Duplicity in DFCS

In the past few months, my interactions with the Division of Family and Children’s Services (DFCS) have been less than optimal. In most cases, I attribute this to caseworkers and folks on the ground trying to effectively spin straw into gold while those of you who hold legislative offices wring your hands but do little to support or further undergird their efforts. It’s frustrating. Caseworkers are trying. We, as foster parents, are trying. I also willingly made this choice and hope that bearing witness to the experience might encourage some legislators to act. Occasionally, I have glimpses into why the system is so depressingly inept here. Some of it is process that simply needs updating on the ground level, but some of it is willfulness to be purposefully duplicitous. It appears to be coming from the top, and that’s what I’ll be sharing here. There is a thought that noting how a society treats its most vulnerable is a measure of its humanity. In the past decade, Georgia’s Republican legislatures have made much of “protecting the innocent”, but their definition is rather narrow, in my humble opinion. I would instead characterize all folks under the age of 18 as innocent. They have no legal rights other than through their parent(s) or the state, in the case of children in foster care. And I hope this piece leaves you with the question of ‘how are we protecting them’? 

I’m going to offer my suggestions up front and explain them below:

1. Provide a comparison chart to foster parents, and children with a non reunification plan in care, defined in age-appropriate terms of what their options are for Medicaid coverage, waiver for tuition at Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG) institutions, other educational support while in K-12, any other benefits to which the child may be entitled, when and for how long.
2. Offer either guidance, a handbook, videos, a handout (maybe all of these) to assist foster parents in explaining to children, over time, not in one 30-minute meeting, what parental rights are. What are their rights as children in care, and as children with guardianship? All of these topics should be covered in age appropriate terms and with coordinating documents to outline and refer back to for discussions at home.
3. Ensure these charts, handouts, etc. and their corresponding policies, and OCCGA are delivered to Child Placement Agencies, Special Assistant Attorneys General (SAAG), Office of the Child Attorney, Guardian Ad Litems (GAL)s, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA)s, and judges. Make them available online. Normalize these discussions so we may share the burden of good advocacy for the child.
4. Expand tuition waivers so that children who have either aged out, moved to guardianship, or been adopted after the age of 13 may attend any University System of Georgia (USG) or Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG) institution in the state of Georgia. 

The pearls you’re clutching on the last one doesn’t make it a hand out; I’m just trying to ensure the next Eddie Murphy or Coco Chanel isn’t reduced to a lesser existence due to poverty. Which next great are we missing out on in Georgia because they don’t have the means to dream beyond high school? And if you’re thinking this point is to benefit our family’s personal budget, that just means you don’t know me personally, or the family trips we’ve already taken with FK to visit out of state schools. 

Unexpectedly on August 29, 2024, our foster child’s (FK) parent voluntarily terminated parental rights. Normally this is done by the court only after the parent has been offered supports, given various second chances and time to *hopefully* reunify with children the state has removed from their home. Also, since this was unexpected, it isn’t clear that this final yet. It should be but who knows? DFCS, nor the court has yet to provide any documentation that termination has been finalized. For a system that is supposed to be based on legal precedents and documented court process, clear language, and the meaning of individual words our experience has been more nebulous than not.

I hope anyone reading this understands that even if a home of origin isn’t optimal, it offers a sense of belonging and identity for children at their core. If a family is found to be resource deficient, the support offered by DFCS and provided by the state and others, can often mean the return of a child to their family of origin.  FK’s family of origin was not resource deficient and FK at no point has had a reunification plan as the parent in this circumstance would not engage in any support offered by the state. 

The reunification of children with their families is DFCS’s goal, and anyone engaging in fostering knows this goal. As foster parents, my husband and I put FK’s wants and needs before ours; even if a decision made is one we ultimately feel may not be the best long-term decision. We try to have lots of conversations with kiddo to ensure FK fully understands the ramifications of decisions FK makes. 

This is challenging for adults. 

Now, dear reader, I’ll ask you to think back to when you were in high school, and imagine trying to walk this path. That’s FK’s journey. 

Neither the court nor our household were given a heads up about the parent appearing in court to terminate parental rights, so FK had to learn of this in a courtroom at the same time we did, which is as emotionally awful as it sounds. We try REALLY hard to prepare FK for things, and to talk through things when life comes at us. For a kid who hasn’t had a lot of say in their own life, we hope our provision of information and willingness to talk it out rather than ignore it goes a long way to normalizing healthy trust in adults and an ability to plan.

In our conversations with FK, we try to explain in age appropriate terms what each thing we encounter means, why DFCS or the school does what it does, why we choose what we choose, why we are monitored by DFCS, and so on. We explain that we understand the state’s role in checking up on us because some parents in the system do not treat children right. We tell FK often that we signed up for all of this willingly. We willingly jump through the hoops DFCS provides.

Because of FK’s age, and with the termination of parental rights, in the state of Georgia, FK gets to determine if FK wants to be adopted, choose to have us or other adults as guardians, or to remain in the foster care system as-is and age out over time. To try to help FK fully understand the choice, we requested information about each option from DFCS almost immediately since we received FK into our home, as in October 2023. Again, with no reunification plan in place from the beginning, it was understood that these would be the decisions before us. Unfortunately, we have yet to receive this information in writing. I am at a loss to understand why. I mean, if the state is going to empower children to make these decisions, shouldn’t the state also share in the burden of educating the children so that they fully understand the decision they’re empowered to make? 

Here are some of my email exchanges in regards to this request.

From what I can tell and has been shared with me from other foster parents, DFCS tries to push guardianship in the first six months, which steps down the daily rate the state pays to the foster placement and, moves the child to ending Medicaid coverage through Amerigroup (the current Medicaid provider for Georgia) at age 18. If the child is in care after 24 months and is adopted rather than moved to guardianship, the daily rate moves to a potential (not provided for all children in care) monthly adoption assistance rate, which is an amount of money paid monthly to an adoptive parent. A child in foster care also has an annual children’s clothing budget of $600, maybe $680 now, I can’t remember. If that clothing budget isn’t spent before signing adoption papers, that clothing budget is lost. To be candid, we spent more than that on kiddo at a Dick’s Sporting Goods in another state when FK forgot FK’s suitcase packed for a sports camp last summer, so I don’t even know how parents have the ability to not spend that money. Bottom line- like most bio parents- we happily spend FAR more than what the state has allocated for the child. And like any parent, it’s not how much is spent, but the prioritization of the child above everything else. We try to demonstrate how our budget speaks our values. We also know that early investment in shared family experiences can have better outcomes in the long run.

The 24 month timeline I mention in my email exchange is essential to note here because it is also the threshold that children have to get to before adoption to ensure they will receive Medicaid coverage that is not contingent upon their adopting family’s income. I have also learned that Medicaid and adoption assistance can extend beyond age 18 to potentially age 21, depending upon the age a child is adopted and certain educational criteria (enrollment and attendance in college classes). I have learned all of this from the Georgia Foster and Adoptive Parent Group Facebook page. If you are a legislator who is interested in learning about what foster parents are facing across the state, I would encourage you to skip the middleman of your budget hearings and go straight to this parent group to familiarize yourself with what we are encountering. 

From another DFCS employee, not related in any way to our case, this information was offered after I shared the information Fulton County DFCS and Commissioner Broce shared with us:

“I work in adoption assistance and want to be sure you have correct information by policy. Your income will not be a factor. To be approved for adoption assistance the child must be out of the home of the birth parents 24 months or more, members of a sibling group of 2 or more or a child with a physical, mental or emotional diagnosis which requires more than medication and they are good. If the youth is 13 or older at the time of placement for adoption (when you sign the adoption agreement and adoption assistance agreement), the youth is eligible for adoption assistance through the 21st birthday month while a full-time student working toward a diploma or a degree and a full-time student. If under 13, then they are not eligible for assistance past high school graduation. They must be a full-time student working toward diploma and quarterly school verifications received by post adoptions manager. DFCS must have terminated parental rights or parents surrendered to DFCS for the assistance to continue past 18. Adoption assistance includes the monthly money and Medicaid/Amerigroup coverage. Adoption assistance can never continue past the 21st birthday month and Medicaid/Amerigroup through adoption assistance ends as well. There are other programs the youth may qualify such as Pathways to Coverage. Medicaid/Amerigroup through age 25 is for youth who turned 18 in foster care. Some did receive Medicaid/Amerigroup after adoption assistance ended during the pandemic. That has now ended. The tuition waiver program for college is for youth 13 and older when placed for adoption and for technical colleges. Be sure you read the adoption assistance agreement and have your questions answered before you sign.”

The policies referenced here can be found in Chapter 12 of this manual. It can also be found on DHS’s website here. From the PDF, it appears this manual was last updated on July 30, 2024.

I have learned absolutely NONE of this from Fulton County DFCS or Commissioner Broce, or the attorneys she included on the email thread. In fact, I have asked REPEATEDLY in person, in writing, in text message, phone calls…to be given this information so that:

1. My husband and I can have an informed discussion with FK about what each choice means so FK can make an informed decision.
2. We (me, my husband, and FK) can plan for the future, be that college (FK has shown interest in ROTC programs, the Marine Corps, and a PhD), housing arrangements (on campus, off campus, with a sibling of FK’s moving in, or with roommates) and transportation (FK has a learner’s permit, but if going out of state for college, we’ll need to plan for flights, driving to the college with a vehicle or not) etc.
3. We (me, my husband, and FK) can plan for the future in terms of doctors, medication, coverage of therapy, etc. 

In the past, I thought the lack of information was a choice made at the county level, I now no longer hold that opinion, as I have cc’d Commissioner Broce on this email thread where you can see she encouraged folks to lean on state level attorneys.

As you can see, I asked for the information to be provided in a complete manner, without omitting details of timeline and adoption assistance. 

Not to make too fine a point of it, but it would seem that the Commissioner likes to hide behind her staff giving out information, that while technically correct, isn’t comprehensive to the advantage of the child so that the local DFCS office can take the fall for her while she looks like she’s trying to be helpful. 

I just hope sharing these email exchanges and the history behind them provides you with a little insight to what parents are experiencing within Commissioner Broce’s DFCS. She presents the pretty statistics to you legislators, but I found she left out Fulton from her Senate Committee meetings last year, entirely, which seems odd for the most populous region in our fair state. 

*******Please also know I requested to be trained as a caseworker*******

I do not expect caseworkers to have the time to answer my every question-that isn’t their job nor their section of work for the Department. I asked the Commissioner to empower me so that I don’t have to bother her. Sadly, this has not yet come to be.

Additionally, if anyone actually thought that Senator Jon Ossoff cared about kids in foster care, please know I reached out to his office as well in November for assistance. I have not even received a call or email to inquire further. 

While Brian Kemp and Jon Ossoff would LOVE to have you believe they care about children in campaign cycles, I can personally tell you that the people in their employ do not care outside of an election.

Ultimately, the information provided by DFCS gives me a more complete picture of why so few people choose to foster and adopt children from DFCS, and especially teens. I often get asked to confer with families who are considering becoming a foster parent. I have stopped sharing my experience because, frankly, I cannot, in good conscience, recommend this cluster to anyone who wishes to maintain a job, marriage, or sanity. Most, if not all, of this will be sacrificed on the altar of Commissioner Broce’s dashboards of accomplishments. This isn’t where I wish to be. I want to instead encourage all of us to step up to the plate of community responsibility and do our part of rearing children. Because, as someone else said: it takes a village.

Thus, I will continue to use my own experience to shed light on why so many kids age out of the system in hopes that those of you reading it will make necessary legislative changes. 

Frankly, for foster parents and from these emails, it’s financially more prudent to not adopt children out of foster care and to let them age-out of care. If I didn’t know better, and leaned only on the information provided in these emails, the idea of trying to financially plan for FK’s future would seem so insurmountable that I wouldn’t do it. But I also know this may not be the best thing for the child, and again, I ask of others what I ask of myself: to rise above DFCS’s poor provision of information and know that creating a sense of belonging- whether through continuing to serve as a placement only, adoption, or guardianship, is what we are called to do. Our household has resources, although they aren’t inexhaustible, and we have a handful of years, but that’s still a short time to pull this together with incomplete information. I cannot imagine doing this if I was a single parent working a shift job. I also cannot imagine how difficult this information would be to parse for a high school aged kid trying to make this decision with the little information DFCS has provided. 

All the love in the world does not pay for doctor’s visits, therapy, medication, tutoring, school fees, sports camps, test prep, or college visits. Admittedly, DFCS doesn’t really help with the last few, but their help in other places makes it easier to go to far-flung airports to visit colleges and get support for the ACT and SAT.

My bet is, dear reader, if we look further, this dearth of information and its disincentivizing impact probably contributes to the lack of teens fostered and adopted in our state while our criminal justice and prison rates increase. Isn’t it strange that the state spends more money in prisons than it is willing to in Medicaid coverage? Even though we know spending money on Medicaid to offer earlier supports like therapy and medication has been demonstrated to require LESS money overall from the state? Did we learn nothing from the presentation of Mindworks Georgia last year?

I thought we could all at LEAST agree on fiscal conservatism, can we not?? Or is Georgia now like Washington and we have to cut spending to show short-term “fiscal restraint” while wreaking havoc on long-term financial stability?

Make it make sense, y’all.

Additionally, noting last legislative session that the Lt. Governor of Georgia wanted to make the state of Georgia the best place to adopt, this information leaves me wondering if he achieved that goal. DFCS’s mission is to reunify families, not serve as a backdoor to free adoption. I don’t wish to change that. That said, for the children whose parental rights have been terminated, it would seem from this email that Georgia, in fact, is trying to confound financial planning at a minimum. It would seem to be trying to disincentivize our interest in adoption.

I hope, dear reader, that like me, this email thread leads you to look into the rates of adoption of medically fragile children. This was discussed in an AJC article earlier last year in terms of the Medicaid provider for Georgia. I also wonder how that rate affects CHOA’s bottom line and the rate setting of medication coverage in the state. If you don’t know the link between DFCS, medically fragile children, and CHOA, here’s a refresher on a headline. But, dear reader, if we want to know answers about rate setting for Medicaid reimbursement and CHOA, we’ll have to ask the Commissioner’s husband about that, now won’t we? 

And, just a reminder here to all of y’all who write and pass laws- you all have the power to change these conflicts of interest, if you don’t like it. You *could* address that in legislation or ethics regulations. You MIGHT even find it useful to make it a point as we approach the 2026 Senate race and Governor’s race.

Like her denial/nondenial to Senator Jon Ossoff’s committee, after Georgia Juvenile Justices testified that Commissioner Broce encouraged them to place behaviorally difficult children in prisons, it is clear to me that when Commissioner Broce is pushed into a corner, she doesn’t mind being purposefully duplicitous. Sacrificing children’s welfare to save a few dollars for the state seems to be a reasonable trade for her.

I personally thought we were better than this, are we not?

Apparently, the court thinks so too. 

FK had a court hearing on January 9th, in which I was questioned under oath, which is normally not the case. As foster parents, we have no real legal rights or often any say in court proceedings. The court hearings are about the child in care, not us. We are only a placement, not a permanent home, currently. But under oath, I explained that I have been seeking answers specific to Medicaid eligibility and any other benefits FK might be entitled to since October 2023. The SAAG took issue with my stating that the Department was “unwilling” to provide answers in writing to these questions. I explained that it was clear to me FK’s caseworkers have all tried to attain this information, but when the questions were posed to Commissioner Candice Broce herself, I received no written answer, and a version of these questions have been posed to all of the caseworkers either in conversation, text, phone call, and emails. The SAAG asked if I was looking to receive this on letterhead. I told her I would be happy to receive it in a text message, as long as it was written somewhere so that FK could see it and we could have conversations over time to ensure FK fully digests this information, not one meeting. Again, I am looking less for Commissioner Broce’s checklist and more for this child’s complete understanding about what decisions are being made here. I feel like this is what any person who cares about children would want for a kid they love.

The judge has ordered that FK is to receive this information in writing in 30 days. 

So to be clear: I have to go back to court because Commissioner Broce won’t answer my email. 

*********Thanks, Commissioner!*********

I’m trying to do my part, dear reader. I’m trying to be a good parent and plan ahead. Dare I say, if I can figure it out for this kid, I hope to foster others and repeat this as many times before I die as I can. But I can’t do that if DFCS won’t give me comprehensive information, in writing. I don’t know who plans like that, but I believe we all recognize that would be a fool’s errand.

If I can push any of you who read this to consider making changes in and creating better transparency in DFCS, maybe, just MAYBE we can make things better for Georgia’s kids in the foster system. May I suggest a chart with age-appropriate language so kids can compare their options? All of Georgia’s children deserve better than what we’re giving them. Dear reader, I hope reading my frustrations here call you to reflect upon the necessary transparency that is needed in our foster care system. Teens aging out of care need more than just to be checked boxes on Commissioner Broce’s dashboards because they are running out of time before the world expects them to no longer be children, but adults- whether they are prepared for that or not. 

As for our family, we’re trying to invest as much time and resources in FK as we can, before the world sees FK as a legal adult. But if you’re looking for other families to make the same choice we have, I’m going to have to ask you to push the Commissioner to hide less behind her JD, agency lawyers, staff, and alleged pushing children into jail and lean more on helping foster parents plan.

My bet is, if you give other foster parents the ability to plan for teens’ futures, you’ll see better outcomes. And (here’s a REALLY novel idea), if you give children the information about their choices and what they mean, THEY can be empowered to plan their futures rather than just trying to survive. God forbid we teach them how to thrive, you know, so they can pay taxes and not act out! I write this piece in the hope that you can see our story and require DFCS to provide these options to children and foster parents in writing, not just some virtual meeting with acronyms thrown at them. From what I can tell so far, even DFCS can’t remember what the acronyms stand for anymore, much less explain them to us.

I tell FK all the time that while we may teach FK some things, FK teaches me something new everyday. I hope that this vignette into our lives teaches the Georgia legislature something as well. We tell FK all the time that kids have the right to ask for things. Adults do as well. Even if it’s only one person posing a question, sometimes that question can be a small act of reminding an adult that they too are accountable for their actions. 

So I hope you read this piece as the legislative request that it is to compel Commissioner Broce to provide better tools to empower foster kids and parents to make the decisions before them.

Georgia used to be focused on holding the government accountable to its people. I believe a part of that accountability is listening to the people who are most affected. So I have to ask: are we really protecting kids in care or we just kicking the can, expecting someone else to pick up the metaphorical tab, and wondering why kids in care don’t understand what’s going on around them? If you wonder why Georgia parents aren’t interested in adopting more teens, and why teens are acting out, here’s your sign. If you aren’t willing to put money towards supports now that will save buckets of money a decade down the road, don’t call yourself a fiscal conservative. You, dear reader, are just a tight ass that wants kids to go to jail when they become adults.