Gov. Brian Kemp and First Lady Marty Kemp (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp signed bills Tuesday aimed at cracking down on human trafficking in Georgia and improving the state’s foster care system.
The governor made both issues top priorities of his agenda for the 2020 General Assembly session that ended late last month.
“Today is an important step forward to ensure a brighter, safer future for Georgia’s children in foster care and bring an end to human trafficking in our state,” Kemp said in a prepared statement.
“As these bills take the force of law, we are fulfilling an ongoing commitment to enhance our foster care system, achieve positive outcomes for our children and hold the perpetrators of human trafficking accountable.”
House Bill 823 and House Bill 911 were part of Georgia First Lady Marty Kemp’s initiative to target human trafficking and better protect foster children.
Under House Bill 823, anyone who knowingly uses a commercial motor vehicle to transport victims of sexual or labor trafficking will lose their commercial drivers license for life.
House Bill 911 prohibits foster parents from engaging in improper sexual behavior with children in their care, closing a loophole in current state law.
“I want to thank the sponsors of [the two bills] for working alongside Governor Kemp and I to put Georgia’s children first, hold bad actors accountable, and ultimately bring an end to the evil of human trafficking in our state,” Marty Kemp said.
Both bills took effect upon the governor’s signature.
ATLANTA – The first bill in a wave of legislation aimed at cutting red tape for foster care and speeding up adoptions in Georgia cleared the state Senate Thursday.
Gov. Brian Kemp and other top officials have made legislation easing rules on foster care a priority in the 2020 legislative session.
Several bills have already been filed that would lower the minimum age for someone to adopt a foster child and toughen penalties for foster parents who sexually abuse those in their care.
Senate Bill 335 would let the state Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) contract with private groups to assist state child welfare caseworkers.
Its sponsor, Sen. Matt Brass, said bringing in outside help should ease the workload for state caseworkers providing services for thousands of children in Georgia.
“This has to be a team effort,” said Brass, R-Newnan. “It
can’t start and stop with government.”
The bill would also waive fees to state park admissions for foster kids and their adopted families, create a database to track what happens to juvenile delinquent children in foster care, prioritize dependency cases over all other non-jury court cases; and tweak requirements for a state-run training program for foster parents.
The bill passed by a 53-1 vote on the Senate floor.
Opposing the measure was Sen. Zahra Karinshak, D-Duluth, who
said she was concerned the training program would add to the already heavy
workload for state caseworkers.
Around 12,600 children were in Georgia’s foster care system
as of December 2019, according to DFCS Director Tom Rawlings. The state agency
helped adopt out roughly 1,400 children last year, he said.
Last month, Kemp urged passage of bills lowering the minimum
foster-parent age from 25 to 21 and tripling the state’s adoption tax credit to
$6,000.
On Thursday, Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan said he expects Brass’
bill will be the first of several on foster care that make it to the governor’s
desk.
“There is an attitude of bipartisan support all over this building,” Duncan said.
This story has been updated to clarify the role of contracted outside groups.
ATLANTA – Legislation
that would close a loophole in Georgia law pertaining to sexual misconduct by a
foster parent was introduced in the state House of Representatives this week.
House Bill
911, sponsored by Rep. Ed Setzler, R-Acworth, would add “improper sexual contact” by a foster parent with a
foster child to a section of the state code that deals with sexual misconduct
by an employer with an employee.
Foster
parents convicted of the most serious form of the offense could face prison sentences of up to 25 years and fines
of up to $100,000.
The bill is
part of a legislative package Gov. Brian Kemp is pushing this year aimed at
making it easier for Georgians to become foster parents. The package also would
triple the state tax credit for foster parents from $2,000 to $6,000 and lower
the age requirement for unmarried Georgians to become foster parents from 25 to
21.
Foster care
is a priority issue both for the governor and First Lady Marty Kemp.
“This
legislation closes a dangerous loophole and prohibits foster parents from
engaging in improper sexual behavior with children in their care,” she said in
a prepared statement. “Moving forward, we will continue to devote our efforts
to protecting the most vulnerable in our state from sexual misconduct.”
Setzler’s
bill is being cosponsored by Rep. Jodi Lott, R-Evans, one of Kemp’s floor
leaders in the House.
Sen. Marty Harbin fields questions about his bill on adoption agencies Feb. 5, 2020, at the Capitol. (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – Legislation allowing faith-based adoption agencies to deny services in Georgia based on religious preferences was introduced Wednesday in the state Senate.
Opponents worry the bill, sponsored by
Sen. Marty Harbin, would discriminate against foster parents of various sexual
orientations and gender identifies that do not conform to an agency’s religious
or moral beliefs.
They view the measure, Senate Bill 368,
as the latest push in Georgia for so-called “religious freedom” laws that
permit businesses and churches to sidestep catering to same-sex couples or
others who forgo traditional family arrangements.
But Harbin, R-Tyrone, argued his bill
aims to attract adoption agencies that might avoid opening in Georgia without
that right to deny services. He noted those agencies could instead go to
Tennessee, where a similar adoption measure was signed into law last month.
Harbin said his bill is also geared
toward respecting the wishes of some mothers not to hand their children over to
same-sex foster parents.
“I believe that for the mothers it’s
critically important where their children go,” Harbin said. “I think family and
faith run together.”
That reasoning does not pass muster for
Jeff Graham, executive director of the advocacy group Georgia Equality. He said
the bill risks reducing the number of children who end up being adopted by
winnowing the pool of potential foster parents.
Possible discrimination would not be
limited only to gay, transgender or otherwise-identifying foster parents,
Graham added. He highlighted adoption laws in South Carolina that allow
agencies to deny services to non-Christian foster parents.
“We all know families come in a variety
of makeups,” Graham said. “If an individual or couple can prove they can
provide security for a child, they should be allowed to adopt in Georgia.”
Around 12,600 children were in Georgia’s
foster care system as of December 2019, according to Tom Rawlings, director of
the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services. The state agency helped
adopt out roughly 1,400 children last year, he said.
Speeding up and simplifying adoptions in
Georgia is a top priority for Gov. Brian Kemp in the 2020 legislative session.
Last month, Kemp urged passage of bills lowering the minimum foster-parent age
from 25 to 21 and tripling the state’s adoption tax credit to $6,000.
Several governor-backed bills on foster
care are expected to be filed in the coming weeks. One measure allowing the
state to contract with licensed child-placing agencies was scheduled for
hearing Wednesday afternoon in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The federal government has a
religious-freedom law on the books, but Georgia has not adopted a state
version.
Recent stabs at doing so faced backlash
from large corporations fearful of Georgia gaining a reputation for same-sex
discrimination. Then-Gov. Nathan Deal vetoed a measure in 2016 giving
faith-based groups broad leeway to deny services.
Harbin also sponsored a statewide
religious-freedom bill in 2017 that died in the Senate.
His latest measure, narrower in scope,
has backing from the Georgia Baptist Mission Board. Its public affairs
minister, Mike Griffin, dismissed claims Wednesday that the adoption bill
targets certain would-be foster parents.
“This is about not discriminating against
faith-based agencies,” Griffin said.
Rep. Matthew Wilson, one of the
legislature’s few openly gay members, disagreed. He called Harbin’s bill
“hateful discrimination, pure and simple.”
“The state should not be in the business
of discriminating against its own citizens,” said Wilson, D-Brookhaven.
ATLANTA – Legislation U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., introduced to protect children from online abuse and exploitation has been signed into law.
President Joe Biden signed the bipartisan REPORT Act Tuesday, which Ossoff introduced in partnership with Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.
The bill requires websites and social media platforms to report crimes involving the trafficking and enticement of children to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Companies that knowingly and willfully fail to report child sex abuse material on their sites will face increased fines.
“My bipartisan law with Senator Blackburn will ensure tech companies are held accountable to report and remove child sex abuse material and to strengthen protection for kids online,” Ossoff said. “At a time of such division in Congress, we successfully brought Republicans and Democrats together to protect kids on the internet, and now our bill is law.”
“Children are increasingly looking at screens, and the reality is that this leaves more innocent kids at risk of online exploitation,” Blackburn added. “Under this law, Big Tech will now be required to report trafficking, grooming or enticement of children found on their sites.”
Ossoff chairs the Senate’s Human Rights Subcommittee, while Blackburn serves as the panel’s ranking Republican. An investigation they launched early last year to assess the safety of children in foster care found 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 the NCMEC and that most missing children were not screened for sex trafficking after they were recovered.
The NCMEC endorsed the REPORT Act as well as a companion bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“The REPORT Act provides critical child safety improvements,” said Michelle DeLaune, the NCMEC’s president and CEO. “We look forward to continuing our work with Congress to prioritize the safety of children online because every child deserves a safe childhood.”
