ATLANTA – The nonprofit health-care organization CareSource is donating $1 million to a program that helps young people aging out of Georgia’s foster care system.
The General Assembly passed legislation unanimously in 2022 creating a tax credit to help fund wraparound services aimed at removing barriers to education for youths leaving foster care. The list of services includes tuition assistance at technical schools or state colleges, food, medical care, rental assistance, and money for transportation.
Under the Fostering Success Act, individual taxpayers can receive dollar-for-dollar state income tax credits for up to $2,500 per year contributed to a qualified foster support organization, while married couples filing jointly can receive up to $5,000. Corporate donations are limited to 10% of the company’s annual tax liability. The program raised nearly $10 million during its first year.
“By providing young people with the resources they need to become independent and educated, we help to create paths to healthier futures and strengthen their communities by decreasing the risk of homelessness, poverty, and incarceration,” said Bobby Cagle, executive director of CareSource Georgia and former commissioner of the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning.
Georgia currently has more than 11,000 children in foster care, and about 700 age out of the system each year. Research shows that more than 30% of those young people will experience homelessness, 70% will be forced to rely on welfare programs, and almost 90% of boys will spend time in jail.
“Many young adults who age out of the foster care system have no support network and often little hope for the future,” said Heidi Carr, executive director of Fostering Success Act Inc., which helps administer the tax credit program. “We empower these young people to pursue their dreams by connecting them to resources and organizations that can offer support.”
The $1 million contribution from CareSource Georgia follows a $5 million donation the organization announced last month to help financially struggling rural hospitals.
CareSource Georgia operates a managed-care health plan that serves more than 450,000 Georgians.
ATLANTA – A nonprofit formed to help administer a new state tax credit to support foster children aging out of the system raised nearly $10 million during its first year.
Legislation the General Assembly passed unanimously last year authorized $20 million for the tax credit.
The state Department of Revenue approved $9.7 million in contributions to Fostering Success Act Inc. (FSA), donations that came from more than 180 businesses and individuals. As a result, the nonprofit issued funds to help more than 100 young people enroll at 37 universities and technical colleges across Georgia.
“These funds will go a long way to make sure many of these kids who have left foster care can have food to eat, afford to get to work – and most importantly – be able to enroll in college or a technical school so they can find a good-paying job,” FSA Chairman Richard L. Jackson said Thursday. “This tax credit will change the trajectory of their lives.”
About 700 young Georgians age out of the foster care system each year, most with no family to return to after they leave the system. Data from numerous studies shows most who leave foster care end up homeless, in chronic poverty, in jail, or become victims of human trafficking.
Under the legislation, individual taxpayers can receive dollar-for-dollar state income tax credits for up to $2,500 per year contributed to the program, while married couples filing jointly can receive up to $5,000. Corporate donations are limited to 10% of the company’s annual tax liability.
“We believe as more people learn about our mission and this important tax credit, more companies and individuals will see how they can make a difference in reducing poverty, addiction, homelessness, and incarceration by donating to the beneficial income tax credit,” said Heidi Carr, FSA’s executive director.
For more information on the tax credit, go to https://fosteringsuccessact.org/
ATLANTA – A nonprofit formed to help administer a new state tax credit to support foster children aging out of the system is working against a tight deadline.
Fostering Success Act Inc. has until Dec. 31 to process $20 million in annual tax credits the General Assembly authorized last year. As of the beginning of this month, $15 million still remained available, said Heidi Carr, the organization’s executive director.
“We’ve been reaching out to a lot of companies and individuals to get their applications in,” she said. “But time is running out.”
Under legislation Georgia lawmakers passed unanimously, individual taxpayers can receive dollar-for-dollar state income tax credits for up to $2,500 per year contributed to the program, while married couples filing jointly can receive up to $5,000. Corporate donations are limited to 10% of the company’s annual tax liability.
“They have to pay taxes anyway,” Carr said. “This is an opportunity to make a difference.”
About 700 young Georgians age out of the foster care system each year, most with no family to return to after they leave the system.
Carr cited statistics showing 97% of those youths end up living in chronic poverty, 71% of the girls get pregnant within a year of leaving foster care, and 81% of the boys encounter police.
“They don’t have anywhere to go back to, so they end up on the street,” she said.
Contributions to the tax credit program will be used for “wraparound” services – including housing, food, and transportation – to help support these young people while they attend a university or technical college. Former foster care youths ages 18 to 25 are eligible for the program.
“We want them to learn a trade or get a degree,” Carr said.
Fostering Success Act Inc. currently is distributing funds raised through the tax credit to 20 nonprofit organizations, with more in the pipeline for 2024. One of those is Alpharetta-based FaithBridge Foster Care, which has helped kids aging out of foster care enroll in colleges across the state, from Dalton State College in Northwest Georgia to the College of Coastal Georgia and Valdosta State University.
“Over 50% of foster kids sign out of foster care at 18,” said John Solberg, vice president of youth opportunities at FaithBridge. “They believe they can support themselves, but they can fall into homelessness and have other issues because they’re not mentally or emotionally prepared for the challenges of adulthood.”
Applications for the tax credit to the Georgia Department of Revenue are accepted on a first-come basis. Once approved, taxpayers have 60 days from the date of approval to send their contribution check or pay online.
Carr said she’s not surprised the program is getting off to slow start because the tax credit is new and a lot of taxpayers aren’t aware of it. Thus far, about 100 youths have contacted her organization for help, she said.
“We were able to help some start school in August, and we have more lined up for January,” she said. “This gives them hope. Hope is something they don’t have a lot of.”
ATLANTA – U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., vowed Thursday to help two federal agencies responsible for child welfare to develop the tools needed to protect foster children from abuse and neglect.
The Senate’s Human Rights Subcommittee, which Ossoff chairs, launched an investigation last February to assess the safety of children in foster care.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) found in October that between 2018 and 2022, 1,790 children in the care of Georgia’s foster care system were reported missing. During a hearing of the subcommittee last month in Atlanta, witnesses testified that children missing from foster care are particularly vulnerable to sex trafficking.
“What is happening to foster children across the United States is not acceptable,” Ossoff said Thursday during another hearing held by his subcommittee. “The number of children who are going missing from foster care is unacceptable.”
Ossoff and Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, the subcommittee’s ranking Republican, criticized lax oversight by federal and state child welfare agencies when it comes to missing children.
Ossoff cited audits of multiple states that found 45% of missing child incidents were not reported to NCMEC and that most missing children were not screened for sex trafficking after they were recovered.
Blackburn said the federal government can’t find 85,000 missing migrant children.
“We’ve seen reports of these children working in factories (and) food processing plants,” she said. “We should not have to read more reports of children being used for child labor or sex trafficking rings.”
Jose Perez, deputy assistant director at the FBI, said one of law enforcement’s biggest challenges is end-to-end encryption, a technology that allows participants in organized criminal rings to communicate with each other without anyone else gaining access.
Perez said the FBI’s 56 field offices operate more than 85 task forces across the country. Investigators prioritize cases involving missing children ages 12 and under who have gone missing under suspicious circumstances, he said.
“If we believe it’s a kidnapping, that’s an all-hands-on-deck scenario,” he said.
Rebecca Jones Gaston, commissioner of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration on Children, Youth and Families, said her agency requires state child welfare departments to submit plans outlining their policies. Those that don’t meet federal requirements are offered technical assistance so they can improve, she said.
Ossoff said making sure states have adequate policies for dealing with foster children isn’t enough.
“Putting something in a policy manual is not always implementing that policy in practice,” he said.
Jones Gaston said ensuring polices are put into practice is up to state and local child welfare agencies. However, her agency can and does issue corrective action plans and assess penalties if those policies aren’t followed.
Ossoff said the full Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing next month to hear from CEOs of tech companies on steps they’re taking to protect children from online predators.
ATLANTA – A combination of legislation and spending increases are needed to improve Georgia’s foster care system, according to a report a legislative study committee adopted Monday.
The state Senate Study Committee on Foster Care and Adoption unanimously recommended legislation to shorten the time it takes children entering the foster care system to reach a permanent status – either reunification with parents or adoption – and to provide free photo IDs to foster kids.
Recommendations including pay raises for case managers, an increase in monthly adoption assistance rates, and making mental-health services available to foster and adoptive parents would require budget increases.
The Georgia Senate has put an emphasis on improving the state’s foster care system this year. Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who presides over the Senate, created a new Children and Families Committee in the upper chamber at the beginning of this year’s General Assembly session in January, then led the way in forming the study committee.
“I think we’re going to make a lot of progress,” Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick, R-Marietta, who chairs both the standing and study committees, said after Monday’s vote. “There’s a window of opportunity because of support from the lieutenant governor and the commissioner (of the state Department of Human Services).”
Georgia’s foster care system was hit with a flurry of negative publicity late last month when a U.S. Senate subcommittee chaired by Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., unveiled a previously undisclosed internal audit that revealed the state Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) failed in 84% of cases brought to its attention to address risks and safety concerns.
Ossoff also held a news conference during which he reported nearly 1,800 children in state custody were reported missing between 2018 and last year.
In response, DFCS officials charged that the probe was politically motivated. Three lawyers for DFCS wrote in a letter that the subcommittee failed to request relevant information or responses from the the agency in advance of its publicized hearings and news conferences.
On Monday, the Senate study committee also recommended establishing a system of family courts in Georgia dedicated to cases involving children up to the age of three. Kirkpatrick said the state is working to launch pilot projects for the “infant-toddler” courts at three sites.
