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Georgia’s top child welfare official by Senator Jon Ossoff, D-Ga. But she is being accused of exploiting vulnerable children and the state’s troubled foster care system for campaign credit after releasing a new ad promoting her work on the state’s troubled system.
Georgia Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) Director Candice Brose criticized a new foster care-focused ad released last week as the Georgia Democrat seeks re-election in one of the nation’s most-watched races. In the ad, titled “Our Children,” Ossoff highlights “a scathing report” and a “year-long bipartisan investigation” into the Georgia foster care system with Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.
Ossoff presents his investigation and the new law as part of his record on protecting children and holding the system accountable. However, Brose says Democrats are exaggerating their role and turning a serious child welfare issue into a political victory lap.
“For five years, I have been fighting for vulnerable children and foster care reform along with thousands of DFCS workers. Trust us when we say Jon Ossoff is nowhere to be found,” Brose said in a post on X.
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Senator Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., recently released an ad titled ‘Our Kids’ touting his work to reform mismanagement and neglect in his state’s foster care system. (Getty Images)
He added, “They didn’t fix the federal law that put group homes out of business.” “They have not streamlined adoption for children placed into loving families. John’s ad sounds great, but his words are meaningless to the men and women in the field.”
However, Ossoff’s team hit back, calling Brose an “incompetent partisan political hack” and accusing him of “dangerous incompetence.” He pointed to Ossoff’s oversight work, highlighted in an ad criticized by Brose, in which the spokesperson said that, among other issues, children in Georgia’s foster care system were likely being sex trafficked while in the state’s care.
“A year-long investigation by the Office of the Child Advocate, juvenile court judges, former foster children, non-partisan advocates, investigative reporting, and Senator Ossoff has exposed deep and dangerous dysfunction at DFCS,” an Ossoff campaign spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
The campaign also cited testimony from juvenile court judges who accused Brose of suggesting that children with special needs should be placed in juvenile detention while DFCS was looking for placements. Brose has denied the allegations, calling them politically motivated and arguing that they distort the broader discussion about how to keep youth at risk for complex behavioral issues, runaway histories and trafficking safe amid a lack of placement.
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Candice L. Brose (left) is the director of the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS). She is depicted next to an image of children strolling in an office. (Georgia DFCS/Getty Images)
Ossoff’s spokesperson said, “Candice Broce is a partisan political hack who has been irresponsibly put in charge of caring for the state’s most vulnerable children.” “Instead of crying foul over her dangerous incompetence being made public, she should fix her broken agency.”
Brose rejected attacks on his qualifications, pointing to his background as a health care lawyer, former chief deputy executive counsel and chief operating officer for Governor Brian Kemp, and said that about 40 state agencies, including DFCS, had reported to him in that role.
Also, he did not dispute that Georgia’s foster care system faced serious challenges, but argued that Ossoff used those problems for hearings, reports, and campaign messaging without providing meaningful assistance to fix them.
Brose said, “If you’re going to beat us, do something to make it better.” “He didn’t do it.”
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Brose said Ossoff could have used his federal role to push resources on Medicaid, behavioral health access and placement capacity rather than simply highlighting DFCS failures.
“What’s really bipartisan is that we’ve got over $100 million in state funds from Republican and Democrat legislators who support the issues we’re dealing with and believe we deserve more resources,” Brose said. “If he decides today that he really wants to help us and vulnerable Georgia children, we will welcome him with open arms.”
Georgia Democratic Senate candidates U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., (right) and Senator Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., (left) wave to students before speaking at the Dogs for Warnock rally at the University of Georgia on December 4, 2022 in Athens, Georgia. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
However, Ossoff’s team argues that fixing the state agency “isn’t even Senator Ossoff’s job”. [Broce] leads” in the first place, and said Brose was complaining that “it’s Senator Ossoff’s job to fix the state agency she leads.”
Ossoff’s representatives told Fox News Digital, “While Senator Ossoff led oversight, passed an anti-trafficking law, and helped save foster care funding that was cut by President Trump, incompetent partisan hack bros say Senator Ossoff’s job is to fix the state agency.”
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Bross’ criticism of Ossoff included the contradiction between his record and that of Georgia’s other U.S. senator, Democrat Raphael Warnock. Brose called the gap “glaring”, pointing to Warnock’s community events for vulnerable mothers and children and adoption-related measures as examples of practical support that Ossoff has not delivered.
“Compare his child welfare record to Warnock’s. It’s crystal clear which US senator from Georgia cares about vulnerable families and children, and it’s not John,” Brose said in his ex-post.
Ossoff, who ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination, is seeking a second term in November against Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., who won the Republican nomination after defeating former football coach Derek Dooley in the GOP runoff election in mid-June. Warnock will not face re-election until 2028.
