(The Center Square) – In at least one way, Georgia’s child welfare agency has treated its chief administrator just like any other parent involved in a possible child endangerment investigation.
By not disclosing anything about the case publicly at all.
It’s been almost three months since police charged the director’s husband with driving drunk and striking another vehicle with their children in his truck, and the state still won’t say how it’s investigating without a major conflict of interest. Nor will it disclose whether family services has even opened a case on the allegations against Jason Broce, husband of Human Services Commissioner Candice Broce.
“I’ll refer you back to our previous statement on the matter,” was the emailed response from Department of Human Services spokeswoman Ellen Brown.
Common Cause Georgia, a government accountability group, says the department or the governor should assure the public that an independent investigator has the case, and then name that outside investigator or agency.
“When there’s not transparency, there’s loss in faith of our system,” Executive Director Rosario Palacios said. “And we don’t need that, especially when children are involved.”
If transparency isn’t a priority, that’s likely because Gov. Brian Kemp and state lawmakers face a far more sweeping crisis involving the department right now, a critic of Georgia’s child welfare system told The Center Square.
Human Services has been grappling with an $85.7 million budget shortfall in its child placement program that prompted the commissioner to cancel or suspend millions of dollars in contracted services for foster families, children and parents ensnared in the system. With those and other cuts, the projected deficit stands at $49 million.
“The agency itself is in serious crisis mode, and the legislative session is right around the corner about to start,” said Gabe McCoy, a Georgia child advocate and researcher. “There are a lot of questions only she can answer.”
The scaled-back services include transportation, mental health therapy, drug screening and parental counseling.
During an emotional legislative hearing on the cuts last month, some lawmakers questioned how this could be, considering the state has a $14.6 billion general fund surplus with more than $9 billion in undesignated reserves.
“It is truly to keep the lights on,” Broce told the panel on Dec. 18. “I hope it goes without saying, but I did not want to terminate contracts … I also don’t want to break the law by over-spending my budget.”
With that backdrop, several lawmakers involved in oversight of the department, when asked by The Center Square, wouldn’t touch Broce’s husband’s child endangerment charges and asked not to have their names connected to it.
The Oct. 16 hit-and-run
The Center Square first reported in October that statehouse lobbyist Jason Broce had been arrested in north Georgia on DUI charges, including two counts of child endangerment.
Gov. Kemp appointed Candice Broce in 2021 to serve as commissioner of the state Department of Human Services, overseeing a budget of nearly $2.4 billion, more than half from federal funds. She also serves as director of the Division of Family and Children Services, which falls under Human Services.
The division very rarely discusses its child abuse, maltreatment or neglect investigations. The cases fall under strict privacy laws, with records released to the public only if a child dies under state supervision, and only in highly-redacted form.
Department watchdogs, though, have called on the state to make an exception. Jason Broce, according to his company website, formerly worked as a campaign policy advisor for Kemp and has worked as a lobbyist at the Georgia Capitol.
“This is a question of public trust and child safety,” McCoy said. “Both of them, Mr. and Mrs. Broce, have prominent positions and a really close relationship to the governor.”
An arrest report revealed Broce is accused of rear ending another vehicle in traffic and fleeing the scene with his 5- and 8-year-old sons, with a blood alcohol content more than four times the legal limit. His wife wasn’t involved in the incident, the report says, other than to pick up the children from gas station where her husband was pulled over.
The report describes the father as being so intoxicated that when stopped by a Georgia State Patrol trooper, he put his Ford F-150 in reverse and nearly struck the patrol car. Then he “nearly fell over” when instructed to walk to the trooper’s car, with the trooper considering him too unsteady to conduct a field sobriety test. The report lists his blood alcohol content as 0.333 – well above the legal limit of 0.08%.
Broce, 44, was booked into the Bartow County jail on charges of driving under the influence of alcohol, two counts of child endangerment, hit and run, following too closely, and failure to maintain lane. He is free on a $3,800 bond, and an initial arraignment scheduled in December has been postponed until February.
Legally, his arrest should have triggered a child protective services investigation. State law says police officers are mandatory reporters – meaning they have a legal obligation to inform child protective services of potential child neglect or abuse.
No clarity from the state
Gov. Kemp’s office initially declined to comment. Asked again what’s being done to ensure an arm’s-length investigation, Kemp spokesman Carter Chapman directed questions to Human Services.
Human Services’ only statement: “The agency cannot confirm or deny the existence of any child abuse or neglect case due to state and federal laws. Please note, the agency has protocols in place to avoid conflicts of interest if a report is received on an agency employee. Under these protocols, the employee shall be recused from reviewing the case, which shall instead be referred to an impartial, independent reviewer.”
It’s not clear if there’s anything for an independent reviewer to review, because state patrol has said it did not directly notify child protective services after Broce’s arrest.
Spokesman Lt. Ed Starling told The Center Square his agency doesn’t have a specific policy on DUI child endangerment cases. Asked if the state’s mandatory reporting law overrides that policy, the lieutenant emailed that troopers make “necessary and appropriate notice” by virtue of charging the driver, thus informing the local prosecutor and the judge. Georgia law says mandatory reporters must report abuse or “cause reports of such abuse to be made.”
State Patrol spokeswoman Capt. Crystal Zion added that “consistent with state-wide law enforcement handling, the arrest eliminated any imminent danger to the children, thereby satisfying the intent, purpose, and spirit of Georgia law.”
Palacios, of Common Cause Georgia, said State Patrol’s explanations fall short, and the case calls for an independent review into mandatory reporting compliance.
“As Georgians, we should be assured that this process is being handled in the most ethical way,” she said.
While Jason Broce declined to comment, the commissioner has said she’s not looking for any special treatment for herself.
“Professionally, I pour my heart and soul into serving others and aiming to always do what’s right,” Candice Broce said in an October written statement to The Center Square. “I would never expect nor ask to be treated differently than anyone else in these circumstances.” She declined to speak any further and would not talk about her husband’s case for this story.
An emotional day
The issue never came up during a joint meeting of the House Appropriations Human Resources Subcommittee and Judiciary Juvenile Committee last month. Representatives of nearly a dozen contractors and nonprofits testified to the harm being done to children and parents by the service reductions.
The head of one nonprofit had several committee members welling up. Wayne Naugle, founder of Families 4 Families faith-based foster care agency, told them about a south Georgia woman trying to regain custody of her girls who’s been ordered by a judge to take drug tests and attend therapy, but can’t do that because those services have been cut.
“I’m afraid they’re going to take my kids from me, because I haven’t completed my case plan,” Naugle quoted the woman saying. “She said, ‘I bought my girls Christmas gifts, but I guess now I’m not going to get to see them, so I don’t get to give them to my kids.'”
Family and Children Services initially blamed the cutbacks on the federal government shutdown in a Nov. 7 email to staff and contractors. But services didn’t pick back up when the impasse ended five days later.
The loss of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families money during the shutdown exacerbated the total deficit, department spokeswoman Brown said. Meanwhile costs have gone up 48.5% in the last three years because of inflation and other factors. Broce told lawmakers other cost burdens have come from more and more children with severe mental health needs.
She said juvenile judges, wanting to keep kids out of jails, often thrust cases on Family and Children Services that it isn’t equipped to handle.
“I’m being forced to make decisions that nobody wants to make,” she said, fighting back tears.
Some lawmakers pressed the commissioner to explain what help she’s received from the governor, and when exactly she made him aware of the extent of the budget crisis. She said she’s “been working closely” with the governor’s and budget offices.
Chapman, Kemp’s spokesman, told The Center Square that Human Services informed the governor’s office of the looming deficit in early 2025, and the state added $38.6 million to the fiscal year 2025 shortfall and $19.3 million for 2026.
The next legislative session, where the budget is set, begins Monday. Any new funding to restore services would likely become available in the spring, the spokesman said.
