South Carolina H 4683: Family Court Awareness Month declared as November 2021

Bill Text

2025-2026 Bill 4683 Text of Previous Version (Dec. 17, 2025) - South Carolina Legislature Online 

South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026

Bill 4683

Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

A bill

TO AMEND THE SOUTH CAROLINA CODE OF LAWS BY AMENDING 
SECTION 23-3-535, RELATING TO LIMITATION ON PLACES OF RESIDENCE OF CERTAIN SEX 
OFFENDERS, EXCEPTIONS, VIOLATIONS, LOCAL GOVERNMENT ORDINANCES, AND SCHOOL 
DISTRICTS REQUIRED TO PROVIDE CERTAIN INFORMATION, SO AS TO REVISE THE 
DEFINITION OF THE TERM "CHILDREN'S RECREATIONAL FACILITY," TO PROVIDE 
ADDITIONAL OFFENSES THAT PRECLUDE SEX OFFENDERS FROM RESIDING NEAR SCHOOLS, 
DAYCARE CENTERS, OR RECREATIONAL FACILITIES, TO PROVIDE CERTAIN SEX OFFENDERS 
MAY NOT OWN, OPERATE, OR BE EMPLOYED IN CERTAIN BUSINESSES OR ORGANIZATIONS 
THAT PROVIDE SERVICES TO MINORS OR ALLOW UNSUPERVISED ACCESS TO MINORS, AND TO 
PROVIDE SLED MUST NOTIFY ALL REGISTERED SEX OFFENDERS OF THE PROVISIONS 
CONTAINED IN THIS ACT.

Be it enacted by the 
General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

SECTION 1. Section 23-3-535 of the S.C. Code is amended to read:

 Section 
23-3-535. (A) As contained in this 
section:

 (1) 
"Children's recreational facility" means a facility or 
community playground owned and operated by a city, county, or special purpose district, or any 
homeowners association used for the purpose of recreational activity for 
children under the age of eighteen.

 (2) 
"Daycare center" means an arrangement where, at any one time, there are three 
or more preschool-age children, or nine or more school-age children receiving 
childcare.

 (3) 
"School" does not include a home school or an institution of higher education.

 (4) 
"Within one thousand feet" means a measurement made in a straight line, without 
regard to intervening structures or objects, from the nearest portion of the 
property on which the sex offender resides to the nearest property line of the 
premises of a school, daycare center, children's recreational facility, park, 
or public playground, whichever is closer.

 (B) 
It is unlawful for a sex offender who has been convicted of any of the 
following offenses, or of any similar offense in any 
comparable court in the United States, a foreign country, or a federal court, 
to reside within one thousand feet of a school, daycare center, children's recreational 
facility, park, or public playground, or to own, operate, 
or be employed in a business or organization that provides services, 
instruction, supervision, or activities primarily for minors, or in any setting 
where he has unsupervised access to children under the age of eighteen:

 (1) 
criminal sexual conduct with a minor, first degree;

 (2) 
criminal sexual conduct with a minor, second degree;

 (3) 
assault with intent to commit criminal sexual conduct with a minor;

 (4) 
kidnapping a person under eighteen years of age; or

 (5) 
trafficking in persons of a person under eighteen years of age except when the 
court makes a finding on the record that the offense did not include a criminal 
sexual offense or an attempted criminal sexual offense.

 (C) 
This section does not apply to a sex offender who:

 (1) 
resided within one thousand feet of a school, daycare center, children's recreational 
facility, park, or public playground before the effective date of this act;

 (2) 
resided within one thousand feet of a school, daycare center, children's recreational 
facility, park, or public playground on property the sex offender owned before 
the sex offender was charged with any of the offenses enumerated in subsection 
(B);

 (3) 
resides within one thousand feet of a school, daycare center, children's recreational 
facility, park, or public playground as a result of the establishment of a new 
school, daycare center, children's recreational facility, park, or public 
playground;

 (4) 
resides in a jail, prison, detention facility, group home for persons under the 
age of twenty-one licensed by the Department of Social Services, residential 
treatment facility for persons under the age of twenty-one licensed by the 
Department of Health and Environmental Control, or other holding facility, 
including a mental health facility;

 (5) 
resides in a homeless shelter for no more than one year, a group home for 
persons under the age of twenty-one licensed by the Department of Social 
Services, or a residential treatment facility for persons under the age of 
twenty-one licensed by the Department of Health and Environmental Control, and 
the site was purchased by the organization prior to the effective date of this 
act;

 (6) 
resides in a community residential care facility, as defined in Section 
44-7-130(6); or

 (7) 
resides in a nursing home, as defined in Section 44-7-130(13).

 (D) 
If upon registration of a sex offender, or at any other time, a local law 
enforcement ag