Pre­ven­tion-Focused Pilot to Keep Teens at Home

Led by Thomp­son Child & Fam­i­ly Focus, sup­port­ed by the South Car­oli­na Depart­ment of Social Ser­vices (SCDSS) and with tech­ni­cal assis­tance from the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion, TAPP is part of Team­ing for Teens, a part­ner­ship that includes schools, law enforce­ment, courts, com­mu­ni­ty groups, child wel­fare and juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem lead­ers, men­tal health providers and fam­i­lies. Togeth­er, these part­ners are cre­at­ing com­mu­ni­ty-based solu­tions to reduce unnec­es­sary fos­ter care placements. 

Why Teens Enter Fos­ter Care — and How Fam­i­lies Can Be Supported

In South Car­oli­na, at least half of teens enter­ing fos­ter care are placed because of fam­i­ly con­flict, untreat­ed trau­ma or unmet needs. Research shows that ado­les­cence is a time of risk-tak­ing and grow­ing inde­pen­dence, which can height­en ten­sions at home. Too often, fam­i­lies and pub­lic agen­cies and the courts have had few options oth­er than fos­ter care. TAPP offers an alter­na­tive to fam­i­ly sep­a­ra­tions that helps fam­i­lies man­age con­flict, strength­en bonds and stay togeth­er, which ben­e­fits youth.

How the Teen Alter­na­tive Path­way Pilot Works

The pilot cur­rent­ly oper­ates in Ander­son, Greenville and Spar­tan­burg coun­ties, which have high rates of teens enter­ing fos­ter care — 29% com­pared to a nation­al rate of 22%, accord­ing to a Foun­da­tion analy­sis of fed­er­al fos­ter care data. Refer­rals come from pro­fes­sion­als who work with youth — such as school work­ers, health care providers, law enforce­ment and Depart­ments of Juve­nile Jus­tice and Social Ser­vices staff. Once a refer­ral is made, trained facil­i­ta­tors quick­ly meet the fam­i­ly to sta­bi­lize the sit­u­a­tion and pro­vide support.

“In these three coun­ties, we not­ed the num­ber of youths who enter the child wel­fare sys­tem due to rea­sons such as par­ent-child con­flict or the young person’s behav­ioral issues, and where the fam­i­ly just couldn’t man­age,” said Joce­lyn Gib­son, co-lead for Team­ing for Teens and place­ment ser­vices direc­tor in SCDSS. ​“With this pro­gram, the com­mu­ni­ty knows there are oth­er options, that fos­ter care is not always right.”

Sup­port Ser­vices That Strength­en Families

TAPP tai­lors ser­vices to each family’s needs, which can include: 

• cri­sis sta­bi­liza­tion and ²⁴⁄₇ assistance;
• fam­i­ly medi­a­tion and goal setting;
• meet­ing with oth­er rel­a­tives, com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers and staff from pub­lic agen­cies to help devel­op a plan to address the family’s needs;
• set­ting goals with the family; 
• pro­vid­ing inten­sive ther­a­py for up to six months;
• con­nec­tions to resources such as hous­ing or men­tal health care or con­flict res­o­lu­tion skills train­ing; and
• prac­ti­cal finan­cial help, such as cov­er­ing a secu­ri­ty deposit.

These sup­ports can last up to 90 days, giv­ing fam­i­lies the tools they need to sta­bi­lize and thrive together.

“Some fam­i­lies just need help with resources and case man­age­ment. For oth­ers, it’s sup­port­ing fam­i­lies expe­ri­enc­ing chal­leng­ing behav­ior. In some cas­es, it’s pro­vid­ing them with inten­sive ther­a­py to help them avoid fur­ther involve­ment in the sys­tems,” said Shawn Brown, South Car­oli­na oper­a­tions direc­tor for Thomp­son Child & Fam­i­ly Focus. ​“We look at the under­ly­ing caus­es of the family’s chal­lenges and devel­op a plan to meet their goals and needs. Then we set them up with a sol­id dis­charge plan, so they’ll know where to go to access com­mu­ni­ty resources in the future.”

A Col­lab­o­ra­tive Model

TAPP builds on the proven Fam­i­ly Assess­ment and Inter­ven­tion Response mod­el, which showed that home- and com­mu­ni­ty-based ser­vices can safe­ly reduce fos­ter care place­ments. Pro­gram lead­ers meet reg­u­lar­ly with school and com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tions to ensure that fam­i­lies know about this new resource. The Casey Foun­da­tion pro­vides exper­tise to SCDSS as the state expands strate­gies to strength­en families.

“The TAPP program’s ear­ly promis­ing results demon­strate what is pos­si­ble when com­mu­ni­ties come togeth­er to keep youth con­nect­ed to their fam­i­lies,” said Karen Angeli­ci, senior asso­ciate with the Foundation’s Fam­i­ly Well-Being Strat­e­gy Group. ​“We’re hop­ing more states will adopt sim­i­lar col­lab­o­ra­tive-based mod­els to offer fam­i­lies more path­ways to sta­bil­i­ty and well-being.”