The last bill Georgia House members voted on during the legislative session, well after the clock struck midnight, is a measure that will add to the list of mandated reporters for child abuse in Georgia…with bonus language addressing how sexual harassment and discrimination are handled in the General Assembly.
Child Abuse Measure
Under Georgia law, child abuse is all encompassing and ranges from physical injury and neglect to emotional abuse, prenatal abuse, trafficking, and failing to act when imminent risk presents itself.
The measure taken up by the legislature in the final hours is included in House Bill 1409, sponsored by six House Republicans.
HB 1409 adds both firefighters and animal control officers to the well-established list. In defining animal control officers, they listed “animal cruelty investigators, humane society employees, and animal shelter personnel whose professional duties may bring them into contact with children or household conditions indicative of child abuse or neglect.”
The two classes of mandated reporters join the lengthy list of mandatory reporters, including __
The bill also amends the law on how reports are taken and screened by the Georgia Department of Human Services. Specific changes include:
- Outlining that reports made orally and by telephone must be made directly to DFCS unless the agency is not available, and then it must be made to police, military law enforcement, or the district attorney.
- Requiring that all oral reports also include a written follow-up report to DFCS.
- Requiring DFCS to make a website with model reporting forms for any person to complete and securely submit reports to the agency.
- Requiring DFCS to give space on the reporting form to allow the reporter to include ‘any other. information they believe may be helpful in establishing the cause of injuries and the identity of the perpetrator.’
- Requiring DFCS to thoroughly evaluate whether an allegation of child abuse exists, including a screening process.
- Prohibits DFCS from refusing to take, receive, or log a report submitted via the website.
- Allowing DFCS to screen out allegations based solely on whether or not the child abuse or neglect criteria exist and without consideration of how the report was made.
- Allowing agencies that employ mandated reporters to establish protocols and platforms to submit online abuse reports.
- Requiring mandatory training for mandatory reporters who will be permitted to submit reports via a website.
The bill now heads to Kemp’s desk for signature. He has forty days from Sine Day (April 2) to decide to sign the bill, veto the bill, or do nothing. If a bill is vetoed, it goes back to the chamber where it originated during the next year’s session to see if they wish to override the veto. This requires a two-third majority vote from each chamber. If Kemp opts to do nothing, after the 40 days are up, the bill will automatically become a law.
Added Language for Claims Made Against the Georgia General Assembly
Added to the end of the child abuse reform measure is langauge regarding claims made against members of the General Assembly. The language was included during the committee process and approved unanimously on the Senate floor on April 2.
Specifically, the bill creates a new code section – OCGA 28-1-18 – to address claims of unlawful employment practice when involving sexual harassment, discriminatory harassment, discrimination, or retaliation against Gold Dome staffers when those claims resolve with a settlement, a memorandum of agreement, or other similar document.
The language would require those settlements to be subject to public disclosure with only the identity of the claimant redacted. The language specifically requires that the records released include the name of the elected official who is the subject of the complaint.
This would be a single exemption for the Georgia Open Records Act as the Georgia legislature previously excluded itself entirely from Georgia’s sunshine laws.
Twelve members of the Georgia House voted against the Senate substitute, include:
Alexander, Kimberly
Barnes, Imani
Carter, Doreen
Davis, Viola
Douglas, Demtrius
Holly, El-Mahdi
Lupton, Karen
McQueen, Mekyah
Schofield, Kim
Scott, Sandra
Taylor, Rhonda
Willis, Inga
Reps. Omari Crawford, Sheila Jones, Jason Ridley, Anne Allen Westbrook, and David Wilkerson were present but did not cast a vote.
