South Carolina Has Considered But Not Yet Adopted Multiple Times since 2018

16 S.C.C.L. is South Carolina’s criminal code. It is silent as to child endangerment due to neglect except under its driving-under-the-influence”(DUI) law at 56 S.C.C.L. 5-2947.

63 S.C.C.L 3, the Juvenile/Family Court law, has broad language that treats neglect as the lack of proper care and a child is neglected if their parent engages in a “behavior” or “occupation” or is in an environment that injures or endangers others. However, S. 79, a bill modeled on Utah’s “Free Range/independent activities” law, passed the South Carolina Senate; it would protect against the use of this law in cases of children left alone unsupervised in when they are reasonably believed to be mature enough.

Summary. Beginning with a proposal in December 2018,and again in 2021, South Carolina’s legislature has considered legislation that would protect the ability of children to engage in independent activities. To date, this legislation has not been passed into law, though the Senate unanimously passed the bill in 2019. 

Process: In December 2018, Democratic Sen. Vincent Sheehan, joined by Republican Sen. Wes Climer,  proposed S.79 which would amend South Carolina’s neglect law. South Carolina’s proposal closely followed Utah’s law as a model.  When the bill was heard before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Let Grow got involved and was able to help defeat an amendment that would have set an age limit of 9 on the right of children to engage in independent activities. While the bill passed the South Carolina Senate, the pandemic slow-down resulted in the bill not being called for a vote in the House in 2020, the second year of the two-year South Carolina legislative calendar.

In 2021, Republican Sen. Wes Climer, with Republican Co-sponsors Sen.Greg Hembree and Josh Kimbrell, reintroduced the bill as SB 288.  Unfortunately hearing on the bill was delayed until shortly before the session was about to conclude in the spring of 2022. Let Grow-led coalition of parents, children, and experts presented strong testimony before the Judiciary Committee subcommittee March 2022, and the bill received a unanimous vote passing it out of the subcommittee out of committee, including the powerful testimony of 6-year old Caroline Lanz,  her mother Claire, and Ashley Smith, the father of a 12-year-old stopped from doing her homework on her from yard, and including Sen. Climer’s personal account of being stopped for giving his child independence. But it was not voted on by the full committee before the end of the 2022 legislative session.

This webpage is not a legal document, and Let Grow does not take responsibility for the content. Be mindful that some localities have rules and guidelines even when the state does not. When in doubt, consult your local authorities to confirm the laws where you live. What’s more, laws change, as do judicial interpretations of them, and this webpage may not be updated immediately.