On June 6, 2002, Children's Rights filed this suit, charging that Georgia's Department of Family and Children Services (DFCS) in Fulton and DeKalb Counties is overburdened and mismanaged, placing children at high risk. The lawsuit challenges a system that is failing the very children it is supposed to protect. Among many systemic problems, children are placed wherever there is a bed or a slot and not according to their needs. Social workers have crushingly high caseloads that prevent them from monitoring the safety of children in foster care. Children face further abuse and neglect while in state custody at an alarmingly high rate.

Additionally, when the case was filed, Children's Rights found children languishing for months in dangerous emergency shelters without needed services. In the shelters, foster children of all ages were living in dirty, overcrowded conditions and exposed to violence, sexual assault, prostitution, gang activity, and illicit drug activity. Because the shelter conditions were so grave, Plaintiffs filed for a preliminary injunction, demanding that the DeKalb and Fulton shelters be closed immediately. Ultimately, an injunction was not necessary because DFCS promised to close the shelters. In fact, both shelters were closed by February 13, 2003. The Court found that "few concrete steps were taken to close the shelters before this lawsuit was filed."

Since then, the heart of Children's Rights' reform lawsuit has continued to move forward. In August of 2003, Children's Rights won a significant ruling from the Court, which granted class action status, and ordered that the case proceed to trial on behalf of all 3,000 foster children in Fulton and DeKalb Counties concerning violations of their federal and state rights while in foster care. In September of 2003, in the wake of several recent tragic child deaths, both the Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Human Resources and the Director of the state Division of Family and Children Services resigned. However, the dangerous failures plaguing DFCS will require fundamental changes to the system itself, not a mere rearrangement of leadership. Children's Rights continues the fact-finding discovery process in the lawsuit, collecting information to prepare for trial. Children's Rights and their co-counsel at the firm of Bondurant Mixson and Elmore in Atlanta have reviewed over 100,000 pages of documents and have taken the deposition testimony of over 30 state and county child welfare administrators and managers. Factual discovery has been completed and expert reports have been exchanged. It is anticipated that the trial will be held in spring or summer of 2004.