The Foster Care Election
I never really paid attention to child welfare or foster care policy until I started to get licensed to become a foster parent. When I was a kid, there was a mom at my Tae Kwon Do school, and one day she had an infant with her waiting for class to end. Her son and I were around the same age and regularly competed for rank (we were both black belts, and boy were we competitive). I thought he had a new sibling. My mom explained to me that she was a foster parent. 12-year-old me thought, “Huh, that’s cool,” and I went on about my day. That was the extent of my exposure. Fun Fact, I first met Sam Olens there. His kids and I were at the same school.
Statistically, I probably knew some kids in the system while I was growing up. But I can’t think of anyone that I knew was in the system. I only knew a couple of kids who were adopted. Between growing up in East Cobb and my personality in general, it just wasn’t a prevalent detail. Did you like SEC football, Magic the Gathering, computer games (Diablo II if you need to know), or adventuring in the woods? Those were far more important. If your parents were divorced or you were in foster care, I just didn’t care. Later on, JROTC got added to the list of interests.
Fast forward to now being a foster parent, you see policy a bit differently. Various systems that parents are involved in don’t really take foster parents into account. APS systems are better now than they were three years ago, but that’s because The Wife ™ and I are the squeaky wheels, and we have no problem going higher on the leadership hierarchy to make sure things are addressed. At any given time, there are 10,000+ kids in care in Georgia. There’s a high likelihood that a bunch are in APS. Some back of the envelope math, that’s 55+ kids in care for each school district in the state. That said they are not equally distributed across the state. The children in my home are likely not the only ones in the system at their school. The way I see it, anything we do to make it smoother for our foster placements will spill over for others. The Wife ™ and I have knowledge and the freedom to work the system to make it better, and we do our best to have that impact across all children in care, not just ours.
As a foster parent and a politico of sorts, you start to see weird things in interesting places. It’s not always as straightforward as a media opt out form that needs to be available because DFCS has some rules that the school needs to respect. But I’ve noticed something in this year’s election cycle. Everyone is talking about taxes and affordability in the campaign, but this is also the Foster Care Election. ™
Rick Jackson has been overt about his upbringing and being in foster care. If you’ve seen the ad you know the story. And if you haven’t seen the ad, please tell me your secrets for avoiding them.
Still overt is LG Burt Jones. As LG he wanted to make Georgia the best place in the country for adoption. Take that Site Selection Magazine. There were multiple study committees devoted to foster care and adoption. A whole new standing committee for Children and Families was established in the Senate. A cynic could point out that this would be a way to sideline Chair Kay Kirkpatrick away from healthcare issues (she’s an orthopaedic surgeon by trade), but dammit if she isn’t doing great over there. Full disclosure that four years later, I still have no idea what it means for Georgia to be the best in the country for adoption.
Less overt, but still important, is AG Chris Carr’s connection to foster care. Joan. The Former Chief of Staff to Johnny Isakson/wife to the AG grew up in the foster system and was adopted. I don’t know her story other than her and her sister were adopted out of the foster system, and that this story has been a minor story arc in the introduction stage of the campaign.
Stepping down one level, Appropriations Chair Blake Tillery (a friend and fellow CPLI alum) is a foster parent. Like my family, his family has been a place for teenagers to find refuge. I don’t think I’m talking out of turn by sharing this detail. For most of us foster parents, this is a calling. For me in particular it is both an expression of what southern hospitality should look like as well as an expression of my Catholic faith.
I don’t know if Secretary Raffensperger has a foster care connection. I do know that someone in his orbit grew up in kinship care. That rounds out all the big candidates on the Red Team having a personal connection to an issue area that not a lot of people think about.
For the other LG candidates, I do know that Sen. Gooch played a role in some interstate adoption policy. I don’t know if anyone else has a connection to foster care specifically.
I’m not following the Dems as much. I do know that this next statement will cause heartburn for the entire DPG and Dear Leader. Geoff Duncan has the worst shot in the primary but the best shot at a General Election win. As an Atlanta voter, I sure as hell don’t want KLB as governor. I didn’t like her as mayor.
If any of the Dems have a foster care connection, let me know. I’m not intentionally leaving them out, but even as an independent I don’t seem to be their target voter.
What does this mean?
Well, for one I hope it means that we are going to see some real improvement at DFCS. Commissioner Broce has been at the head of a dumpster fire, and frankly the person who runs DHS should not also run DFCS.
Making sure that ALL the county offices use Georgia Communicare. This is the document tracking system (think medical records, medication logs, school forms, etc) that the state has set up. It makes things super easy for me to send stuff to a case worker. It also makes it easy for the caseworker. However, I’ve only met one caseworker who actually uses it in Fulton County.
Better interagency coordination would also be lovely. Kevin Tanner is doing a real bang-up job (serious positive compliment here) over at DBHDD. However, when a foster parent calls the crisis line it’s not DFCS that responds, it’s actually DBHDD. Making this a smoother and more robust relationship would be delightful. If I’m calling the crisis line, it’s not because I want a leisurely chat over some sweet tea. There’s a real problem that needs to be dealt with. Being told by the DHS commissioner that “I’m surprised you didn’t wait several hours. Sometimes when we call, we get turned down.” Sure it’s great that I only had to wait an hour and a half by comparison, but SHTF, and I needed help.
Better information sharing would also be helpful. As a foster parent, I’m required to get 15 hours of continuing ed every year. A lot of these are more like commercials for Amerigroup than actual training, but I play the game, watch my webinars, and send in my certificates. I also do a lot of outside reading to help supplement this “training.” Which if you have teens the book 10 to 25 by David Yeager is a good one. A better clearinghouse for information and higher quality training would be useful.
This is some low hanging fruit, and I’m confident that whatever happens in November, we’ll have new leadership at DHS and DFCS, and I’m looking forward to it.
