Eleven-year-old I. B. was hit by a car while in foster care. His parents, Louis Bulbalia and Beverly Kerr, filed suit against the Georgia Department of Human Resources “DHR” and the DeKalb Community Service Board “DCSB” under the Georgia Tort Claims Act “GTCA”,1 alleging that the defendants were negligent in failing to properly supervise, monitor, control, and care for I. B. DHR and DCSB filed a motion to dismiss on the ground that they are immune under the doctrine of sovereign immunity and a motion for summary judgment. The defendants appeal the trial court’s denial of both motions. We affirm, for reasons that follow. Summary judgment is proper when there is no genuine issue of material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. A de novo standard of review applies to an appeal from a grant of summary judgment, and we view the evidence, and all reasonable conclusions and inferences drawn from it, in the light most favorable to the nonmovant.2 So viewed, the evidence shows that I. B. was ordered into the custody of DHR on October 1, 2002 after he ran away from home several times.3 He was placed in the Gwinnett Children’s Center in December 2002, but after a DCSB psychiatrist determined that I. B. was acutely suicidal, the child was placed in the DeKalb Crisis Center and then transferred to Peachford Hospital for treatment, where he continued to threaten suicide and exhibited other symptoms of mental illness. Based on his problems, DHR and DSCB placed I. B. in therapeutic foster care with Darlene and Lindsay Blair. While living with the Blairs, I. B. was delusional, tried to run away, and made numerous suicide threats. Based on acute psychosis and suicide threats, I. B. was involuntarily admitted to Georgia Regional Hospital in November 2002, where he was evaluated by a physician who determined that he might be mentally ill and might present a substantial risk of imminent harm to himself or others or might “be so unable to care for his own physical health and safety as to create an imminently life-endangering crisis.”4 I. B. was discharged from Georgia Regional on December 5, 2002, and he returned to the Blairs’ home.
On January 3, 2003, the Blairs both went to work, leaving I. B. at home with Darlene’s father-in-law, James Tillman, and her 17-year-old son, B. J.5 At approximately 3:00 p.m.,6 B. J. called Darlene at work and told her that I. B. was threatening to run away. Darlene immediately headed home, remaining on her cell phone with B. J. While Darlene was on the phone, B. J. told him that I. B. had succeeded in getting out of the house; B. J. followed him, but I. B. disappeared. Darlene called the police from her cell phone, and when she arrived home, she, B. J., and Tillman looked for I. B. When they were unable to locate him, Darlene called 911 a second time.7 Later that night, a social worker from Grady Hospital called and informed the Blairs that I. B. had been hit by a car at approximately 6:00 p.m. and has sustained serious injuries.
