Attorneys, agencies and parents press Georgia on private-adoption delays and enforcement of unlicensed placement activity

A second panel focused on private adoptions, advertising, unlicensed actors and how Georgia enforces child-placing rules. Senators heard competing accounts: DHS and the Office of Inspector General’s Residential Child Care Licensing (RCCL) unit described stepped-up enforcement of interagency agreements (IAAs) with out-of-state child-placing agencies, while private attorneys and adoptive families described repeated checklist changes, long delays for interstate approval and cases in which children were removed from private placements during investigations.

Why it matters: Attorneys and adoptive parents said recent administrative changes to ICPC practice and Georgia checklists have made interstate private adoptions longer and more uncertain—delaying families’ returns home with newborns and, in some accounts, leaving babies in foster care for months. RCCL and the inspector general’s office said the changes were necessary to curb unlawful advertising and unlicensed placement activity and to protect birth parents from exploitation.

State enforcement steps: Beth Vineyard, director of RCCL, and Inspector General Maurice Ingram described an enforcement focus that began after adoption attorneys and other stakeholders raised concerns about out-of-state entities doing placement activity in Georgia without an IAA or Georgia license. Vineyard said Georgia law requires that "no person can advertise that they will adopt or arrange for or cause a child to be adopted or placed for adoption unless they're in one of three categories: a child…