an overview georgia program improvement plan - Department of ...

5 th Quarter DOCUMENTATION: The Supreme Court of Georgia, Administrative Office of the Courts, Child Placement Project,
Model Courts Project, DRAFT, Summer Assessment Review 2003 - A Snapshot of Juvenile Court Performance in Child Deprivation
Cases and Recommendations for Continued Improvement, February 2004
6 th Quarter Report: Achieved. See 5 th Quarter response concerning the analysis of the data indicating that the frequency of reviews
does not necessarily appear to increase time to permanency. Individual case nuances may require more frequent review. However,
the current standard of review continues, with policy encouraging more frequent reviews as needed.
6 th Quarter DOCUMENTATION: .http://www.state.ga.us/courts/supreme/cpphttp://www.state.ga.us/courts/supreme/cpp/
6 th Quarter Federal Response: D7: Need to review documentation (CIP Report) provided which the State uses to assess step as
achieved. The report from the Office of the Child Advocate referenced as documentation is 2 years old and is a scathing report on
DFCS.
7 th Quarter Report: The State has evaluated a sample of court case files annually to see if more frequent hearings lead to faster
permanency. It was the conclusion reached that more frequent hearings did not necessarily lead to expedited permanency. As stated
earlier, the “activist state of the local DFCS and the local court, coupled with the size of the caseload, impacted the swiftness at which
permanency was achieved. With this conclusion reached, the State will not amend its review periodicity, which is within 90 days of
the entering of the dispositional order incorporating the 30-day case plan (but no later than 6 months following removal), and then at
least every six months thereafter. The Office of the Child Advocate Report reference in the 5 th reporting quarter may have been a
"scathing" report on DFCS. As for this Action Step, the reference in the 5 th report was at end of the Office of the Child Advocate's
annual report, entitled 'Time from Removal to Finalized Adoption' and 'Time from Removal to Reunification'.
8 th Quarter Report: Achieved. The CFSR addressed the percent of children achieving timely permanency and found that percentage to be
71.4%. For Georgia to document improvement, ACF agreed (7 th quarter) to allow the state to amend the benchmark for evaluating this action
step to the annual report produced by the Office of Child Advocate. The Office of Child Advocate Report, (reference Appendix G) referred
to in Quarter 5 provides a baseline measure to address the achievement of timely permanency under the current system of review. From April
2000 through March 2002, 77% of children removed from their homes were reunified within 12 months. The national standard is 76%. More
recent data from the state's Key Performance Indicators (KPI), rates the achievement of permanency for children reunified within 12 months.
The KPI percentage rates of timely reunification during the period September 2003 - August 2004 ranges from 74% to as high as 84.97%.
The average rate is 78.61%. Based on the review of findings from the OCA Report it was concluded that more frequent reviews did not
necessarily lead to expedited permanency.
8 th Quarter DOCUMENTATION:
(1) Appendix G of the Office of Child Advocate Annual Report "Time from Removal to Reunification with Parent, Caretaker or Relative
April 2000 through March 2002".
Safe Futures – A Plan for Program Improvement
Georgia Department of Human Resources
November, 2004 Quarter 8 - Work Plan D Page 13