Georgia officials push back on Ossoff’s foster care narrative | Georgia

(The Center Square) — Georgia officials are pushing back on claims the state has failed the foster youngsters in its care, firing off a letter to a couple of senators main an inquiry into the state’s gadget.

In a letter to U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff, D-Georgia, and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, the Consovoy McCarthy regulation company wrote that “any investigative effort” will have to be “fair, complete, and fact-based.”

The letter, launched by way of the Georgia Division of Family & Children Services, follows a National Center for Missing and Exploited Children discovering Ossoff launched indicating 1,790 youngsters within the company’s care had been reported lacking between 2018 and 2022. Ossoff adopted up the discharge with a Monday listening to that includes testimony from Georgia judges.

State officials stated the subcommittee didn’t proportion information in its request to the middle or the information it bought, and officials may now not “understand or respond to this analysis.”

“It is not clear whether the numbers the Chairman shared with the press account for children who were recovered or children who aged out and refused to sign back into foster care (even though they were located),” in step with the letter.

In February, Ossoff and Blackburn despatched a letter to the state’s DFCS wondering the company’s skill to offer protection to youngsters. They introduced an inquiry into stories that Georgia officials have failed the kids of their care.

In their letter to the senators, Georgia officials level to a contemporary U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General record that they stated discovered Georgia’s fee of foster used to be less than many states, together with neighboring Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina.

Georgia had 10,464 foster youngsters in August 2023, down from a prime of 14,202 in May 2018. The numbers have remained consistent since a low of 10,432 in January 2022, officials stated.

“The Subcommittee looks forward to interviewing relevant DFCS personnel about [Monday’s] testimony by Georgia judges that DFCS proposed to keep children with special needs in juvenile detention facilities,” an Ossoff spokesperson instructed The Center Square by the use of electronic mail.

“The Subcommittee has been in regular contact with Georgia DFCS throughout this investigation and will seek Georgia DFCS’ continued cooperation,” the spokesperson added. “The Subcommittee’s investigation is ongoing, and the essential question is whether children in foster care are protected from abuse and neglect given serious concerns raised for years by watchdogs, parents, and the press.”

While the state purportedly spent $28 million ultimate yr to accommodate youngsters in lodges, on occasion for months, DFCS officials say the state infrequently makes use of lodges for foster youngsters.

“The misstatements, omissions, and failure of the Subcommittee to request relevant information or responses from the Department in advance of its publicized hearings and press conferences leave the unfortunate impression that the goals of this investigation are political,” the letter learn. “That impression is heightened by the fact that—despite the repeated claim that this is a ‘bipartisan investigation’—the investigation into policies and practices of the Georgia foster care system has been run exclusively by majority staff.”