Class Action Lawsuit Filed on Behalf of Vulnerable Foster Children in Georgia

PRESS RELEASE

Dangerous shelters, high caseloads, racism delaying adoptions cited in lawsuit charging Gov. Barnes and state officials with violating civil rights of children in Fulton and DeKalb counties.

A civil rights lawsuit filed today in the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia, charges that Georgia's Department of Family and Children's Services (DFCS) in Fulton and DeKalb counties is over-burdened, mismanaged and out of control, placing thousands of children under its care in danger and at risk of harm. The lawsuit, Kenny A. v. Barnes, seeks to stop ongoing violations of children's rights and to ensure that DFCS provides proper protection and care for the 3,000 foster children in state custody in Fulton and DeKalb counties. The dangerous conditions putting children at risk include:

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*Caseworker caseloads of at least 35-50 children-two to three times the national standard;
*Dangerous, overcrowded emergency shelters where children languish for months without needed treatment or services, exposed to sexual assault, prostitution, gang activity, and illicit drug activity;
*Longer delays or denied placements in adoptive homes for African-American children because of their race;
*A drastic shortage of foster care placements, resulting in children being placed wherever a bed might be available, instead of according to their needs.

Kenny A. v. Barnes was filed on behalf of nine named plaintiffs-children who have suffered serious physical and psychological harm while in the care of DFCS-and on behalf of approximately 2,000 foster care children in Fulton County and 1,000 in DeKalb County currently dependent on DFCS for their care and protection. Defendants in the lawsuit are: Roy Barnes, Governor of Georgia; James Martin, Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Human Resources; Beverly Jones, Director of Fulton Country DFCS; and, Wayne Drummond, Director of DeKalb County DFCS.
The lawsuit was filed by Children's Rights, a national advocacy group for children, along with co-counsel in Atlanta including Don Keenan and Jane Okrasinski of Keenan's Kids Law Center.

"Given the state's long-standing knowledge of the harm being inflicted on children in its care, there is simply no excuse for continuing to operate a child welfare system so damaging to vulnerable children," said Marcia Robinson Lowry, executive director of Children's Rights. "It is time for the court to act, since state officials have failed to protect these children."

"The foster care system in Fulton and DeKalb counties is in chaos- the hardships children suffer every day in the shelters is just the tip of the iceberg," stated Ira P. Lustbader, associate director of Children's Rights.

Responding to requests from local advocates to investigate Georgia's child welfare system, Children's Rights, over the past year, conducted extensive research and interviews with numerous people involved in every aspect of the child welfare system in Fulton and DeKalb counties. They consistently identified failings that pointed to the need for a lawsuit to force reform of DFCS practices in Fulton and DeKalb counties.

"The law requires parents to protect their children and to give them proper shelter, care, and education," says Jane Okrasinski, legal director of the Keenan's Kids Law Center. "We should be doing the same for children in state custody, but we have failed them miserably on all counts."

The lawsuit requests that the court permanently stop defendants from subjecting the children in the plaintiff class to harm and from threatening their safety and well-being through practices that violate their rights. On behalf of these children, the court is being asked to order appropriate remedial relief to ensure that defendants comply with the law and provide children with legally mandated services.

The nine children who appear as named plaintiffs in the lawsuit include, among others:

*Kenny A., a two-year-old boy needing an adoptive home but instead is repeatedly wrenched from one foster home to another by Fulton DFCS.

*Kara B., a 14-year-old girl who went through 15 different placements to end up in a DeKalb County residential treatment facility where she was sexually abused by a staff member.

*Maya C., a former honor student now confined in the DeKalb shelter where she is losing the opportunity to complete her education, is depressed, and fears for her safety.

*Phelicia D., a 12-year-old girl for whom Fulton DFCS has failed to provide necessary mental health services despite a history of being sexually abused and threatening to take her own life is now placed in a facility with sexually aggressive children.

*Sabrina E. and Korrina E., three-years- and one-year-old sisters who have a couple longing to adopt them. DeKalb DFCS denied the adoption because the couple is not African-American like the girls.

The full stories of all nine named plaintiff children are available on through Children's Rights.

Georgia's foster care system in Fulton and DeKalb counties is marked by the following grim facts, among others:

Multiple Placements:

Approximately 450 foster children in Fulton and DeKalb Counties were moved among at least four different foster placements while in state custody during FY 2000.

Long Stays:

Over 900 Fulton and DeKalb County foster children-one third of all foster children in custody during FY 2000 had been in state custody for four years or more.

Caseloads:

Foster children regularly go six months or more without a visit from their caseworker in their foster homes. Foster children routinely have many different caseworkers, some of who never become really familiar with them or their problems.
Annual caseworker turnover rate is 71% in Fulton County and 33% in DeKalb County, according to the latest available data.

Re-Abuse and Neglect:

State data provided to the federal government shows a rate of abuse or neglect of foster children in Georgia that is nearly twice the federal standard. Maltreatment rates in Fulton and DeKalb counties are believed to be at or above the statewide level.

Dangerous Shelters:

The Fulton shelter frequently exceeds its licensed capacity of 85 children, reaching as many as 118 children in 2001. The DeKalb shelter, licensed for 35 children, housed as many as 55 children at times during the last year.
As many as 28% of the Fulton shelter children and 20% of the DeKalb shelter children were missing on any given day during 2001.
The Governor's appointed child welfare monitor, the Georgia Child Advocate, reported in 2001 that the Fulton shelter is "unfit for the children who reside there," and that the DeKalb shelter "is grossly inadequate for use as an 'emergency shelter'."

Delaying Adoption Because of Race:

African-American foster children are frequently delayed or denied placement in adoptive homes on the basis of their race or color, despite the availability of willing and suitable adoptive parents, because their prospective parents are not also African-American. As a result, African-American foster children remain in state custody unnecessarily for long periods of time.

Funding:

Georgia is failing to claim millions of dollars in available federal funds for its foster children that it could claim and have available for its foster care program.

Georgia pays its foster parents, on average, $2,000 less than the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated yearly cost for raising a child by a family in the lowest income bracket living in the urban south. These per diem payments fall short of the funds needed by foster parents to properly care for foster children.
The Keenan's Kids Law Center was founded to prosecute lawsuits on behalf of Georgia's abused, neglected and at risk children-children who are neglected by the institutions and governmental agencies that are supposed to protect them.

The full complaint filed in Kenny A. v. Barnes is available upon request from Jennine Meyer or Geoffrey Knox at the contact numbers and email provided above.

For additional information on the Georgia case, click below (You must have Adobe Acrobat to view these files):

*Facts Relevant to the Case
*More about the Named Plaintiffs
*Full complaint filed in Kenny A. v. Barnes
*Table of Contents of Complaint
*Signature Page of Complaint

Children's Rights works throughout the United States in partnership with national and local experts, advocates and government officials to document the needs of children in the care of child welfare systems. Children's Rights helps develop realistic solutions and, where necessary, uses the power of litigation to ensure that reform takes place.