Georgia HB 1070

You can see it here.

“Adoption records can now be unsealed in very specific cases to make child services workers’ investigations more complete, according to a bill sent to Gov. Nathan Deal for his signature.

HB 1070 passed the Senate with a vote of 52 yeas to 1 nay on March 22 and passed the House on Thursday with 170 yeas and no nays.

Rep. Katie Dempsey, R-Rome, sponsored the bill.

“It was brought forward by the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services Director Bobby Cagle,” explained Demp­sey. “It addresses a concern he’s had.”

Cagle has spent the last year working on changes recommended by the Child Welfare Reform Bill, which was signed into law last May. The bill included ways that child welfare could be improved, and one guideline was to have practice models that served as foundations to keep kids safe and strengthen families.

HB 1070 is a result of that initiative.

“It’s important that the agency has the ability to investigate abuse and have all of the facts when they are making decisions,” Dempsey said, “especially when there is a history.”

The bill allows DFCS agents to open a sealed file of an adopted child for the very specific circumstances.

“For example, if a child has been removed from the biological parent and adopted, then maybe years later, that parent shows up as the subject of a new referral, the agent can open the record,” explained Demp­sey.

Dempsey posited the case of a drug-addicted mother whose biological child was taken away for neglect and eventually adopted by a family. If that mother shows up in the system again years later with another child showing neglect, the agent on the case can unseal the first child’s record to see what happened in that first case.

“Before this bill, the agent could only see that there was a history, but there would be no open records showing how serious the case was,” Dempsey added.

“This allows them to see the full history. The flag that currently shows up doesn’t let the agent know what the problem was, it could be sexual abuse, drugs, neglect,” she continued. “It helps them make more informed decisions about how to handle the case.”

The only other way a record could be opened is if in the case of an adoptive family wanting to take in another child, she said.

“Thank goodness there are families that want to continue to adopt,” Dempsey said. “But this would let the DFCS agents know what other children are in the home and if there could be conflicts.””

Bill allows for unsealing of adoption records; DFCS reform continues through new House bill [Northwest Georgia News 3/27/16 by Kristina Wilder]

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