NC DSS

Overview
NC DSS is short for North Carolina Division of Social Services. It is part of the NC DHHS (North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services).

Investigation
DSS is the department responsible for providing child protection services in NC. In general, state child protective departments have a bad reputation for presuming the parent guilty-until-proven-innocent, with cases being judged in a "family court" outside the normal court system and, for "privacy" reasons, subject to much less oversight and transparency. HTYP is looking for information regarding the performance of the NC DSS in particular, to determine whether or not this reputation is true and/or justified in NC as well.

Anecdotes
Harena had a bad experience with NC DSS in the mid-1980s where an ex-husband (the child's father) called DSS on her with the accusation that she wasn't feeding their 4-year-old properly. The fact that the child was right there when the DSS workers arrived, and obviously well-fed, had no effect. It was only with the help of a lawyer friend that she was able to disentangle herself from the situation, despite there being no evidence of wrongdoing and the child's father not being a credible witness. --Woozle 10:37, 10 May 2008 (EDT)

Official

 * official home page within the NC DHHS web site