ATLANTA — A program that was intended to improve Georgia’s ranking on indicators of child “well-being” has produced mixed results, according to a state audit.
Georgia lawmakers asked for an examination of the Georgia Family Connection Partnership, which received $30 million in funding in fiscal year 2024, more than a quarter of it from the state.
The special examination by the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts found evidence of positive impact on the high school graduation and teen birth rate measures. But the agency found no evidence of a positive impact on three others: child abuse and neglect, low birthweight babies and children in poverty.
The partnership told auditors that the results should be characterized as “promising” instead of “mixed,” but the auditors disagreed, saying it would be “misleading” to do so.
“We also considered that there is limited support in the academic literature to demonstrate collaborative-type entities lead to improved outcomes,” the auditors wrote.
The review was requested by the Georgia House Appropriations Committee, which has a leading role in writing the annual state budget.
Georgia Family Connection (GFC) is a statewide initiative that was established in 1991 after Georgia ranked 48th out of 50 states on the child well-being indicators created by an organization called Kids Count.
The GFC grew as state lawmakers allocated funding. Then, in 2001, a new state-level organization called Georgia Family Connection Partnership was created. By the next year, all 159 Georgia counties had joined the partnership.
In addition to state funding — $8.3 million in fiscal 2024 — the program gets federal, local and private money.
“Although the Partnership and collaboratives receive a state appropriation, there is no statute outlining their responsibilities,” the auditors noted. They found that the partnership’s strength is also a weakness: it operates on a unique, decentralized model. This allows for local decision making but “creates challenges for ensuring impact,” the auditors wrote.
Their report makes no recommendations to state lawmakers. It notes that the program is unique in the United States, but three states have programs with similar elements: Alabama, Florida and Tennessee.