Currently, the data shows 79% of Georgia's children in care are placed in a family foster care setting and nearly 19% of these children are placed with relatives. The implementation of the Georgia Relative Care subsidy in May 2001 is likely to increase the number of children placed permanently in relative care settings. In 1998 the Georgia legislature passed OCGA 15-11-58 (i) which empowered juvenile court judges to award permanent custody of children under the court's protection to a relative, until age 18, with a three-year review of the child and family by the juvenile court. While this was a major accomplishment, offering many children and their relative caregivers a sense of stability and permanence the legislation lacked financial supports for the children and their caregivers. Effective May 2001, Georgia, like many states, will use Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) re-direct funds to support these permanent placements. A non-reunification court order must precede the issuance of a permanent relative custody court order for subsidy eligibility. The relative care subsidy financially assists relatives to provide a permanent home for a child formerly in agency custody. The payments are made to help defray basic expenses that otherwise may jeopardize the child's opportunity to experience permanence.

Georgia has identified a need for more emergency placements for children entering care and for placement disruptions. Additionally, due to extremely unfavorable media coverage on a few high profile cases, there has been a significant increase in the number of children entering foster care over the past 18 months. This has created an intense need for all types of placement resources. The media coverage has negatively impacted staff turnover, which impedes the continuity of placement supervision and services to families. The average length of case management experience is currently 3.5 months, which also compounds the turnover issue in Georgia. On a positive note, the media coverage also exposed the low case manager salaries and the high caseloads.

In July 2001 the Georgia legislature has approved staff salary increases up to 15% depending upon job assignments and education and also 70 new case manager and 30 supervisor positions.

Replace the first sentence of this answer with: The Point-in-Time element 11 data show little change in the proportion of "family-like" settings, from 83% of children in 1997 to 84% in 1999. The proportion of "institution-like" placements also held steady at approximately 15%. In contrast, the First-Time Entry Cohort data show an increase in the proportion of family-like placements, from 77% in 1997 to 83% in 1999, primarily due to a 3% decrease in the proportion of "institution-like" placements. These data suggest that the types of placements at initial entry have been brought into parity with placements made late in the foster care stay. Of the children placed in family-like settings, 23% are currently placed with relatives (in both the Point-in-Time cross section and the First-Time Cohort).