State foster care systems across the nation would get more oversight under a bill that U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff announced on Wednesday.
Ossoff said the bill was born out of his 13-month investigation into the alleged abuse and neglect of children in Georgia’s foster care system. According to his office, the legislation would require states to track and report to the federal government when a state child protection agency places a child more informally with a caregiver, who is often a family member or friend, instead of going through an official foster care placement.
These children are not counted in official foster care numbers, his office said.
“This is a widespread practice sometimes referred to as ‘hidden foster care placements,’ but typically happens without oversight from the court, without public reporting or reporting to the federal government about the frequency of these arrangements,” Ossoff, a Democrat, said in a news conference announcing the legislation, which he is sponsoring with U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas.
The bill doesn’t take a stance on these types of placements, which can be used as a tool to keep families intact. But Ossoff and Melissa Carter, a child welfare expert, said that while these arrangements can come with benefits, they can also come with risks, and the legislation would enable policymakers to better understand the practice.
“We need more data, more reporting, more awareness to provide context for important policy decisions that need to be made to really govern what otherwise is a well-intended practice that has potential for misuse,” said Carter, who is the executive director of the Barton Child Law and Policy Center.
According to the Georgia Department of Human Services, which oversees child welfare, the department already tracks this data.
“We do not comment on pending legislation,” said Ellen Brown, a spokesperson for DHS.
Ossoff cited the example of Rachel Aldridge, who testified in a Congressional hearing for the federal probe that she repeatedly warned Georgia’s child welfare agency that they had put her daughter in a home where a dangerous woman was living. She begged them to move her 2-year-old child, who was ultimately murdered by that woman, Amanda Jacobs Coleman. The South Georgia woman is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Credit: WALB-TV
Credit: WALB-TV
In April, Ossoff released scathing findings from the 13-month investigation, which concluded that systemic failures and mismanagement within the agency contributed to the deaths of children. The inquiry was prompted by an investigation in late 2022 by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The inquiry found the state’s Division of Family & Children Services, or DFCS, had identified “significant shortcomings” like staffing shortages and insufficient training, that contribute to death and serious injuries among children in the state’s care. At the time, a spokesperson for the Department of Human Services, which oversees DFCS, sent an 11-page response to Ossoff’s report, taking issue with many of the findings. The spokesperson said the subcommittee’s report omits DFCS’ improvements, like addressing the issue of housing children in hotels and strengthening safeguards for children in its care.
Ossoff told reporters Wednesday that they can likely expect more legislation from him on improving the foster care system.
“It’s my intention to remain focused on this issue because it is about the safety and health of the most vulnerable children in the state of Georgia,” he said.
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