ATLANTA — After a 13-month investigation into the country’s foster system, Georgia's U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff is reaching across the aisle to introduce a bill that he said would provide more oversight of children within the foster care system.
It’s called the Foster Care Placement Transparency Act and its specifically targeted to keep track of informal foster care agreements.
“To measure and disclose how many children are separated from their parents and placed informally with a caregiver. One of the witnesses at that hearing testified that her daughter was murdered after DFCS had informally placed the child," Ossoff said.
The arrangements happen when children are put in the care of a relative or friend to avoid putting them into a traditional foster care home.
“There’s no oversight or resources. We are creating crises that never should have happened," said Emma Hetherington, who leads the Wilbanks Child Endangerment and Sexual Exploitation Clinic at the University of Georgia.
She said about 50% of their cases involve children in the foster care system and believes this bill will make a difference.
“This provides some sort of oversight reporting transparency as to how many of these arrangements are made," Hetherington said.
Under the proposed legislation state agencies would have to report these informal arrangements to the federal government, preventing families from falling through the cracks of the system.
“Without public reporting or federal reporting of these arrangements there can be real problems,"Ossoff said.
Ossoff said there’s no way to know how many kids are in what he calls “the hidden foster care system” because there’s currently no tracking requirement in place.
He said he’s hopeful it will become law because both parties are supporting the bill.