Representative David Wilkerson of Austell, Georgia introduced House Bill 914 on February 4, 2014. House Bill 914 was an amendment for current legislation O.C.A. 49-5-41, regarding reporting child abuse records. The current Georgia Code states the following for child abuse records:
(5) “Any adult who makes a report of suspected child abuse as required by Code Section 19-7-5, but such access shall include only notification regarding the child concerning whom the report was made, shall disclose only whether the investigation by the department or governmental child protective agency of the reported abuse is ongoing or completed and, if completed, whether child abuse was confirmed or unconfirmed, and shall only be disclosed if requested by the person making the report;”
(6) Any adult requesting information regarding investigations by the department or a governmental child protective agency regarding the findings or information about the case of child abuse or neglect that results in a child fatality or near fatality, unless such disclosure of information would jeopardize a criminal investigation or proceeding, but such access shall be limited to a disclosure of the available facts and findings. Any identifying information, including but not limited to the child or caretaker's name, race, ethnicity, address, or telephone numbers and any other information that is privileged or confidential, shall be redacted to preserve the confidentiality of the child, other children in the household, and the child's parents, guardians, custodians, or caretakers (Georgia General Assembly).
O.C.G.A. § 49-5-41
The House Bill 914 amendment was created, because the current law is not effective. School personnel, doctors or individuals who submit child abuse reports would not receive any response, communication, or confirmation to the abuse claims they submitted. As the reporters awaited information from investigations that were supposed to occur, the children in question were still living in environments full of maltreatment or abuse.
House Bill 914 was produced to fix the gap in the response time of suspected child abuse reports and for school personnel to receive notification of their abuse reports. The purpose of the new response time and detailed notification reports was to prevent children remaining in vulnerable environments.
All children who are at risk for maltreatment throughout the state of Georgia are impacted by the current delays in notification and child abuse investigation resolutions.
In recent years the Division of Family and Children Services and Child Protective Services has had alarming rates of child fatalities that had previous cases with the agencies. In 2012, Georgia had over 152 child fatalities, all who had previous history with DFCS (Georgia Department of Human Services).
According to DFCS Child Death Reports, maltreatment occurs and is a problem for children statewide (Georgia Department of Human Services). Georgia’s Official Code Annotated newsletter reported that, “In 1974 the Child Abuse and Prevention Act was introduced to implement mandatory reporting. The reporting has always been an issue (Howell, A) .Accidental deaths and homicides were the leading causes of Georgia children dying in 2012. Those death causes are a significant indicator of child abuse reporting being a statewide issue. The Georgia Center for Safe and Healthy Children of Atlanta provided examples of maltreatment including: “kicking, punching, strangling, scalding, choking, burning, etc.” (Center for Safe and Healthy Children).
The failure of child abuse reports being ignored has negatively impacted communities, school systems, school personnel, etc. negatively, in that children are living in dangerous and abusive situations when they have the humanely right not to live under those conditions. There are resources made to help children who may be abuse victims or living with unfit guardian or parents. Mandated reporters or other adults take the time to submit a child abuse report claim with the intention of getting a child help out of abusive environments (Steen, J. A., & Duran , L. (2013). When these reports go ignored then communities suffer when a child they tried to help is dead, as a result of a failing child welfare system. The International Journal of Children’s Right’s stated that most victims of child maltreatment are African American (Kesner, J. E., Bingham, G. E., & Kwon, K. (2009)). The Child Welfare Journal writes, “Generally speaking child maltreatment and abuse occurs with young parents, low –income parents, and parents with limited education completion” (Covington). Younger parents typically have less patience to deal with children and their needs. That lack of patience may lead to poor communication skills between parent and child and abusive disciplinary behavior for children.
Child welfare reform is a problem in other states, because child abuse is a prevalent and critical problem nationwide. The Journal of Child Abuse and Neglect indicated that there is under reporting of child abuse due to the problematic relationship between Child Protective Services and school personnel (Webster, S. W., O’Toole, R., O’Toole, A. W., & Lucal, B. (2005). The investigation delay, response time, and estranged relationship led to more children being victims of maltreatment.