Capitol Update, Bills of Interest to Child Advocates

Child Advocacy News Center

Emory Summer Child Advocacy Program (ESCAP) Training

The Barton Center is now accepting summer interns working in other agencies to participate in our training for the Emory Summer Child Advocacy Program. Training week is May 20-23 at Emory University School of Law, 9am to 4:30pm. There is no charge to attend the training, which is valued at $80 per person. We ask that participants commit to the full 4-day training, though extenuating circumstances will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

If you have interns or new staff interested in participating in the training, please send the name of your agency or organization along with the intern's name, school, expected graduation year, and email & phone contact information to Michele Papotto at [email protected] or 404-712-8367. Please respond no later than May 1.

Georgia Capitol Update

Last week , the Georgia General Assembly was in session for Legislative Days 36 through 39. Highlights include:

The General Assembly finalized the budget for Fiscal Year 2020, beginning July 1, 2019, and sent it to the Governor's desk for his signature. The budget allocates a total of $27.5 billion in state funds, including $3,000 pay raises for certified school employees and 2% raises for state workers. Other items of interest to child advocates:

Department of Human Services
$2,687,860 to increase the daily per diem rate for relative caregivers by $1
$250,000 to the Court Appointed Special Advocates program to enhance statewide capacity
$867,058 to continue child care placement for priority families
$503,000 in state and federal funds for new quality assurance and ongoing monitoring of child welfare support services providers
$808,210 in existing funds to support retention initiatives for eligible relative and foster caregivers
$438,600 for a project management team to implement the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA)
$940,000 for a pilot program to review closed foster care cases

Department of Juvenile Justice:
$384,242 to expand the Career Technical and Agriculture Education Programs at five secure campuses
$281,611 for retention and recruitment of public safety trainers
$1,751736 to cover annual expenditures of the Cadwell RYDC

Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities: $234,000 in existing funds to increase telemedicine capacity for child and adolescent mental health services in rural areas

Judicial Council: $375,000 for grants for civil legal services to kinship care families

Additionally, the House and Senate have now passed and agreed upon the following bills, which may now be signed into law by the Governor:

Senate Bill 225, making changes to various statutes in response to the Family First Prevention Services Act and other federal laws
Senate Bill 167, requiring DFCS to engage relatives early in the process when a child is alleged and adjudicated dependent
House Bill 530, requiring public schools to report to DFCS when a child has been withdrawn from school and stops attending school for 45 days

This week , the General Assembly will convene on Tuesday for Day 40, the final day of the legislative session. Any bill that isn't passed and agreed upon by both chambers by midnight tomorrow night cannot become law this year but may be passed in the 2020 legislative session without being reintroduced.The chambers will convene at 10am and will likely work until midnight, taking breaks for meals throughout the day. You can livestream the final floor sessions on the General Assembly website , and you can check out which bills crossed the finish line in our final Georgia Capitol Update next Monday.

Please no te that information on meetings and the legislative schedule is current as of Monday, April 1, 2019. Hearing times change frequently during the session, so please check the Georgia General Assembly website for any changes.

Bills of Interest to Child Advocates

HB 12 was introduced by Rep. Rick Williams (R-Milledgeville) on January 30, 2019. The bill amends Part 15 of Article 6 of Chapter 2 of the Education Code, to require public schools to post the child abuse hotline in a visible location accessible to students. HB 12 passed the House of Representatives on March 5. HB 12 passed the Senate on March 29. The bill is now awaiting the governor's signature.

HB 64 was introduced by Rep. Brian Prince (D-Augusta) on January 28, 2019. The bill, referred to as the “Protecting Military Children Act,” amends O.C.G.A. § 19-7-5, relating to the reporting of child abuse, to require DFCS to notify military authorities when a parent or guardian of a child named in a child abuse report is on active duty in the U.S. armed forces. HB 64 passed the Senate on March 25. The bill is now awaiting the governor's signature.

HB 79 was introduced by Rep. Carl Gilliard (D-Garden City) on January 29, 2019. The bill amends O.C.G.A. § 30-4-5, relating to rights of persons with disabilities, to prohibit courts, child-placing agencies, and DHS from denying child custody or visitation to a person solely because the person is blind. It also requires that, when a party alleges that a parent's blindness has a detrimental impact on a child, the party bears the burden of proving the allegation by a preponderance of the evidence. A substitute version of HB 79 passed the Senate on March 28. The bill is now awaiting agreement by the House .

HB 197 was introduced by Rep. Katie Dempsey (R-Rome) on February 7, 2019. The bill amends Article 4 of Chapter 12 of Title 45, relating to the Office of Planning and Budget, to establish the Georgia Data Analytic Center to receive publicly supported program, fiscal, and health data from state agencies and departments, maintain and transmit the data in a way that prevents disclosure of individually identifiable information, and analyze the data to provide effective and efficient policy management for the state. HB 197 passed the Senate on March 22. The bill is now awaiting the Governor's signature .

HB 228 was introduced by Rep. Andy Welch (R-McDonough) on February 11, 2019. The bill amends Chapter 3 of the Domestic Relations Code, to raise the minimum age of marriage from 16 to 17, to impose a four-year limitation on the age difference between a minor and his or her spouse, and to require a minor to be emancipated and to complete premarital education before marrying. The bill also amends Article 10 of Chapter 11 of Title 15, relating to emancipation, to require juvenile courts to appoint counsel for minors petitioning for emancipation and to establish specific criteria for minors for petitioning for emancipation in order to get married. A substitute version of HB 228 passed the Senate on March 28 . The bill is now awaiting agreement by the House.

HB 234 was introduced by Rep. Chuck Efstration (R-Dacula) on February 8, 2019. The bill, referred to as the “Anti-Human Trafficking Protective Response Act,” amends Titles 9, 15, 16, 17, and 41 of the Georgia Code, relating to civil practice courts, crimes and offenses, criminal procedure, and nuisances. It authorizes DFCS to provide emergency care for children who are trafficking victims and requires referral of such children to certified victim services. It amends the offense of trafficking for sexual servitude, redefines prostitution to include only acts committed by persons 18 years of age or older, and eliminates the offense of pandering by compulsion. Finally, the bill adds using a place for the purpose of labor or sex trafficking to the list of activities that constitute maintaining a nuisance, and provides a defense to nuisance if the owner cooperates with law enforcement in investigating sexually related charges. A substitute version of HB 234 passed the House of Representatives on March 4. The bill is assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee and received a hearing on March 18 but was not voted on by the committee.

HB 281 was introduced by Rep. Teri Anulewicz (D-Smyrna) on February 12, 2019. The bill amends O.C.G.A. § 16-6-13, to provide for increased penalties for second and subsequent offenses of pimping and pandering. HB 281 passed the Senate on March 28 . The bill is now awaiting the Governor's signature.

HB 424 was introduced by Rep. Deborah Silcox (R-Sandy Springs) on February 21, 2019. The bill amends O.C.G.A. § 16-15-3, relating to street gang terrorism and prevention, to add sex and labor trafficking, keeping a place of prostitution, pimping, and pandering in the definition of "criminal gang activity." The bill also amends the Evidence Code to revise the circumstances in which the past sexual behavior of a witness complaining of alleged sexual misconduct can be admitted as evidence and revises the child hearsay statute. A substitute version of HB 424 passed the Senate on March 29. The bill is now awaiting agreement by the House .

HB 472 was introduced by Rep. Bert Reeves (R-Marietta) on February 25, 2019. The bill amends the Juvenile Code to require juvenile courts to consider temporary alternatives to foster care when determining where to place a child who has been alleged dependent but has not yet been adjudicated. The bill also mandates training for juvenile court intake officers with the authority to remove a child from his or her home. A substitute version of HB 472 passed the Senate on March 29 . The Senate Rules Committee amended HB 472 to remove the content of SB 222, which had been added to the bill by the Senate Judiciary Committee . The bill is now awaiting agreement by the House.

HB 478 was introduced by Rep. Mandi Ballinger (R-Canton) on February 25, 2019. The bill amends Article 8 of Chapter 5 of the Social Services Code, relating to the central child abuse registry, to revise the requirements for notice to an alleged child abuser, to require that a person be named on the registry only after he or she has had an opportunity to be heard, and to provide for an expungement opportunity. The bill also prohibits the inclusion of alleged child abusers under 18. A substitute version of HB 478 passed the Senate on March 29 . The bill is now awaiting agreement by the House .

HB 514 was introduced by Rep. Kevin Tanner (R-Dawsonville) on February 27, 2019. The bill creates a new article in Chapter 1 of the Mental Health Code to establish the Georgia Behavioral Health Reform and Innovation Commission responsible for conducting a comprehensive review of the mental health system in Georgia. The commission will include five subcommittees, including one on Children and Adolescent Behavioral Health. A substitute version of HB 514 passed the Senate on March 21, and the House agreed to the Senate version on March 29. The bill is now awaiting the governor's signature.

HB 530 was introduced by Rep. Bill Hitchens (R-Rincon) on February 27, 2019. The bill amends Article 16 of Chapter 2 of the Education Code to require public schools to report to DFCS when a child is withdrawn from without a declaration of intent to homeschool to allow DFCS to conduct an assessment and determine whether the parent withdrew the child to avoid educating the child. HB 530 passed the Senate on March 28. The bill is now awaiting the governor's signature.

HB 543 was introduced by Rep. Chuck Efstration (R-Dacula) on February 28, 2019 The bill amends Article 1 of Chapter 7 of the Domestic Relations Code to allow a person to establish standing as an equitable caregiver if he or she can prove by clear and convincing evidence that he or she has undertaken a parental role in a child's life and that the child will suffer harm if their relationship does not continue. It allows courts to establish parental rights and responsibilities for a person adjudicated to be an equitable caregiver. It prohibits courts from authorizing an equitable caregiver action when the parents of the child are not separated or when DFCS has an open child welfare case involving the child. A substitute version of HB 543 passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 27. The bill is now eligible for consideration by the full Senate.

SB 9 was introduced by Sen. Harold Jones II (D-Augusta) on January 9, 2019. The bill creates a new code section, O.C.G.A. § 16-11-92, to prohibit a person from intentionally coercing another person to distribute any images depicting nudity or sexually explicit conduct and to establish penalties for the crime . A substitute version of SB 9 passed the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee on March 20. The committee amended the bill to include the content from HB 43, sponsored by Rep. Ed Setlzer (R-Acworth). That section of the bill revises O.C.G.A. § 16-6-5.1, relating to sexual assault by persons with supervisory or disciplinary authority, to change that offense to "improper sexual contact by employee or agent," to create first and second degrees of the offense, and to revise the penalties for the offense. SB 9 passed the House on March 26. The bill is now awaiting agreement by the Senate.

SB 15 was introduced by Sen. John Albers (R-Alpharetta) on January 15, 2019. The bill, referred to as the “Keeping Georgia’s Schools Safe Act,” amends Article 27 of Chapter 2 of the Education Code, relating to loitering at or disrupting schools, to require every public school to have a site threat assessment of its campus completed every fiver years and to require public schools to have school safety plans approved by local law enforcement and submitted to the GA Dept. of Education. The bill requires safety drills be conducted at least once per school year and requires principals to act as or designate school safety coordinators. The school safety coordinator must coordinate with state agencies concerning school security best practices and report reasonable suspicion of student criminal activity to local law enforcement. The bill outlines coordination protocols among the GA Dept. of Education, the GA Bureau of Investigation, and the GA Emergency Management Agency. The bill also requires the GA Information Sharing and Analysis Center to maintain a smartphone app for reporting suspicious activity. A substitute version of SB 15 passed House Education Committee on March 27 . The bill is now eligible for consideration by the full House.

SB 158 was introduced by Sen. Brian Strickland (R-McDonough) on February 21, 2019. The bill, referred to as the “Anti-Human Trafficking Protective Response Act,” amends Titles 9, 15, 16, 17, and 41 of the Georgia Code, relating to civil practice courts, crimes and offenses, criminal procedure, and nuisances. It authorizes DFCS to provide emergency care for children who are trafficking victims and requires referral of such children to certified victim services. It amends the offense of trafficking for sexual servitude, redefines prostitution to include only acts committed by persons 18 years of age or older, and eliminates the offense of pandering by compulsion. Finally, the bill adds using a place for the purpose of labor or sex trafficking to the list of activities that constitute maintaining a nuisance. A substitute version of SB 158 passed the House on March 26, and the Senate agreed to the House version on March 29. The bill is now awaiting the governor's signature.

SB 167 was introduced by Sen. Matt Brass (R-Newnan) on February 22, 2019. The bill amends the Juvenile Code to require juvenile courts, when determining whether reasonable efforts have been made to finalize a permanent home for a child, to consider whether DFCS has completed the diligent search. The bill excuses DFCS from considering a relative as a placement resource if the relative has not demonstrated any interest in providing a permanent home for a child within six months after receiving notice from DFCS. It also creates a presumption that remaining in a home is in a child's best interests if the child has been in that home for 12 months and if removal would cause emotional harm to the child. Finally, the bill removes the requirement that a juvenile court must first attempt to place a child with a relative after the parent's rights have been terminated. The substitute version of SB 167 passed the House of Representatives on March 21, and the Senate agreed to the House version on March 28. The bill is now awaiting the governor's signature.

SB 225 was introduced by Sen. Larry Walker III (R-Perry) on February 28, 2019. The bill amends the Juvenile Code, the Social Services Code, the Domestic Relations Code, and the State Government Code to bring relevant statutes into compliance with federal law, including the Family First Prevention Services Act, the Indian Child Welfare Act, and the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act. A substitute version of SB 225 passed the House on March 25, and the Senate agreed to the House version on March 28. The bill is now awaiting the governor's signature .

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