House Bill 612: DSS Oversight, KinGAP, and Adoption Changes

North Carolina House Bill 612, the Fostering Care in NC Act, is a child welfare overhaul signed into law by Governor Josh Stein on June 26, 2025 as Session Law 2025-16. It gives the state new authority to oversee the 100 county Departments of Social Services that run child welfare day to day, adds protections for children already in foster and kinship placements, opens new routes to permanent homes through guardianship and adoption, and tightens rules for children stuck in hospitals waiting for mental health placements. The provisions phase in on a staggered schedule running from the signing date through April 1, 2026.¹

New State Oversight of County DSS Agencies

North Carolina runs a state-supervised but county-administered child welfare system, which has produced wide differences in how cases are handled from one county to the next. HB 612 responds by writing new oversight powers into state law under a section known as Christal’s Law, named for Christal Lane, an eight-year-old who died in Nash County in February 2023 in a case that revealed multiple DSS violations.²

The Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services now has explicit authority to access all records in any open or closed child welfare case and to review the social work and legal practices of county departments. When the Secretary is acting on a complaint, that reach is limited to cases involving a child who was the subject of a report within the previous 12 months or whose family received child welfare services in that window. There is no time limit for routine performance monitoring.³

If the Secretary finds a violation of state law, the county DSS director receives written notice and a deadline to fix the problem. If the director does not comply, the Secretary must notify the county commissioners, the county manager, and the board of social services. The law also creates a liability shield for the state: once a county director ignores a directive, the department is treated as acting outside its agency relationship with DHHS, so the state cannot be held liable for harms that follow from the county’s noncompliance.³

Protections for Children Already in a Foster or Kinship Home

Several provisions target the disruption that happens when a child who has settled into a placement is moved. If a child has lived with a caretaker for 12 or more consecutive months and the permanent plan includes adoption, the county DSS must file a motion and get a court hearing before moving the child, as long as the caretaker objects and wants to adopt.⁴

Current caretakers, including unlicensed relatives, can now intervene in abuse, neglect, and dependency court proceedings if they have standing to file a termination of parental rights petition. That standing typically arises after the child has lived in their home for 18 consecutive months. The law also authorizes courts to appoint co-guardians and sets procedures for what happens if the co-guardians’ relationship ends.⁴

The Division of Social Services is barred from placing children in unlicensed facilities.⁵

Changes to Adoption and Termination of Parental Rights

The act builds a framework for post-adoption contact agreements. Biological parents who are relinquishing their rights in abuse, neglect, or dependency proceedings may enter voluntary, court-approved agreements with prospective adoptive parents setting out future visitation or communication. The parties can go to court-ordered mediation to work out terms. A court must approve the agreement within two business days of signing, and once approved it is enforceable through a separate, confidential civil custody action. A court can later limit or terminate the contact but cannot expand it beyond what the parties originally agreed. Supporters argue biological parents may be more willing to relinquish their rights if they know they can keep some relationship with the child.⁶⁷

Failure to pay child support is no longer a ground for terminating parental rights, and county departments are prohibited from pursuing child support while a child is in department custody.⁵ The evidentiary standard at termination of parental rights hearings has been changed from “clear, cogent, and convincing evidence” to “clear and convincing evidence.”⁴

Not every provision in this part of the law has been received warmly. Adoption attorneys have raised concerns that extending the timeframe for a putative father to demonstrate care for a child creates uncertainty around the finality of adoptions and could leave some children in longer limbo.⁸

Financial Help for Relatives Who Become Guardians: KinGAP

Effective July 1, 2025, HB 612 established new provisions for the Kinship Guardianship Assistance Program (KinGAP), which pays relatives who become legal guardians of children leaving foster care. To qualify, a child must generally be at least 10 years old, with an exception for younger children when a qualifying sibling is part of the same arrangement. The child must have been eligible for foster care maintenance payments for at least six consecutive months while living in the home of a licensed prospective relative guardian, and both reunification and adoption must have been ruled out.⁹

Guardianship assistance payments are set at the same rates as foster care room and board, and the state covers up to $2,000 in nonrecurring costs tied to obtaining legal guardianship. Assistance can continue for young adults ages 18 to 21 who are enrolled in school, employed at least 80 hours per month, or unable to meet those requirements because of a medical condition.⁹

How Conflict-of-Interest Cases Must Be Handled

The act lists ten specific scenarios that create a conflict of interest when a county department would otherwise investigate a report of abuse, neglect, or dependency. These include cases involving department employees or their relatives, foster parents the department supervises, certain county officials such as the county manager or commissioners, and children in the department’s custody who are themselves parents.⁵

When a conflict exists, the county director must ask another county to conduct the assessment. If two or more counties decline, the director must notify the state Division of Social Services, which decides whether the original county can handle the case with added oversight or whether the case goes to a different county. The county where the conflict originated keeps financial responsibility regardless. Parents and guardians who believe an unresolved conflict exists may contact a new Division “constituent concern line.”¹⁰

Children Waiting in Hospitals for Mental Health Placements

To address foster children spending weeks in hospital emergency departments because no appropriate placement can be found, the act creates a Rapid Response Team within DHHS. The team is charged with helping when placement for a child receiving hospital-based mental health treatment is delayed or when assessment recommendations conflict.⁵

Hospitals may not discharge a child in department custody unless discharge criteria are met and a placement has been secured. Insurers must initiate an assessment within 72 hours of notification, replacing the previous five-business-day window. Hospitals must also cooperate with local management entities and managed care organizations so they can access children during the hospital stay.⁷ By April 1, 2026, DHHS must publish uniform guidance, developed with hospitals, prepaid health plans, and county departments, spelling out the roles and responsibilities of everyone providing services to hospitalized children in DSS custody.¹¹

Petitioning to Come Off the Responsible Individuals List

The act creates a new process for individuals to petition for expungement from the Responsible Individuals List, the state registry of people found to have abused or neglected a child. How long someone must wait depends on how their case was handled: one year for cases that never received judicial review, five years for placements ordered by a court, and eight years after completing a criminal sentence for a related conviction. Cases involving child sexual abuse, human trafficking, or a child’s death are excluded. The petitioner must show by a preponderance of the evidence that they are unlikely to be a future perpetrator.⁶

Lawyers, Background Checks, and a Clarified Felony

Starting April 1, 2026, every county social services department must be represented by legal counsel in child welfare court proceedings. Those attorneys are required to complete six hours of training on state and federal child welfare law, and petitions filed by a DSS director must be drafted and reviewed by legal counsel before being submitted to the court.⁵

On the criminal side, the act clarifies that it is felony child abuse for any person providing care to or supervision of a child under 16 to commit, or allow the commission of, a sexual act on that child. That provision takes effect December 1, 2025. The law also requires criminal background checks for city and county employees whose positions require them to work with children, starting October 1, 2025, and lets judges issue permanent no-contact orders against defendants convicted of certain violent offenses.⁵¹²

One limit worth flagging: the law does not guarantee children in foster care their own client-directed attorney, a protection some advocates had sought.⁸

When Each Part Takes Effect

June 26, 2025 (upon signing): Christal’s Law state oversight authority, hospital mental health treatment procedures, Rapid Response Team, child support prohibitions, changes to grounds for terminating parental rights, and adoption consent timeframe amendments.⁵
July 1, 2025: Kinship Guardianship Assistance Program eligibility, agreements, and reimbursement rates.¹²
October 1, 2025: Conflict-of-interest procedures, Division review of screened-out reports, nonsecure custody order changes, caretaker intervention rights, placement move protections, local-government background check requirements, and changes to termination of parental rights adjudicatory hearings.⁴
December 1, 2025: Felony child abuse clarification for caregivers.¹²
April 1, 2026: Mandatory legal counsel for county departments in child welfare proceedings and the DHHS deadline to publish uniform guidance on hospital mental health treatment roles.⁵

1
North Carolina General Assembly. House Bill 612 – Fostering Care in NC Act
2
ABC11. Christal’s Law – Christal Lane Nash County Child Death
3
UNC School of Government. State Oversight of County Departments of Social Services – Changes in Session Law 2025-16
4
UNC School of Government. The Fostering Care in NC Act – Changes Effective October 1, 2025, Part 1
5
UNC School of Government. H 612 Bill Summary
6
UNC School of Government. The Fostering Care in NC Act – Changes Effective October 1, 2025, Part 2
7
North Carolina Health News. NC House Lawmakers Propose Reforms to Foster Care
8
Wake Forest Law Review. Reforming Child Welfare Laws: A Step Forward or a Step Back
9
UNC School of Government. H 612 Bill Summary – Edition 2
10
North Carolina General Assembly. Session Law 2025-16
11
UNC School of Government. The Fostering Care in NC Act – Changes Effective Now
12
UNC School of Government. H 612 Effective Dates Summary