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Ossoff Press

Today, Sen. Ossoff and advocates from across Georgia warned about the impact of the Trump Administration’s move to gut Federal funding for programs that support vulnerable foster children in Georgia and across the country, warning the move could put vulnerable children in Georgia even more at risk.

Earlier this week, the Trump Administration’s Department of Justice terminated millions of dollars in Federal funding intended to support vulnerable foster children nationwide. The National CASA/GAL Association supports a network of 939 local and state programs, including Georgia CASA and 47 affiliate CASA programs across the state, which collectively serve over 8,300 foster children in all 159 Georgia counties.

For example, CASA Savannah says they are facing a $110,000 reduction in their annual budget because of the cuts.

“We face an imminent deepening of the foster care crisis in Georgia as a result of the Trump Administration’s inexplicable decision to gut critical support services for the most vulnerable kids in our state,” Sen. Ossoff said. “I am sounding the alarm that the Trump Administration’s decision to gut this vital service for foster children in Georgia is going to leave even more foster kids vulnerable to exploitation, abuse, and to getting lost in the system. I urge the Trump Administration to reverse this decision, and I want to know who in the White House is responsible for making it, because there is no conceivable defense for this. It is bad public policy, it is cruel, and it leaves vulnerable children at risk.”

Sen. Ossoff was joined on the call by Domonique Cooper, CEO of CASA Atlanta; Kate Blair, Executive Director of Savannah/Chatham CASA; and Melissa Carter, Executive Director of the Emory Law Barton Child Law and Policy Center, who spoke about the impact of the Funding cuts to their local organizations.

“We are now having to figure out how to pivot and how to change things to ensure that we’re still serving the children that are vulnerable — the voiceless, the ones that didn’t ask to be in this situation, but they are,” Cooper said about funding being cut for CASA Atlanta.

“Never would I have expected that I wake up and 24 hours later, $110,000 was cut from our budget,” Blair said. “This decision has created a $90,000 deficit in my budget and has forced us to eliminate a key staff position and shut down a pilot program, both of which directly supported children in foster care, ensuring that they have that safe, consistent adult that Dominique talked about.”

“We have studies that show that a child with a CASA volunteer is more likely to find a safe and permanent home and experience fewer placement changes and spend less time in foster care. They’re more likely to participate in extracurricular and social activities and succeed in school and receive all of the health and mental health and education services that they need,” Carter said.