The largest percentage of cases (over a third) included threats of harm for physical or sexual abuse. Another one third included physical neglect. The final one third included physical abuse, sexual abuse, educational neglect, medical neglect and mental injury.

The Department of Social Services determined that nearly 11,000 children were victims of abuse and neglect. By sex, just over 51% of the victims were female. By race, over 52% were Caucasian. By age, over 41% were ages 6 to 12, 39% were ages 0 to 5, and 20% were ages 13 to 17.

The child victims came from many family backgrounds. Over 48% came from single parent families, 30% came from two-parent families, 16% from unmarried couples and nearly 6% from other circumstances.

In terms of “overall child well-being” South Carolina ranks 46th of the 50 United States. To improve this situation for the children of South Carolina the following issues must be addressed: low birth weight, infant mortality, child and teen deaths, births to teens, high school dropouts, idle teens, families without steady jobs, child poverty, and single-parent families with children.

The Children’s Trust Fund of South Carolina helps to address these needs by funding programs and agencies dealing with child abuse and child neglect. Its nine trustees have been appointed by the Governor and approved by the Senate to stimulate a broad range of innovative child abuse and neglect prevention programs to meeting critical needs of South Carolina’s children through the awarding of grants to private nonprofit organizations.

Citizens may help fund these initiatives by “checking the box” on their South Carolina State Income Tax Return each year designating a gift to the Children’s Trust Fund of South Carolina through their tax return. All of the money stays in South Carolina to help local agencies and programs that address child abuse and neglect.

In the last funding cycle, the Children’s Trust provided over $60,000 in grants-in-aid to local agencies and programs. We need to do more to address this major statewide concern. We can do more to help the child victims of abuse and neglect with the aid of our state’s citizens when they “check the box” for the Children’s Trust Fund of South Carolina.

Sincerely,

James S. Cleckler,
Board of Trustees