Committee on Justice for Children (cj4c)

Improving the knowledge on the law regarding notice and opportunity to be heard is part of an on-going training effort mainly because foster parents are constantly moving in and out of the child welfare system. Many drop out after adopting children from foster care or only foster for a while, so the training effort needs to be on-going, local and accommodating to foster parents who always need child care.

1. Chief Justice to send a letter to all the juvenile court judges regarding the legal requirements of notice and right to be heard for foster parents when the law was updated
2. J4C staff and the project lead communicate regularly with the Adoptive Foster Parent Association of Georgia (or AFPAG) to keep their website up to date
3. Survey the foster parents annually to seek out implementation information about the law
4. Teach the law and the survey results at the AFPAG annual conference
5. Teach the law and survey results at local foster parent association membership meetings around the state.

The letter from the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia has been sent. J4C staff regularly send updates to AFPAG leadership and updates are posted on the AFPAG website. Click here to view the website. The AFPAG president serves as an advisor on our J4C committee. J4C staff conduct an annual survey at every AFPAG conference about implementation of notice and right to be heard. Click here to view the survey. Judge Hammond, Michelle Barclay and Melissa Carter jointly taught a class at the recent AFPAG conference about those survey results and about the law. Click here to view the documents from that presentation. A contract has been signed with AFPAG and Judge Hammond to provide the same class taught at the AFPAG conference but at a local level and on a monthly basis around the state.