Ossoff introduces bill that would reward states for recording Child Protective Services interviews

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - Following a U.S. Senate Subcommittee report that revealed deaths and injuries of children Georgia’s foster care system, Senator Jon Ossoff is taking action to improve transparency in the foster care system nationwide.

The GRACIE Act, which stands for Generate Recordings of All Child Protective Interviews Everywhere, would create a program that would award grants to states that require the recording of all Child Protective Services interviews. The program would be housed in the Department of Justice.

This follows the results of the subcommittee report, which was spearheaded by Ossoff.

The report found hundreds of children in Georgia’s Department of Family and Children Services were likely sex-trafficked in a five year span, and the division fails to meet physical and mental health needs of children.

Ossoff believes the bill would increase transparency and make it more difficult for agencies to sweep the stories of child victims under the rug.

“When you think about the severity and the extent of the abuse and mistreatment of foster children in Georgia, it just makes it how clear how important it is that there be a record of interviews with these kids, where they might make allegations of abuse, they might report abuse. It’s too easy for those things to be swept under the rug, and to disappear, particularly if there’s an effort to cover up what’s really happening inside the system,” says Ossoff.

He says it’s an important step, but he doesn’t believe DFCS reform ends there.

”I have been and will remain focused on conducting investigations and oversight and offering legislation to protect foster children, especially in Georgia, where the foster care system has been shamefully mismanaged and so many children have been hurt or lost to human trafficking.”

A similar bill was introduced by Ossoff and Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee in 2024, but it never made it out of the House Judiciary Committee.