Georgia gets new child welfare chief

Georgia’s state human resources commissioner on Monday announced a new state child welfare chief, the sixth person to fill the post since 1996.

Mark A. Washington, 38, the former head of Kentucky’s child welfare system, takes over as the agency faces severe budget cuts due to the slowing economy, which threaten staffing levels and some services to families and children.

But Washington sounded optimistic during a media conference Monday morning, and said he welcomes the chance to not only maintain services, but to move the agency forward.

Washington said he will focus on improving the state Division of Family and Children Services’ work with troubled families to prevent child neglect and abuse, so that the state will not have to bring those children into foster care. Washington also said he wants to provide more children in foster care with homes outside the system, through adoption or by returning the children to parents or relatives.

The agency also handles several public-assistance programs.

Washington, who will earn $134,000 a year, also will oversee the state Office of Child Support Services, which enforces the payment of child support.

Some child welfare advocates are concerned the agency will have to do even more, as more people hit tough times and need public assistance.

Normer Adams, executive director of the Georgia Association for Homes and Services for Children, said he was concerned whether Georgia can maintain the advances in child welfare seen in recent years, including the reduction in the workload of caseworkers and the efforts to keep troubled families intact.

“Mr. Washington is coming into the position at a very difficult time,” he said. “There are fewer resources to do a job that has increasing needs.”

B.J. Walker, commissioner of the state Department of Human Resources, called Washington a “seasoned and innovative leader.”

Aware that the position has a reputation for short, controversial tenures, Washington said he was confident he can make a difference.

“I’m the first of me” in the post, he said.

Washington succeeds Mary Dean Harvey, who resigned in March after 2 1/2 years. Harvey stirred controversy over the handling of the arrest in 2007 of a top Fulton County welfare worker on child cruelty charges.

Fayette County child welfare workers said Harvey berated them — and that they feared for their jobs — when they corroborated findings that the official, Cylenthia Clark, had abused her 9-year-old daughter, according to a Child Advocate file obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Clark pleaded guilty to a felony child cruelty charge.