Georgia
Ossoff’s report could leave Georgia with the same lousy child welfare system – only bigger • Georgia Recorder
As soon as Sen. Jon Ossoff released his report on massive failures at the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services, DFCS fired back, accusing Ossoff of “political gamesmanship.”
Actually, it’s worse.
There is every indication that Ossoff is sincere and genuinely wants to help vulnerable children. But that will only make it harder to persuade him that, because of a critical error in his analysis, his report may trigger a response that makes everything even worse. The report is likely to kick into overdrive the foster-care panic – the sharp sudden spike in needless removals of children – that started in the wake of high-profile news coverage of child abuse deaths in 2022. That year, nationwide, the number of children torn from their families declined by 11%. But in Georgia it increased by the same amount.
A foster-care panic makes everything worse because every problem the report identifies has the same counterintuitive root cause that Ossoff ignored: needless removal of children from homes that are safe or could be made safe if families received the right kinds of help. Often it happens when family poverty is confused with “neglect.”
In 2022, the most recent year for which data are available, 87% of the time Georgia children were placed in foster care in cases where there was not even an allegation of sexual abuse or any form of physical abuse. In 57% of cases there was not even an allegation of substance abuse. In contrast, 47% involved “neglect” which often means poverty. Indeed, in 20% of cases DFCS admits they took away the children because the family lacked housing – a tragedy exposed just weeks ago by WABE Public Radio and ProPublica.
The problem is compounded by the fact that Georgia uses the least harmful form of foster care – placement with relatives instead of strangers – at a rate 40% below the national average.
This does enormous harm to the children needlessly separated – and not just the inherent emotional devastation. Study after study finds abuse in one-quarter to one-third of family foster homes, and the rate of abuse in group homes and institutions is even worse. Ossoff’s own report cites the death of a child killed by his foster parents and the rape of a child in a group home. So it’s no wonder multiple studies find that in typical cases children left in their own homes typically fare better even than comparably-maltreated children forced into foster care.
All the time, money and effort spent harassing impoverished families and taking away their children is, in effect, stolen from finding the relatively few children in real danger. Yet in Ossoff’s entire 64-page report the word “poverty” does not appear even once. Perhaps that’s because birth parents and their lawyers were largely shut out of Ossoff’s investigation.
Consider the other failures Ossoff cites: Runaways? If you take children from poor but loving homes and consign them to the chaos of foster care with strangers, of course they’re more likely to run away. Sex trafficking? Group homes and institutions are magnets for sex traffickers – predators go where the prey is.
But because Ossoff ignored wrongful removal, his report is likely to generate another knee-jerk rush to take away even more children. As entries into foster care escalate, everyone will be even more overwhelmed and even more children in real danger will be missed.
Then DCFS will announce another tired “recruitment campaign” for foster parents and the Legislature might fund a caseworker hiring binge. That never works. All the new caseworkers wind up chasing all the new cases, and all you get is the same lousy system only bigger. Indeed, the last time this was tried, as a result of a class-action lawsuit settlement, DFCS actually took money away from poor people to finance making the family policing system even bigger.
And make no mistake – it is a policing system. It’s hard to imagine any of my fellow progressives issuing a report on policing without mentioning issues like racism and racial bias. But that, too, is entirely missing from Ossoff’s report. Like many other progressives, Ossoff seems to forget everything he believes in about civil liberties and due process as soon as someone whispers the words “child abuse” in his ear.
DFCS is every bit as bad as Ossoff says it is. But fixing it requires taking all the new money that might go to hiring caseworkers and plowing it instead into ameliorating the worst effects of poverty. New hires should work for community-based anti-poverty agencies not connected to the family police. It takes only a little financial help to make a big difference. Georgia also needs to bolster legal representation for families – not to get “bad parents” off, but to craft alternatives to the cookie-cutter “service plans” churned out by DFCS.
If, as I believe, Ossoff really wants to protect our most vulnerable children, he should go back to the drawing board and embrace real solutions.
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ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — One metro Atlanta organization is weighing both the potential benefits and risks following President Donald Trump’s signing of an executive order Thursday aimed at expediting the reclassification of marijuana.
Atlanta News First spoke with Michael Mumper, executive director of Georgians for Responsible Marijuana Policy. He emphasizes this action is about research – not legalization – and said the science surrounding marijuana use remains unsettled.
“There are a lot of results, research that says that it has benefits and a lot that says it has harms,” Mumper said. “We need to dive into those much more before we rapidly expand marijuana access. This research will allow us to dig deeper into the real benefits and harms of marijuana.”
He adds that this action will also reduce paperwork for researchers and change how the drug is regulated by both the FDA and the DEA.
This order makes marijuana a schedule three classification under controlled substances, putting it in the same category as some steroids. Drugs that can be used in different situations based on the type and severity of pain.
Mumper shares his deep concern after this decision on Capitol Hill.
“Most important message to the public is that it normalizes marijuana as a product for consideration,” Mumper said. “For us, that’s a bit premature and dangerous because youth are still being harmed at alarming rates.”
The move does not change Georgia law and does not fully legalize the use of cannabis.
In Georgia, multiple efforts to legalize or decriminalize marijuana at the state level have failed. Under current state law, patients may access low-THC oil strictly for medical use if they have one of the qualifying medical conditions approved for treatment.
“Will be pressure on states to expand medical marijuana programs,” Mumper said. “But our argument has always been we have to stick to the science.”
President Trump has also directed his administration to work with Congress to “ensure seniors can access CBD products they have found beneficial for pain.”
Copyright 2025 WANF. All rights reserved.
THE FLATS – Two generous, anonymous families have each given $10 million gifts to support Georgia Tech athletics’ Full Steam Ahead initiative and the Yellow Jackets’ football program, Tech vice president and director of athletics Ryan Alpert has announced.
“We’re incredibly grateful to these two generous families for their investments in Georgia Tech athletics and a championship-level football program,” Alpert said. “Led by these families, their relentless investments in our mission and their belief in our upward trajectory, support of Georgia Tech athletics and Tech football are at unprecedented levels.”
With these transformative gifts, Georgia Tech athletics is well on to set a new fundraising record in the 2026 fiscal year, as donor participation is up 21% in just six months since the fiscal year began on July 1.
Additionally, in just 14 months since the public launch of Full Steam Ahead in October 2024, Tech athletics has received nearly $90 million in new commitments to the initiative. In total, nearly $400 million has been raised towards Full Steam Ahead’s $500 million goal, which is a part of the Institute-wide Transforming Tomorrow campaign.
Georgia Tech continues to display its commitment to fielding nationally prominent, championship-level athletics programs. Notably, Tech athletics has committed to making more than $150 million in investments to its football program over the next several years, which includes the opening of the Fanning Student-Athlete Performance Center in the spring (a state-of-the-art facility that will benefit Georgia Tech’s full body of 300-plus student-athletes), a renovation of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field that will be completed prior to the 2027 season, a continued pledge to provide maximum revenue sharing to student-athletes and significant new resources devoted to expand and enhance staff.
To fulfill these commitments, enhanced engagement and support from the Georgia Tech community is vital.
“We still have progress to make to achieve our goal of consistently competing for championships at the highest levels of intercollegiate athletics,” Alpert continued. “Never in the history of college athletics has success been so closely tied to resources, and now is the time to seize the opportunity to take advantage of the great momentum and energy that we’re experiencing on The Flats.
“Every member of the White and Gold community can play a part. We urge fans to get in the game. Whether it be through gifts to the A-T Fund, purchasing tickets and merchandise, corporate sponsorships – every manner of support is vital to the success of Tech athletics.”
For more information and to make a year-end gift to the A-T Fund, visit atfund.org.
Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead is a $500 million fundraising initiative to achieve Georgia Tech athletics’ goal of competing for championships at the highest level in the next era of intercollegiate athletics. The initiative will fund transformative projects for Tech athletics, including renovations of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field (the historic home of Georgia Tech football), the Zelnak Basketball Center (the practice and training facility for Tech basketball) and O’Keefe Gymnasium (the venerable home of Yellow Jackets volleyball), as well as additional projects and initiatives to further advance Georgia Tech athletics through program wide-operational support. All members of the Georgia Tech community are invited to visit atfund.org/FullSteamAhead for full details and renderings of the renovation projects, as well as to learn about opportunities to contribute online.
Fourth Quarter
Less than two weeks remain for the Georgia Tech community to take advantage of the A-T Fund’s year-end Fourth Quarter Initiative, which gives supporters the opportunity to receive four A-T Fund priority points for every $100 donated to the Athletic Scholarship Fund through Dec. 31. The Athletic Scholarship Fund provides direct support for student-athletic scholarships and is one of the A-T Fund’s highest annual priorities, as it helps bridge the gap between endowment returns and scholarship costs.
Fourth Quarter gifts to the Athletic Scholarship Fund will provide donors with four A-T Fund priority points per $100 donated, which is double the two points normally allotted per $100 given. A-T Fund priority points are used to allocate benefits such as seat locations and parking for Georgia Tech athletics home events, as well as access to tickets for away games and postseason events, including ACC and NCAA Championships, bowl games and the College Football Playoff. To contribute to the Fourth Quarter Initiative and begin collecting four A-T Fund priority points for every $100 donated, click HERE. For more information, visit atfund.org/4th-quarter.
For the latest information on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, follow us on X, Facebook, Instagram and at www.ramblinwreck.com.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis testifies before a Georgia State Senate committee in Atlanta as she ends her year-long legal fight over a subpoena and defends her actions in the Trump election interference case.
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