Nearly 1,800 children under the care of the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services were reported missing between 2018 and 2022, according to data revealed in a bipartisan Senate investigation.
Sen. Jon Ossoff, chairman of the U.S. Senate Human Rights Subcommittee, announced the findings Friday at Covenant House Georgia, which cares for young people dealing with homelessness. The Georgia Democrat is spearheading the investigation alongside Tennessee Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn.
“These numbers are deeply troubling because these are more than numbers. These are children,” Ossoff said. “And according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and I think the leadership here at Covenant House has a lot of experience with issues like this, children who go missing from care are left more vulnerable to human trafficking, to sexual exploitation and to other threats to their health and safety.”
The data came at the subcommittee’s request from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Geographic and demographic information was not immediately available on the missing children, nor was any data on how long they were missing. Ossoff…
