Teachers who report concerns of child abuse must be told within 24 hours that the report was received and must follow up when an investigation is complete, under bipartisan legislation filed in the state House.
House Bill 914, by Rep. David Wilkerson, D-Austell, says child protective services agencies must also later confirm to any school official who files a report whether allegations of abuse were confirmed.
The bill is co-sponsored by three other Democrats and one Republican.
The issue of child endangerment has been an active one this legislative session. Gov. Nathan Deal wants to study how public-private partnerships can improve how the state administers its foster care program. The move toward privatization follows Deal’s earlier proposal to spend $27 million over the next three years to hire more than 500 caseworkers and supervisors at the Department of Family and Child Services — an increase of 26 percent.
That proposal came shortly after the highly publicized deaths of two metro Atlanta children and reports in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that DFCS workers’ mistakes contributed to at least 25 deaths in 2012.
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