Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff is introducing a bipartisan bill to strengthen transparency in child protective agencies and protect vulnerable children.
This week, Sens. Ossoff and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) introduced the bipartisan Generate Recordings of All Child Protective Interviews Everywhere (GRACIE Act of 2024) to bring transparency and improve outcomes for children involved with Child Protective Services, including Georgia’s Department of Family and Children Services (DFCS).
According to Sen. Ossoff’s U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Human Rights Majority Staff report on abuse and neglect in Georgia’s foster care system, Georgia DFCS failed to make “concerted efforts to assess and address the risk and safety concerns relating to the child(ren) in their own homes or while in foster care” in 84% of reviewed cases, including a failure to conduct initial assessments that accurately assessed all risks and safety concerns.
Sens. Ossoff and Blackburn’s bipartisan bill would create a new Federal grant program through the U.S. Department of Justice for costs directly associated with conducting and storing interview recordings. States would be eligible for the Federal grant only if state law requires that all child welfare forensic interviews be recorded through electric audio recording, body camera video or any other reasonable recording method.
“We can never do enough to support vulnerable children in Georgia and across the country,” Sen. Ossoff said. “Senator Blackburn and I are introducing this new bipartisan bill to strengthen transparency in State child protective agencies and help States better fund their operations.”
“Children are often silenced by their abusers, and we need to do everything in our power to ensure that does not happen,” said Senator Blackburn. “The GRACIE Act would help give more children a voice, increase domestic violence reporting, and strengthen the foster care system.”
Sen. Ossoff continues working to protect children in the foster care system.
In October, Sens. Ossoff and John Cornyn (R-TX) introduced the bipartisan Foster Care Placement Transparency Act, which would require states to measure and report to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) incidents in which children are separated from their parents and placed with a caregiver informally to help ensure their wellbeing and safety.
Earlier this year, Sen. Ossoff, Chairman of the Senate Human Rights Subcommittee, released a 64-page report detailing the findings from his Subcommittee’s 13-month investigation into the safety of foster children, which uncovered pervasive abuse and neglect of vulnerable children in Georgia, including incidents with “hidden foster care” placements.
In February 2023, following reports from independent watchdogs and the press that children in the care of Georgia DFCS have been subjected to abuse and neglect, Chairman Ossoff launched an inquiry to assess the safety of children in foster care in Georgia and nationwide.
Click here to read the bipartisan Generate Recordings of All Child Protective Interviews Everywhere (GRACIE Act of 2024).
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