Georgia’s child welfare system remains shaken after projected $85.7 million budget shortfall

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s child welfare system is in crisis as the Georgia Department of Family and Children Services faces a major crisis Expected deficit of $85.7 million.

A series of cost-saving measures taken in November by Candice Broce, a Department of Human Services official and administrator of the child welfare agency she oversees, means fewer visits between children and parents for family reunification, aides spending less time helping foster families care for children with complex needs and juvenile court dates having to be postponed when children don’t have access to transportation.

“I’m stuck. I’m stressed. I’m emotionally exhausted,” said Pamela Bruce, who said her stepson “didn’t grow up in survival mode” and also feared turning him back to the state as services dwindled.

Georgia lawmakers voted to close the budget gap, but families have already been without services for months and the delays could be long. Some lawmakers see the cash flow as a Band-Aid and want an audit to determine why the system imploded.

Although experts say the projected budget shortfall is too large, Georgia’s child welfare agency isn’t the only agency struggling. One of the problems stressing Georgia’s system—an unpredictable influx of children with acute behavior problems—is a nationwide problem. Broce was applauded for reducing the complex needs of children living in hotels; this is a cumbersome practice that many states have used as a remedy. Finding places and people to care for children with such high needs is expensive.

Broce, a longtime ally of the Republican Party, to try to manage the deficit, which observers say could be due to many reasons. Governor Brian Kemp It terminated contracts with service providers it said were not performing well and in November required contracted services to first receive government approval. Providers, families, advocates, lawmakers, job placement agencies and others across the state say too few service referrals are being made and describe the system as dramatically slowed down.

“Every day that a family or child doesn’t get the support they need, it gets worse,” said Ann Flagg, a former member of the Biden administration and director of the Office of Family Assistance for the National Association of Counties, an advocacy group.

Broce told The Associated Press that service requests were “approved within a few hours unless we asked for more information.” Contracted services include providers that offer transportation, counseling, evaluations, behavior aids and more.

The child welfare agency is a critical lifeline for children in crisis. It’s part of the larger state Department of Human Services, which is scheduled to spend $1.06 billion in state money this year. He is tasked with finding ways to protect the children, heal their families if possible, and then reunite them. The state’s Department of Family and Children’s Services employs approximately 7,500 staff.

He told a legislative hearing that the agency does not have enough resources to deal with the “magnitude” of behavioral and mental health services needed for children who come into their care. To tighten the budget, he said he is trying to limit only services that are duplicative, unnecessary or could be paid for by the state-federal Medicaid health insurance program.

“I’m having to make decisions that no one wants to make,” Broce told lawmakers.

Even after these cost-cutting moves, the projected deficit remained just under $49 million.

Services slowed down

“How do we reunite families if we don’t have services?” family lawyer Jessica Hall said.

In his statement, Broce said that possible requests “were not forwarded to the Department of State for review.”

Bruce’s stepson wrote to the social worker that he had developed a “brotherly relationship” with the behavior aide; This was something the teenager had never had before while wandering around the houses. That relationship ended after the behavior assistant’s services were no longer funded last fall.

The son wrote that the fact that he missed in-person school with his friends because he didn’t have transportation was “straining my mind.” He also realized the burden Bruce was putting on him; she is now struggling to pay her bills as she takes an Uber to see her family and stays home to care for him. She is determined to keep him out of the group home.

Broce said the agency is reducing services, such as behavioral supports, for potentially self-sufficient youth with judicial involvement. He also said he tries to avoid “non-canonical” case plans that are not tailored to individual family needs.

Brittney Kleuger, CEO of Family Menders, which provides services such as transportation, counseling and behavioral aids in Northwest Georgia, said at a recent hearing that her agency received 80 to 100 referrals each week before the November process change. Now they get less than 10 every week.

In a phone interview with DFCS, providers questioned Broce’s claims that services were approved quickly and asked whether DFCS would continue to contract with them. Kristen Toliver, the agency’s director of delivered services, said going forward “the approval process will look different” but is being relaxed for some services.

A network of reasons

Broce said the department has lost more than 800 beds to accommodate children since 2019 and there is a shortage of available space in psychiatric facilities. Transportation and behavioral aids are expensive, he said. Broce also said the department is working to reduce the frequency of payments for services that Medicaid must cover.

Broce has long had disagreements with judges, saying judges often order unnecessary services or removals that increase costs. Judge Nhan-Ai Simms disagreed, telling lawmakers in 2023 that Broce asked judges to violate state law by improperly locking some children with mental and behavioral problems in juvenile detention centers.

“The idea of ​​courts making decisions above and beyond what DFCS suggests, I think those cases are very few,” Simms said.

Changes in federal law have made it harder for Georgia and other states to use federal child welfare funds.

“To me, the budget instability we’re seeing here signals that the long-term fiscal strategy is inadequate,” said Melissa Carter, executive director of the Barton Center for Children’s Law and Policy at Emory University, adding that the state must invest more in keeping families together to qualify for federal funds.

Many lawmakers are unhappy with Broce’s statements.

“I’ve been in the budget world a long time and I’ve never seen a deficit like this,” said Democratic State Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver. “I don’t think we can blame the providers for this. I think it’s a management issue.”

Juanita Stedman, a former juvenile court judge and executive director of Together Georgia, disputes the idea that this omission was Broce’s fault.

“Historically, we haven’t paid the price for children’s complexity,” he said.

Whatever the reasons, Bruce worries the deficit could explode again. She said she’s never felt more supported by DFCS in the two and a half years she’s been raising her children, but what really broke her heart was seeing her stepson miss seeing his family more often.

“My visits are very important to me because I truly love my family,” she wrote.

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Kramon is a syndicated member of the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. report for america is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.