New Child Welfare Reform Council Begins Work
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Gov. Nathan Deal announced in March that he was creating the Child Welfare Reform Council to complete a comprehensive review of DFCS, and recommend possible agency reforms. Last week, Voices for Georgia’s Children hosted a Georgia Children’s Advocacy Network (GA-CAN!) Off-Session Policy forum that featured a panel discussion about the Council.
Panelists Stephanie Blank, chair of the Child Welfare Reform Council and founder of the Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students (GEEARS); Erin Hames, Gov. Deal’s deputy chief of staff for Policy, and Katie Rogers, the governor’s Health Policy advisor, agree that Gov. Deal’s intent for the Council is to create a holistic approach to child protection in Georgia. The Council’s goal is to provide a list of recommendations in time for the 2015 session.
If you’d like to keep up with the Council’s progress, meetings are videoed and uploaded to the Child Welfare Reform Council page on Gov. Deal’s website. Stakeholders also may download meeting materials, get information about upcoming meetings, and provide feedback via that website.
Blank noted that the website is the best way to provide comments on the issue, since all feedback submitted through the website is being captured and will be transmitted to the Council.