Foster Care Crisis in Georgia: Children in Substitute Families Research Paper

Foster care is a substitute care that the court orders to be provided to children who are not safe to remain in their own homes, usually due to parent’s abuse or neglect. It is intended to be a transitory home for the children while the state agency is making arrangements with the parents or relatives for the children to be returned home. Majority of the children in foster care have suffered from abuse and neglect and they need medical, emotional and behavioral attention.

Many of them have physical or psychological problems because of pre-natal exposure to drugs and alcohol, and even multiple foster care placements. These children are from different race and ethnicity and majority of them have siblings that they need to be placed with. Children in foster care are mostly school-aged but there are also a large number who are in the teens.

In the United States, there are more or less 565,000 children in foster care. Around 127,000 of these are qualified for adoption. Majority of the children who leaves foster care return to their biological parents, the rest are being adopted and placed in a group homes. Once a child is eligible for adoption, the child is usually adopted by the foster parent, or sometimes the relative of the child.

In order to secure the welfare of children in foster care, the Federal Law compelled the states to hasten the process of providing these children permanent homes. The 1997 Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) “requires that states ensure foster children have a permanency plan within a year, and termination of parental rights for children who have been in foster care for 15 of the most recent 22 months, or whose parents have killed or seriously injured another child in the family.” (www.adoptioninstitute.org)

Before a child can be legally adopted and have adoptive placements, he or she may have to wait for years. It is only after the court terminates the birth parents’ parental rights can a child be legally adopted. Unless the foster parents or the relatives adopt the child, he or she will wait again for the adoptive placement. The finality of adoption happens after the process of legal adoption is completed.

Foster parents assume the responsibility of taking care of their foster children, but they do not have all the rights of a biological parent. Unless the court terminates the birth parents’ rights, the foster parents cannot be the legal child’s legal parents through adoption. Their primary role is to give temporary support to the children until they can be returned to their birth parents.

Foster Care in Georgia

The Georgia Department of Human Resources Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) is the agency responsible for the foster care in the state of Georgia. It decides whether a child is to be placed in foster care or to remain in the home of their caregiver.

There are about 14,500 children in the custody of the state. Of these: 7,925 are in a family foster care; 657 are placed in child-caring institutions or hospitals; 1,312 are in group homes; 2,861 are placed with relatives or are in the non-abusing parents’ home until the court decide legal custody; 426 are in foster care with relatives; and 463 are free for adoption and placed in adoptive homes. About 857 of the youngsters have serious emotional problems and are being assisted in intensive, intermediate, or therapeutic settings for treatment. The age of the children in the DFCS custody ranges from 0 to 21. The average age is 9. (www.dhr.georgia.gov).

It is also the DFCS who recruits foster parents. About 3,642 family fosters home are in Georgia. Foster parents are volunteers who look after the children placed under the DFCS’ custody. If a child becomes eligible for adoption, it is usually the foster parents who adopt the child.

In order to be a foster parent, the pre-service training by the DFCS must be completed. They must be at least able to meet their own basic needs. The following are the requirements:

• If single, at least 25 years of age and at least 10 years older than the child.
• If married, at least 10 years older that the child.
• Criminal records checks.
• Home safety checks.
• Medical examination.
• References.
• Drug screen.
• Completion of a 2-hour orientation.
• Completion of 20-hour pre-service training.
• Completion of a home evaluation.

Foster parents are not paid, but there is a reimbursement per diem enough to provide the child’s basic daily needs. The reimbursement rate is from $13.86 to $17.75 per day depending on the age and needs of the child. Children in foster care are also granted with initial clothing allowance, free lunches and breakfast at school and eligibility for Medicaid.

The Crisis of Foster Care in Georgia’s

In 2003, Jesse Rasmussen released an evaluation report on Georgia’s foster care system concluded that “for years has been, and remains, grossly inadequate and is failing to provide minimal care and protection for foster children in state custody.” She particularly pinpointed the Division of Family and Children Services being the agency accountable for the foster care in the state. She found that the agency fall short in terms of meeting the standards in children care and protection as required by the state and federal law. The following are the failures cited in her report:

1. The reliance on written plans as opposed to action;
2. The failure to secure necessary resources to effect change;
3. The failure to respond to well-documented problem cases with a sense of urgency (www.library.adoption.com).

In August 2006, the Children’s Rights, an advocacy organization, files a lawsuit against the State of Michigan/Department of Human Services concerning the state’s foster care system. The following are the numerous harms that the child welfare system inflicts on children as specified in the lawsuit:

1. Maltreatment or neglect of foster children while in state custody. This maltreatment occurs because of Defendants; failure to (a) appropriately screen and oversee foster homes; (b) segregate sexually reactive children or physically aggressive children from other foster children; and (c) adequately monitor and support caregivers, including unlicensed caregivers, who provide homes for children in the foster care custody of DHS.
2. A lack of basic physical and mental health services for foster children. Michigan’s foster children are routinely denied the services necessary to address known psychological, behavioral and emotional issues due to the absence of a minimally adequate mental health system.
3. Excessive lengths of stay in state custody. Michigan’s foster children are unnecessarily spending large portions of their lives – and sometimes their entire childhoods – in foster care custody.
4. Frequent moves among multiple placements. Subjecting foster children, who have already undergone the trauma of being removed from an abusive or neglectful home, to repeated changes in their primary caregivers causes serious harm to their development and psychological health.

The causes of these harms, according to the lawsuit, are the severe deficiencies in the state’s foster care system, including:

1. A severe shortage of foster homes. Defendants fail to maintain an adequate number and variety of foster homes and other appropriate placements for foster children.
2. High caseloads and turnover. Caseworkers responsible for overseeing the care and protection of children in Defendants’ foster care custody often have dangerously high caseloads that are frequently multiples of the national standard of 12-15 foster children per caseworker.
3. Poor monitoring of child safety. Michigan’s foster homes are often inadequately screened for safety. Michigan’s foster homes are often inadequately screened for safety.
4. Poor planning and services to move children out of foster care and into permanent homes.
5. Grossly inadequate payments to foster care providers. The payments that Defendants provide to those caring for foster children do not even approach the actual cost of care for a child.
6. Fiscal waste. Michigan regularly fails to collect available federal funds for foster children in state custody, foregoing many millions of dollars that could be used to provide desperately needed homes and services for children (www.bridges4kids.org).

Aside from this lawsuit and the evaluation, the more establishing proof on how serious the crisis of foster care in Georgia are the number of reported deaths and maltreatments of children as a result of this seemingly rotten foster care system.

Terrell Peterson

Terrell died at the Hughes Spalding hospital on the evening of January 15, 1998. He was malnourished, weighing only 29 pounds. His body was scarred and bruised. It was obvious that had been tortured and beaten. He might have died of a blow to the head. He was only five years old.

His mother was addicted to crack and he was born with cocaine in blood. There are a number of recoded phone calls to the Fulton County DFCS reporting how his mother neglected Terrell and his siblings. She was reported taking drugs while pregnant in 1992. She and her spouse were reported locking the children in the bedrooms on weekends without food and water in 1993. In 1995, she was reported using cocaine daily and the children were begging for food from neighbors.

In order to give way to her addiction, she left the children with their grandmother who took Terrell as her object of physical abuse. Several reports of abuse came but Terrell still remained with his foster grandmother. His case finally caught the attention of the authorities when he arrived at the hospital in cardiac arrest and died. Terrell’s foster grandmother, Pharina Peterson was charged with murder along with his foster aunt Terri Lynn Peterson and her boyfriend, Calvin Pittman.

Looking at the records by the hospital, government and criminal justice workers, there are many ways this horrible torture and death might have been prevented. In response to the number of complaints about Terrell’s mother’s neglect and abuse, the Fulton County DFCS was recorded to perform investigations. Obviously, these investigations gained no results. When the boy was taken to the hospital for a third degree burn on his foot, records show that the hospital did not inform the child protection workers. A year before his death, Terrell told authorities about the brutality of his grandmother. A case against her was filed but also dismissed when no one brought Terrell to the court.

Investigations on the caseworkers and staff of the county’s DFCS began to take place just after Terrell’s death. In turned out that of the seven reported complaints against the boy’s mother, only one was handled properly. Sarah Brownlee, the former head of social services for the state, informed the agency’s top Fulton administrator in a letter that they had not really followed the agency policies. She also pinpointed a number or “errors in policy and practice” regarding the abuse charge against the boy’s grandmother. One of the errors that she detailed was the “failure to interview the victim and the children, the failure to go to court and the failure to conduct a decent investigation” (www.gahsc.org)

Another group conducted investigation on the case of Terrell and concluded that it was a system-wide failure. The group was composed of the representative of the medical examiner, district attorney, police, Juvenile Court, public health and the Department of Family and Children Services. They agreed that the boy’s death could have been prevented if every sector of the system did their duties properly.

After these two investigations and report, officials from the various offices started blaming each other. The public was not informed on the progress of this case.

Octavious Sims

One of the factors that causes the deaths and maltreatments of children is the failure to report incidents. But to the many cases of brutality to children in Georgia, this is not true. The case of Octavious Sims is one of these.

There were eleven calls that the Fulton County DFCS received between 1990 and 1996 reporting of the mistreatments of Octavious’ parents. The caseworkers said that only two of the eleven complaints could be verified and only minimal steps were taken to guarantee the safety of the child.

Those who called to report were a hospital social worker, law enforcement officers, a juvenile court worker, a school administrator, a mental health worker, friends, relatives and even the mother of the boy, Tanya Christian.

Octavious’ mother had history of suicidal and homicidal tendencies and was suffering from mental illness. In one instance, a police officer found Tanya and her children wandering the streets. He reported this to the agency but the report was dismissed because when the child welfare workers visited the home, they found the children “clean and well-dressed.”

The police officer and the other people who reported of the child’s condition called back to find out results but were given no answers.

Three days before Octavious’ first birthday, he was killed by his mother and father. He was dead for hours when he was brought to the Midtown Medical Center. Her mother told the investigators that the boy accidentally hit his head while the children were jumping on the bed. But according to the autopsy report, Octavious was starved, immersed in boiling water and beaten to death.

Christian and Ricky Lee Sims pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and were sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Many children remain with their family despite the fact that they are considered abused and neglected by the child welfare system. More often than not, only the serious cases of brutality children are regarded for placing the children in foster care and be removed from their homes. In cases where the child could stay home, the child welfare system is counted on to monitor and check the safety of the children. They are also supposed to be responsible to act if there are reports of threats to children’s safety or well-being.

The Need to Change

Kathy Jo Taylor

Kathy Jo Taylor, unlike the cases of Terrell and Octavious, died while in foster care. She was placed into foster care at the age of two over the protest of her grandmother and aunt. Kathy Jo received injuries from his foster family that led her to coma. She died in 1997 at the age of 17.

This case brought transformation to the way a state monitor foster children. The following are the changes launched:

• Corporal punishment is “absolutely prohibited” by foster parents.
• Caseworkers must make every effort to place children with relatives.
• Potential foster parents must be screened, including a criminal records check.
• Caseworkers must have a face-to-face visit with foster children at least once a month.
• The state must immediately investigate any suspected abuse of a foster child and decide within 48 hours what to do with that child.
• The Taylor case lifted the shroud of immunity that previously protected government workers from being sued (www.gahsc.org)

In response to the lawsuit case files by the Children’s Rights, reforms were made regarding the lawyers representing children in foster care in the Juvenile Courts. A report was released stating that the DeKalb County made significant changes in the caseloads for lawyers and they are improving the quality of legal representation that the children receive.

Along with the resolution is the ruling by the federal court that foster children can have the legal right to effective and zealous legal representation with the Juvenile Court.

The following are what the monitoring report says about the DeKalb County:

• The county has already exceeded the requirements for lowering the caseloads of lawyers. From two child advocate attorneys who were responsible for representing around 1000 children, it increased into 11. Each lawyer now is responsible for 90 or fewer cases.
• The county has improved the quality of legal representation for children in foster care. Advocates are exerting more effort in building up connection or rapport with the children they represent. Children are more encouraged to participate in their cases. This report is particularly emphasizing the children aging out of foster care and the children with serious medical problems.
• The county’s management and administration has improved. Enhanced training and supervision and easier access to support staff are some of the improvements. The offices of the county’s Child Advocacy Center have also been moved into the county’s courthouse for the advocates to have more efficient work with their clients.

These improvements or modifications, though can have huge effect on the crisis, are still minimal looking at the seriousness of the problems. There are still areas that need huge improvements. One of these is the Georgia’s Department of Family and Children’s Services impediment of the lawyers’ ability to gather essential information about their clients. The reports also states that the county should ensure that each child in foster care has up-to-date court order providing legal custody to the child welfare agency. The efforts seem to be curing only the tip of the iceberg. There is still much to improve and modify to guarantee the safety of the children under foster care.

References

Adoption Media, LLC. (2003). Georgia’s “All Talk, No Action” Approach to Foster Care Harms Children. Web.

Child Trends. (2003) Foster Care. Web.

Georgia Association of Homes and Services for Children. (2002). GAHSC: Terrell Peterson Coverage. Web.

Bridges4Kids. (2007). Children’s Rights Sues Over Michigan’s Foster Care System. Web.

Time Inc. (2000). The Crisis of Foster Care. Web.

Children’s Rights. ( 2007). Report: DeKalb County Improving Legal Representation of Foster Children in Juvenile Courts. Web.