Fulton improves foster kids’ legal services

Fulton County has made significant progress in reforming its troubled legal services for children in foster care, according to a report by a court-appointed monitor of the system.

The county Child Advocate Attorney’s Office has expanded its staff and dramatically reduced caseloads for attorneys, largely meeting the demands of a 2006 court settlement.

When the watchdog group Children’s Rights brought the lawsuit in 2002, each attorney represented as many as 500 children in the foster care system. Many children never met the attorneys assigned to represent them in juvenile court hearings, at which critical decisions were made about their lives — including whether they would be returned to their parents or be placed up for adoption, Children’s Rights said.

The county has increased the number of attorneys from four at the time of the lawsuit to 16, bringing down caseloads to a range of 47 to 91 children per attorney, according to the report filed Friday.

The settlement requires casesloads of no more than 80 per attorney, which the county is meeting for all but one of its staff, said the report by retired juvenile court judge William G. Jones. His report on the quality of these services is expected in the summer.

“These children need attorneys who can fight for their rights throughout their time in foster care, especially given the dangerous problems in the broader Atlanta child welfare system that the state is still struggling to reform,” said Ira Lustbader, associate director of Children’s Rights.