{"id":25598,"date":"2024-12-20T15:08:41","date_gmt":"2024-12-20T20:08:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/?post_type=press-releases&p=25598"},"modified":"2024-12-20T16:52:56","modified_gmt":"2024-12-20T21:52:56","slug":"sen-ossoff-introducing-bipartisan-bill-to-strengthen-protections-for-vulnerable-children","status":"publish","type":"press-releases","link":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/press-releases\/sen-ossoff-introducing-bipartisan-bill-to-strengthen-protections-for-vulnerable-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Ossoff Introducing Bipartisan Bill to Strengthen Protections for Vulnerable Children"},"content":{"rendered":"

Washington, D.C. <\/strong>\u2014 U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff is introducing a bipartisan bill to strengthen transparency in child protective agencies and protect vulnerable children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week, Sens. Ossoff and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) introduced the bipartisan Generate Recordings of All Child Protective Interviews Everywhere (GRACIE Act of 2024)<\/em> to bring transparency and improve outcomes for children involved with Child Protective Services, including Georgia\u2019s Department of Family and Children Services (DFCS).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Sen. Ossoff\u2019s U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Human Rights Majority Staff report<\/a> on abuse and neglect in Georgia\u2019s foster care system, Georgia DFCS failed to make \u201cconcerted efforts to assess and address the risk and safety concerns relating to the child(ren) in their own homes or while in foster care\u201d in 84% of reviewed cases, including a failure to conduct initial assessments that accurately assessed all risks and safety concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sens. Ossoff and Blackburn\u2019s bipartisan bill would create a new Federal grant program through the U.S. Department of Justice for costs directly associated with conducting and storing interview recordings. States would be eligible for the Federal grant only if state law requires that all child welfare forensic interviews be recorded through electric audio recording, body camera video or any other reasonable recording method.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe can never do enough to support vulnerable children in Georgia and across the country,\u201d Sen. Ossoff said. <\/strong>\u201cSenator Blackburn and I are introducing this new bipartisan bill to strengthen transparency in State child protective agencies and help States better fund their operations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cChildren are often silenced by their abusers, and we need to do everything in our power to ensure that does not happen,\u201d said Senator Blackburn. <\/strong>\u201cThe GRACIE Act would help give more children a voice, increase domestic violence reporting, and strengthen the foster care system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Ossoff continues working to protect children in the foster care system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October, Sens. Ossoff and John Cornyn (R-TX) introduced<\/a> the bipartisan Foster Care Placement Transparency Act<\/em>, which would require states to measure and report to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) incidents in which children are separated from their parents and placed with a caregiver informally to help ensure their wellbeing and safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this year, Sen. Ossoff, Chairman of the Senate Human Rights Subcommittee, released a 64-page report<\/a> detailing the findings from his Subcommittee\u2019s 13-month investigation into the safety of foster children, which uncovered pervasive abuse and neglect of vulnerable children in Georgia, including incidents with \u201chidden foster care\u201d placements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February 2023, following reports from independent watchdogs and the press that children in the care of Georgia DFCS have been subjected to abuse and neglect, Chairman Ossoff\u00a0launched an inquiry<\/a>\u00a0to assess the safety of children in foster care in Georgia and nationwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here<\/a> to read the bipartisan Generate Recordings of All Child Protective Interviews Everywhere (GRACIE Act of 2024)<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

###<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff is introducing a bipartisan bill to strengthen transparency in child protective agencies and protect vulnerable children. This week, Sens. Ossoff and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) introduced the bipartisan Generate Recordings of All Child Protective Interviews Everywhere (GRACIE Act of 2024) to bring transparency and improve outcomes for children involved with Child Protective Services, including Georgia\u2019s Department […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25598","press-releases","type-press-releases","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/25598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press-releases"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/25598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25608,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/25598\/revisions\/25608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}