| Placement Stability |
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Lead: Judge Jackson Harris
The Placement Stability project seeks to determine ways in which the judiciary can assist in assuring placement stability for children in deprivation cases. Members Major Goals for Ensuring Placement Stability:
Strategies – Stakeholder meetings, published paper, teaching opportunities
Strategies – Collect research on what works to stabilize placements such as: good initial assessments, placement with relatives, specialized foster care, other stability factors such as school, siblings, medical needs.
An example: Georgia judges can ensure that an DFCS assessment is presented in court in a timely manner and that the recommended placement is followed and if not, explain why on the record. Rationale: A Georgia DFCS sponsored study revealed that children who received the preferred level according to their assessment remained stable 92% at year one. Those that did not receive the preferred placement level were stable 68% at year one. Click here to view the study. The conclusion drawn at the end of the study was that following the recommended placement level equals greater placement stability. Historical hearing form to be used in all announcement of court hearings
Strategies – Judge or attorney introduces every child’s case with small history including the child’s name, age, placement type, number of placements up to that time, and recommended placement for the said child based on the initial assessment.
Progress:
Frequent moves can have a negative impact on a child’s educational, health and social development. In 2007, the committee on Justice for Children was instrumental in getting a law passed (Act 325) during the legislative session to ensure notice to all parties and the court about impending placement changes of children in foster care. The purpose of this notice is to allow an opportunity for all parties to raise an objection to the placement change as well as to seek review of reasonable efforts to prevent multiple unnecessary placement changes. In addition, J4C, in partnership with DFCS and other contributors, wrote an implementation guide for Act 325 and published it to the J4C website. Click here to view the Implementation Guide. J4C has data from state DFCS which shows placement stability has been improving for the past few years and the CFSR showed that Georgia met the federal standard on its measure related to placement stability.
Relevant Links:
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