Welfare Watch - August 02, 2010 - Accountability and Transparency

Last week at the Department of Human Services Board Meeting, Keith Bostick, Director of the Office of Residential Child Care, provided an overview of his Office.  This Office, under the DHS, provides licensing oversight for all private foster care agencies in the State.   There are currently four license types regulated by this office:

• Child Caring Institutions, which include group homes, Second Chance Homes and residential assessment centers,
• Child Placing Agencies, which include foster care agencies and adoption agencies,
• Outdoor Child Caring Institutions, which are often referred to as Outdoor Therapeutic Camps or Wilderness Camps, and
• Children Transition Care Centers, which are geared for the temporary placement of medically fragile children transitioning to a permanent setting.

Keith Bostick talked about the requirements for accountability and transparency in licensing.  Licensure is very important for assuring that children in the foster care system in private facilities are in safe settings.  This Office assures that appropriate policies, practices and staff are in place for meeting the children's needs.  Licensing only provides the minimum standards of care.  Other standards are put in place by the department contract, and by the providers themselves through accreditation. 

Accountability without transparency is of dubious value. Accountability is valuable as to what we are willing to reveal about ourselves.  Since 2006, the ORCC has provided via the web the results of their inspections of its licensed facilities. 

Georgia is one of only a few states that provide this transparency of its licensing agency and the results of those that are licensed.  We invite DFCS to do the same for their county run foster care programs. 

Information about licensing results can be found on the web.  These results remain available on the web for two years.

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Welfare Watch, an email newsletter of the
Georgia Association of Homes
and Services for Children
as a public service.
http://www.gahsc.org
                       Normer Adams, Editor
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