Georgia Association of Homes and Services for Children   

Background: The Department of Human Resources Office of Regulatory Services presently is commissioned to protect the safety and well being of children who are in out-of-home care. Their offices regulate all private child caring institutions, including child-placing agencies, residential group homes, and intermediate treatment services agencies. These agencies care for 5.7% of all children in out-of-home care in Georgia. The other 94.3% of children in out-of-home custody are directly cared for by the State. The State is exempted from the minimum health and safety requirements set forth by the Office of Regulatory Services. This means that the public agencies caring for the other 15,140 children are not obligated to adhere to the same stringent requirements that private agencies currently acknowledge. The State is not offering the same protection to publicly served children as those served by private agencies.

The Department of Human Resources does have policies and procedures by which the agencies must operate. Comparison of these policies illustrates that they are not comparable to private agency standards.

If we are to protect children, then should we not also offer all children the same protection?  Comparison of public versus private requirements.