Stephanie Blank: Taking A Closer Look At Child Welfare
Stephanie Blank was appointed last year to chair Governor Nathan Deal’s Child Welfare Reform Council. Modeled on the Criminal Justice Reform Council, the group is conducting a comprehensive overview of the Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS), and they released their first report this past January.
Blank joined Rose Scott and Denis O’Hayer on “A Closer Look” to discuss progress made by the Council, early recommendations, and to talk about the importance of keeping all of Georgia’s children healthy and safe. With 36,000 Georgia cases at any given time, and 540 suspicious or unexplained deaths per year, that’s no simple task.
In part one of this interview, Rose Scott and Denis O'Hayer talk with Stephanie Blank about the role of the Child Welfare Reform Council.In part 2, Stephanie Blank speaks about the future of child welfare reform.
HB 138, introduced earlier this year, is a first result of the Council’s work. Blank said it will fund training and mentorship for DFCS case workers, as well as technology enhancements.
“We recognize this is a huge, complex issue,” said Blank, “and getting it solved in 10 months is not doable.”
Therefore, the Council will continue to meet through 2015. Key goals including bringing caseloads for social workers down from more than 40, to 15 children per worker; making the DFCS Director a position that is appointed by, and reports to, the governor; and facilitating technology improvements that include not just county-to-county, but state-to-state sharing of information about children involved with the system.
Stephanie Blank is also the founding chair of GEEARS, the Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students.
9(MDAxODM0MDY4MDEyMTY4NDA3MzI3YjkzMw004))
Top Stories
