ATLANTA — Georgia's Department of Human Services announced Monday several rule changes that will ease some regulations for foster families as well as agencies that place children with foster homes.
DHS said in a release that there were three rule changes in particular. The changes come amid heightened scrutiny on Georgia's foster care system - which is both now the subject of a Senate inquiry and has been under the microscope of state lawmakers as well.
The changes clarify how many children can reside in a foster home at a given time, lower the barrier for child placing agencies to hire or promote a caseworker supervisor, and make it easier for foster homes to keep members of the same family together.
- In the first rule change, to Rule 290-9-2-.01, according to DHS the definition for "foster family" or "foster home" will be changed so that a home can care for up to six children in the foster care system at a given time. Previously, the six-child limit applied to the total number of children living in a home, including those not part of the foster care system.
- The second change, to Rule 290-9-2-.04, expands the kinds of master's degrees that qualify someone to be a caseworker supervisor to include special education, guidance counseling and "related fields." It also revises a two-year minimum for experience as a caseworker at a child-placing agency to one year in a human services delivery field, generally.
- The third change, to Rule 290-9-2-.07, provides for exceptions to permit more than six foster children in a home in such a situation that would "allow a family... to keep a parenting youth in foster care with the parenting youth's child(ren) and/or keep siblings together."
According to DHS, the Board of Human Services voted to adopt the rule changes on Feb. 15. They are to go into effect on March 13.
"With safety as our top priority, we will continue to make further improvements and reforms where they are needed," DHS Commissioner Candice Broce said in a statement.
The Georgia foster care system was announced as the subject of a Senate Human Rights Subcommittee inquiry last week, over allegations of neglect and abuse. Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff chairs the committee.
Additionally, state lawmakers have been looking at how to end the practice of "hoteling" children in the foster care system. These are youths who usually are in need of specialized services and are having trouble being placed in a home, and who end up living in hotels or in Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) offices with caseworkers. Advocates estimate about 50-70 children in the foster care system are housed in state offices or in hotels nightly.