Page 23

23

after the suspected or known abuse. This includes reports of physical or mental injury, sexual abuse or exploitation, or negligent treatment or maltreatment. Intake reports that contain an allegation of abuse or neglect will be shared with local law enforcement. In addition to reports of abuse or neglect from the general public, Georgia has a defined list of mandated reporters that includes, but is not limited to, Division of Family and Children personnel, physicians and other hospital personnel, schoolteachers and other school personnel, law enforcement personnel, and reproductive healthcare facility or pregnancy resource center personnel (O.C.G.A. §19-7-5).

The Georgia Division of Family and Children Services will coordinate and partner with state, county, and municipal law enforcement to promote safety programs and tips designed to prevent the occurrence of statutory rape, including information regarding legal definitions and consequences of statutory rape and the state law regarding the age of consent to reducing teenage pregnancy to satisfy the requirements of 402(a)(1)(A)(vi). Training is designed to reach state and local law enforcement officials and community educators, which include teachers, coaches, nurses, and other health professionals, such as those providing counseling services.

In addition, the Georgia Bureau of Investigations Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC) leads the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children Task Force and provides aggregated quarterly reports. CJCC has contracted with agencies to provide law enforcement, prosecutors, the medical community, and mental health providers on awareness, assessment, warning signs, medical treatment, clinical and counseling treatment, and the referral process. The Department of Public Health’s Sexual Violence Prevention Unit and the Rape Prevention Education Program provide information from state law regarding statutory rape.

II. Special Provisions

A. Interstate Program Regulations

A family subject to the TANF lifetime limit that moves into Georgia from another state can receive TANF cash assistance for the 48-month limit established by Georgia, regardless of a different lifetime limit in the previous state of residence. Assistance received in any other state in January 1997 or thereafter counts toward Georgia’s 48-month lifetime limit on the receipt of TANF cash assistance.

B. Non-Citizen Provision

TANF is provided to qualified aliens in the same manner as to citizens of the United States. For aliens who are victims of severe forms of trafficking, cash assistance is provided to the same extent as to aliens who have been granted refugee status. Federal funds will be used except for those aliens who enter the United States on or after the date of the enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 and who are not exempted by law from the five-year prohibition. TANF cash assistance is paid out of 100% state funds to those qualified aliens who are not eligible for federally funded TANF solely because of their date of entry into the United States.