Georgia's Division of Family and Children Services has accused the Muscogee County School District of violating state and federal law by failing to promptly enroll foster children for the new school year. In a letter sent Aug. 14, 2026, DFCS attorney Dana Carroll wrote that more than 30 foster students missed the first week of classes, including more than 20 with individualized education plans and special education designations, according to the Georgia Recorder and The Current. DFCS also said about 50 foster students already enrolled could face withdrawal if they are not re-enrolled by a case manager.
Dispute over who may enroll
The disagreement centers on how to interpret Senate Bill 431, which Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law May 11, 2026. The law requires school districts to enroll foster care students within three school business days of receiving a completed enrollment request. DFCS says Muscogee is the only Georgia district interpreting the law to require a foster child's case manager to personally handle enrollment, rather than allowing any department-approved custodian, including a foster parent, or agency personnel to do so. The district's communications director, Kimberly Wright, said the district is not violating the law and did not receive a copy of the DFCS letter. She said the district is working cooperatively with DFCS to ensure all required information is obtained.
SB 431 passed both chambers unanimously and amends state code to set a firm enrollment timeline for foster children. It also directs the Georgia Department of Education to create a process for reporting noncompliance and developing corrective action plans when schools miss the deadline. The law builds on a 2025 Georgia school safety bill that addressed missing school records for foster children but did not include specific enrollment time frames, according to The Imprint.
Federal law and state guidance
Federal law has long required immediate enrollment of foster children, regardless of whether they can produce typical documents such as birth certificates or immunization records. The Every Student Succeeds Act, the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act, and the Uninterrupted Scholars Act all establish that schools must enroll foster youth promptly and then work with the prior school to obtain records. The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, before a 2015 change, also applied to children awaiting foster care placement; that population was later shifted to Title I foster care provisions, but the immediate-enrollment principle remains federal policy.
In July 2023, the U.S. Department of Education sent a Dear Colleague letter reminding state and local education agencies of their obligation to ensure immediate enrollment of foster children. The letter noted that foster children are about twice as likely to be chronically absent as their peers and that greater educational stability is linked to higher graduation rates. Joint guidance from the Education and Health and Human Services departments, issued earlier, states that delaying enrollment can harm attendance and result in students being placed in incorrect classes or missing needed academic support.
Research evidence
A study cited in a 2023 federal report, referenced by The Imprint, found that more than 30 percent of students in foster care experience five or more school changes by age 18. Researchers have linked these frequent moves to disciplinary problems, poor academic achievement, and lower graduation rates. The Georgia legislature cited this evidence as part of the rationale for SB 431, which aims to reduce the disruption to foster children's education.
Unverified and tracking
DFCS's letter asserts that the district has a recurring pattern of impeding foster care enrollment and that the current dispute is part of that broader history, according to the Georgia Recorder and The Current. This allegation of a systemic pattern has been reported by two independent news outlets but has not been independently confirmed by an official investigation or audit. No official confirmation exists.