The Child Services Unit of the Johnston County Department of Social Services provides:

• Protective Services Intake, Investigations, Emergency On-Call, and Family Preservation
• Permanency Planning
• Foster Care Reunification and Placement
• Independent Living
• Recruitment and Training for Foster Parent Families and Adoptive Applicants, Agency Adoptions
• Completion of Home Study requests from other North Carolina Departments of Social Services and the Interstate Compact.

Services are provided by supervisors, SW Lead-workers, and Social Workers within the unit. These staff members:

• Receive and screen reports of suspected abuse, neglect and/or dependency.
• Investigate said complaints to determine which have risen to the substantiation level requiring involuntary intervention.
• Create goal-oriented, problem-focused Family Services Case Plans. These plans help to protect the safety of client juveniles by maintaining the original family unit or arranging substitute care appropriate to the child's needs when parents or caretakers are unable or unwilling to provide minimal standards of care.
• Children's Services further carries out the agency's mandate on Permanency Planning and to license and supervise foster and adoptive homes into which abused, neglected and dependent children may be placed.