an overview georgia program improvement plan - Department of ...

continue to assess our data sources to resolve issues pertaining to duplicate counts and any other data or documentation issues in an
effort to arrive at a baseline for this item.
8 th Quarter Report: Achieved. Per ACF 7 th quarter request regarding percent of foster homes accepting sibling groups:
Georgia developed and implemented a survey of all 159 county departments to determine the number of new foster homes recruited
during the past year, and of those new homes, the number willing to accept sibling placements. All of the counties responded to the
survey. The results of the survey indicated that 1,251 new homes were approved during the period. Of that total, 919 homes were
willing to accept sibling placements. This represents 73.46% of the newly approved homes. A copy of the survey and results are
attached in the documentation appendix. Survey responses were returned to the state via email or fax. Examples of the returned
survey are also attached in the documentation appendix.
G-7 Step 2: Per ACF 7 th quarter request regarding respite care: Georgia has conducted a survey of caregivers to determine the
impact of respite care services provided on behalf of children/youth in foster care. CoStar was not the appropriate source of
documentation for this action strategy. The survey required contacting the foster care resource families directly and was designed to
evaluate the effectiveness of respite care services as a strategy to prevent placement disruptions. The following report is a summary of
findings from the respite care survey. The report below is also made a part of the documentation attachments for this eight report.
Summary Findings from an Evaluation of the Effectiveness
of Respite Care Services for Preventing Disruption
Georgia Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS)
November 2004
Purpose and Design
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of respite care services as a strategy to prevent placement disruptions. Twenty (20) foster
parents from three (3) Georgia counties were interviewed about respite care services. Both resource families who had used respite care services and
those who had not used respite care were interviewed.
Sample
In a previous study on stability of foster care placements, researcher worked with administrators from Bartow, Fulton, and Harris County to collect
information about foster children and resource families. Consequently, it seemed reasonable to draw our sample from the same three (3) counties for
this study. Population size, total budget, and total staff are used as criteria to categorize Georgia counties into six (6) classes. Bartow is a small class
four (4) county. The county seat is Cartersville, which is an expanding and growing area. Fulton is a metropolitan county with a diverse population,
Safe Future – A Plan for Program Improvement
Georgia Department of Human Resources
November, 2004 Quarter 8 - Work Plan G Page 8