Georgia
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Pre-Service Training

Georgia has implemented the 30-hour National Training and Development Curriculum for Foster and Adoptive Parents (NTDC) and it is used by all public and private child welfare agencies. There are no additional trainings required when foster parents transition to adoptive parents or guardians.

Services Offered Through the State’s Post-Permanency Support Program

DFCS contracts with five private providers, each offering a different set of services statewide. (See below in How the Post-Permanency Program Is Operated below for more details.) The state also hosts an annual conference for adoptive families.

Services include:

Families who have a child placed in their home can access the training, teen support group, crisis intervention, information and referral, and counseling services before finalization.

The Georgia Center for Resources & Support (GACRS) helps all types of adoptive families locate needed resources. Regional Resource Advisors are available throughout Georgia to provide advice, support, and training. GACRS also offers a statewide resource directory and a lending library on its website.

ADOPTS offers research-based, adoption specialized, trauma-focused treatment based on TBRI® principles so children can develop healthy coping skills. Through ADOPTS, adoptive families and children will understand the effects of past trauma, increase capacity to form healthy attachments, learn to express emotions in healthy ways, and learn how to build personal strengths. ADOPTS can serve families who have a child placed in their home for the purpose of adoption or families who have a finalized adoption. ADOPTS consists of two parts, both offered virtually. The first—parent coaching—is a 6- to 10-week curriculum that helps develop skills and knowledge necessary to meet the challenges of parenting a child with a trauma background. Parent coaching can work with parents of any aged child. The second component is family therapy, which includes sessions with the child and parent(s). This part is for children eight and up only and is approximately 12 weeks. These sessions focus on building attachment between the parents and child and focus on healing and developing healthy coping skills. Services can be provided in person in Atlanta, Powder Springs, Athens, Columbus, and Chattanooga and virtually elsewhere.

The Family Intervention Team (FIT) provides services statewide to adoptive families in serious need of professional help to improve overall family functioning, preserve the family unit, and provide links to community resources. The program consists of mobile intervention teams, including a team leader and an intervention specialist, who provide in-home family assessments and counseling. As a short-term intervention, FIT services typically last 60 to 90 days. The goal of FIT is to connect families to community resources by that time. FIT serves families of children who have been placed in the home and approved for adoption assistance benefits.

The ADOPTS program also provides crisis intervention services for the families accessing its counseling program. These services are provided in the home or the office when families are a risk of disruption or dissolution.

GACRS facilitates a Facebook support group for all adoptive families in Georgia. This group allows adoptive parents to connect, share, and learn from others about their adoptive family journey. It also offers a monthly virtual support group for parents. The Facebook group is hosted by a staff member of GACRS and facilitated by experienced professionals.

The Teen Adoption and Guardianship Support (TAGS) is a statewide service program for adopted teens and teens in guardianship who are 13 to 18.5 years old and who are receiving subsidy. TAGS provides teen participants with an opportunity for mutual support and self-expression through in-person and virtual group meetings with other teens. The curriculum includes academic and social/emotional development skill-building. Groups are facilitated by staff with counseling, human services, or similar degrees. Parents of children served by TAGS also attend parent support groups and receive other support.

Through Siblings Forever, children ages 8 to 18 in foster care, adoption, or kinship care who have been separated from their siblings can attend a weeklong summer camp designed to support and strengthen sibling connections. Other day and weekend events allow the entire families of separated siblings to connect.

GACRS offers live and on-demand classes on a wide variety of adoption-related topics. In addition, the state sponsors an annual training seminar to support and strengthen adoptive families. Called TIES—Together, Inspiring, Engagement and Support—the event provides adoptive parents and foster-to-adopt parents who have children placed in their homes an opportunity to increase their knowledge base and skills concerning adoption-related issues, services for adoptive families, and adoptive parenting.

The Georgia Adoption Reunion Registry supports adoptees as they seek to be connected to birth family members, including siblings, as well as the release of non-identifying information. The registry also manages birth parents’ and siblings’ consent to be contacted or desire not to be contacted.

The state may provide time-limited financial support to families receiving adoptive assistance when no other family or community resource is available. Special Services may include, but are not limited to funding for medical services, therapy/counseling services, dental/orthodontic services, respite services, or other services related to the child’s special needs.

For more information, visit: https://dfcs.georgia.gov/services/adoption/post-adoption-services

In fiscal year 2023, GACRS served 2,591 adoptive families and 50 families received crisis intervention services.

Geographic Area Covered

GACRS has regional staff to serve families across the state. Many trainings and support groups are offered virtually to ensure access statewide.

All providers have statewide contracts and can serve families from across the state. However, most providers are located in the metropolitan Atlanta area so more families are served from that area.

Eligible Population for the Overall Post-Permanency Program

  • Other (listed below)

    Eligibility for post-permanency services is most often adoptive families and prospective adoptive families who have been approved for adoption assistance, although eligibility varies by services as noted above. All types of adoptive families can receive assistance from GACRS. TAGS provides services for adoptive and guardianship families.

Variations in Eligibility for the Post-Permanency Program

Specific eligibility criteria for each service are outlined above.

Accessibility

Each provider may have some standards related to cultural responsiveness and linguistic accessibility, although services are typically only offered in English. Some training sessions are offered for families whose children are LGBTQ2S+ and training is offered on race and culture.

Outreach and Engagement

At the adoption signing, families receive the post-adoption services pamphlet and form including information about the reunion registry, crisis intervention, GACRS, and ADOPTS. Adoptive families also receive information about post-permanency services from their assigned Post Adoption Manager (PAD manager). After finalization, the county case manager transfers the case to the State Office and families are assigned a PAD Manager. PAD Managers send an introductory email within a month of assignment that informs families of their role and responsibility as their PAD manager and shares information about the availability of post-adoption services.

Families in the metropolitan area receive more outreach and engagement since most service providers are located in the metro area.

Outreach efforts are tracked through service provider contracts. The state has made changes to their post-permanency contracts in an effort to track outreach efforts and effectiveness more efficiently.

How the Post-Permanency Program Is Operated

  • Through contracts or grants with multiple private agencies offering different services

Notes About Who Provides Which Service(s)

Families First operates both the Georgia Center for Resources & Support (https://gacrs.org/) and the Georgia Adoption Reunion Registry (https://www.ga-adoptionreunion.com/).

Bethany Christian Services operates the ADOPTS program (https://bethany.org/service/adopts).

Family Intervention Team (FIT) services are provided by Care4All for North Georgia and Region 13 (http://care4allchildrenservices.com/) and by Chris 180 for South Georgia and Region 14 (https://chris180.org/).   

Teen Adoption and Guardianship Support (TAGS) is operated by Carrie Steele-Pitts Home (https://www.csph.org/tags).

The camps and family events for siblings are operated by Siblings Forever (https://www.siblingsforever.org/).

The TIES conference is hosted by the State of Georgia’s Social Services Administration Unit staff.

Adoption/Guardianship Assistance/Subsidy Review and Changes

The Social Services Administration Unit’s (SSAU) PAD manager reviews existing Adoption Assistance agreements annually. They also review Adoption Assistance applications for changes in circumstances.

Families can request a change to their existing adoption assistance agreement by completing and submitting the Specialized Rate Request form to their assigned PAD manager. Families must provide supporting documentation from a medical, therapeutic or treatment provider to support their request.

Tracking Adoption/Guardianship Discontinuity

Georgia’s data system, known as SHINES, is used to track children if children who enter care were previously adopted or placed in guardianship, including those who were adopted privately or through intercountry adoption and those adopted or placed in guardianship from another state.

Georgia conducts deep-dive case file reviews when children reenter foster care, as part of several efforts to prevent disruption and dissolution. These reviews help staff learn more about the issues involved and the history of the child and family’s experience leading up to the dissolution.

As part of these reviews, staff look at whether the family accessed—or attempted to access—post-adoption services before the child reentered foster care, including whether the family experienced any barriers in accessing services. These insights help Georgia explore challenges that may affect other children and families, identify gaps in needed services, and gain a deeper understanding of how the child welfare system can prevent future family breakdowns.

Post-Permanency Program Spending (FY 2023)

  • $2 million – $4,999,999 million

Funding Sources for the Post-Permanency Program (FY 2023)

  1. Adoption savings (reported on CB 496 Part 4 – Annual Adoption Savings Report)
  2. Title IV-B, Part 1 (Child Welfare Services/CWS)
  3. Title IV-B, Part 2 (Promoting Safe and Stable Families/PSSF)
  4. Adoption/Guardianship Incentive Program Payments (AIPP)

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