The metropolitan Atlanta foster care system continues to improve its adoption rate and is maintaining strong oversight over its foster homes, but still falls short in several key areas, according to a monitoring report released Friday.
Of the children ready for adoption during the latter half of 2010, 84 percent were adopted within 12 months, according to the report by federally appointed monitors of child welfare systems, which covers the last six months of 2011. An additional 11 percent of adoptions were finalized within 13-17 months. This is the state’s best performance to date and the first time it surpassed the 80 percent performance threshold, the report notes.
The report is the twelfth issued since the “Kenny A.” lawsuit, filed on behalf of all children in foster care in Atlanta, was settled in 2005. The settlement agreement required Georgia to make sweeping reforms to its foster care system and established benchmarks for progress. Every six months, federal monitors file a compliance report.
The period 11 report, which covered the first half of 2011, showed only 67 percent of children freed for adoption were adopted within a year. Carol Hall, director of the Kenny A. Project Team in the Division of Family and Children Services, said the division put a process in place that directly addressed why some children weren't being adopted.
“We’re extremely pleased with our results, extremely pleased,” Hall said.
The increase to 84 percent is notable, said Ira Lustbader, associate director of Children’s Rights, which filed the lawsuit in 2002.
“It’s a really good example of the agency’s ability to own a problem and fix it,” Lustbader said. “They took it to task, and acknowledged the problem, and set a priority, which is exactly what we wanted to see. We are very encouraged.”
But problems still remain. The state fell short in completing investigations in a timely manner, according to the report. The state failed to complete nearly one in five investigations within 30 days, and the decree requires that 95 percent of investigations be completed within that time frame. The newest report did show an improvement of 95 percent being completed in 38 days, a decrease from 40 days in the previous period. According to the report, two percent of investigations were still being investigated after 45 days.
"The kids deserve to see these improvements in the system," Lustbader said.
Sometimes completing an investigation within 30 days isn’t feasible, King said.
“One investigation could require us to collect outside information over which we have no control,” King said.
The division has had lengthy conversations with child’s rights advocates and other organizations and continue working toward completing each investigation within the required time, King added.
The report notes DeKalb and Fulton counties continued foster home retention and recruitment efforts but didn’t reach the goals established for recruiting additional foster homes. Addressing the issue isn’t just a matter of adding more homes, but finding the right types of homes for each foster child.
Overall, Hall said, the state is pleased with its results, but will continue looking at areas it needs to improve. The challenge for the state and the counties, the report notes, “continues to be sustaining high levels of achievement on the outcomes that have been attained while improving performance in the remaining areas.”
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