Child welfare agency defensive after Ossoff senate panel reports neglect, exploitation
The Georgia Division of Family and Children Services consistently fails to protect foster children from abuse, and mismanagement at the division is “a key contributor” to child deaths and serious injuries, according to a U.S. Senate report released Tuesday. DFCS called the allegations “unfounded and irresponsible.”
“The most vulnerable children in our state and in our nation must be protected from physical abuse, from sexual abuse, and from human trafficking,” said Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Democrat and chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, who led the investigation along with Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.
“We cannot and must not look away from these findings, though they are deeply distressing. We cannot accept the abuse, the trafficking, and the preventable death of children,” he said. “I thank my Subcommittee staff and the more than 100 witnesses whose hard work and courage has brought these facts to the public.”
The investigation, launched in February 2023, also found:
Ƈ evidence that more than 400 children in state custody were likely sex trafficked over a five-year span, while nearly 2,000 were reported missing during the same time;
Ƈ Georgia’s Department of Human Services leadership, which oversees DFCS, recommended prolonging foster children’s stays in juvenile detention because they didn’t have enough placements; and
Ƈ DFCS “consistently fails to meet children’s mental and physical health needs,” including by overprescribing psychotropic drugs to children.
The report says the DHS has not adequately responded to reports of previous failures and is seeking to weaken oversight by taking over the federally-mandated panels which review the division.
The report says the division experiences high turnover rates as employees struggle to keep up with high caseloads,
but that many employees are afraid they will be retaliated against if they speak out.
A few specific cases were cited in the report, “Abuse & Neglect of Children in Georgia’s Foster Care System: A Case Study,” — including one from DFCS Region 3, which covers Floyd, Polk, Bartow, Douglas, Haralson and Paulding counties.
It notes that an audit of DFCS Region 3 found an overall 39% rate of compliance with risk assessment and safety management standards, reviewing cases from June to October 2020.
The DFCS audit described a case where it did not investigate the circumstances regarding the death of a 3-month-old child with unexplained rib fractures. A skeletal survey, sought previously, was never performed and no one spoke to the parents.
“At the time of the audit, there was a child still living in the home who would be at risk of any abuse that may have been suffered by their deceased sibling,” the report noted.
DFCS RESPONSE
The child welfare agency responded to the 64-page report Tuesday with an 11-page report of its own, characterizing the findings as a partisan hatchet job that mischaracterizes statistics and ignores the division’s improvements.
“After taking months to produce a report — written and supported solely by staff of the majority party — the subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law provided DFCS and the state only two days to respond to a heavily redacted version of the final report. Highlighting Sen. Ossoff’s staff’s obvious lack of subject matter expertise regarding complex child welfare issues, the subcommittee’s report omits key context, ignores relevant data that undermine the report’s primary assertions, and takes great lengths to misrepresent DFCS actions, facts about various cases, and outcomes for many children in the state’s care,” said DHS spokeswoman Kylie Winton in a statement.
The DFCS response includes data in which the Georgia agency outperforms the national average, including the rate at which children are the subject of a second credible report of maltreatment in a year, the rate of reported maltreatment for children under court jurisdiction and the rate at which children in foster care experience moves in their placement.
“Not included in the subcommittee’s report are DFCS’s improvements in addressing the issue of hoteling, strengthening rigorous safeguards for the children in our care, and streamlining service delivery,” the statement continues. “Our staff and leadership take our responsibility to Georgia’s at-risk youth with the utmost seriousness and will continue to identify and implement solutions that better serve those in our care. We encourage Sen. Ossoff to focus his efforts on putting the welfare of children above political gamesmanship.”
KIDS IN NEED
Ossoff’s report cites a spring 2023 audit that found DFCS failed to properly assess and address safety concerns in 84% of cases reviewed, the worst rate in the past seven years.
Emma Hetherington, a University of Georgia clinical associate professor and the director of the UGA Wilbanks Child Endangerment and Sexual Exploitation legal clinic, or CEASE, which represents victims of child sexual abuse, said for the children she represents, failing to address safety concerns often means kids, especially teens, are not being believed when they speak up.
“The child’s voice and the child’s own words and reports and experiences are dismissed,” said Hetherington, who also testified to the subcommittee.
“It’s sort of a, ‘eh, we got that report, but, you know, they’re just saying that because they were mad about something,’” she said. “They’re fine. And this attitude, this, ‘Oh, well, they’re older, so they’re less vulnerable,’ which in some respects is true, but if you completely fail to respond at all, then you’re actually increasing their vulnerability.”
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children testified that nearly 2,000 children in DFCS care were reported missing between 2018 and 2022, with at least 410 of those children likely trafficked.