Georgia lawmakers seek solutions for broken foster care system

Just about everyone, from a bipartisan group of lawmakers to agency officials themselves, agree the foster care system in Georgia needs major improvements.

In December, the Department of Human Services, which oversees foster care, reported an $85.7 million deficit for the 2026 fiscal year.

Explanations for what caused the shortfall and how to address it vary widely.

In budget meetings at the state Capitol in January, DHS Commissioner Candace Broce said Juvenile Court judges have been ordering more services, such as substance use treatment for birth parents of children in the foster care system. The orders are beyond the scope of what the agency can deliver, Broce said, becoming one of the primary cost drivers.

She ticked through cases in Barrow, Chatham, DeKalb and Gordon counties, where she said judges ordered services, like drug screenings, that were either burdensomely expensive or unnecessary.

“The point is that we’re dealing with this dynamic,” Broce said. “We don’t control all of our costs. They are increasing exponentially. And while we’re trying to do this work, our staff can really be put through it, and that will lead to turnover.”

Broce told lawmakers DHS suspended or eliminated funding for several foster care programs to cut costs.

More kids are experiencing severe mental and behavioral health challenges, requiring additional medical and mental health care. Kids are being placed in foster homes that are farther from their birth parents. And the department has fewer social workers.

All of these challenges are adding to the growing costs, Broce said.

But her comments angered foster care advocates, including Tom Rawlings, who oversaw the state Division of Family and Children Services for more than 30 years.

“The agency has treated this situation as a nothingburger, blaming juvenile court judges who order unnecessary services and providers who aren’t doing their jobs,” he wrote in a post on his website. “A child welfare agency that cuts off its private providers and drives some of them to close their doors (is) cutting off its nose to spite its face.”

State Rep. Debbie Bucker, D-Junction City, said she wants to understand how often judges are making requirements that seem onerous to DHS.

“I have more questions than I have answers,” she said. “I just want to make sure we’re taking care of our kids.”

As lawmakers discuss long-term solutions, House Judiciary Juvenile Chair Beth Camp, R-Concord, and House Budget Chair Matt Hatchett, R-Dublin, proposed a measure that would fundamentally upend the way services are paid for in foster care.

House Bill 1002 would transition Medicaid coverage for foster children from managed care to a fee-for-service model. Currently, a state contractor acts as an intermediary to manage the care of treatment for foster children to keep costs down.

Under a fee-for-service model, doctors can directly bill Medicaid to get paid for each service. Critics of the model say the system incentivizes physicians to rack up bills for extraneous services. But supporters say foster children represent the most vulnerable patients in the state and shouldn’t have to wait for approval to get care.

“It doesn’t seem like the system right now is taking care of the needs of the children,” Hatchett said in an interview with the AJC.