Too many foster children live out their childhoods in foster care bouncing from one placement to the next, usually in a group home, never to find a permanent family to call their own.  For this reason, the Cold Case Project was initiated to find what could be done to facilitate permanency for these children.  The typical cold case child is 14 years old and has been in care are for six years.  Eighty-five percent have some type of disability.  Nearly two thirds live in a group home.  The group as a whole average nine placements per child; 25% had a dozen or more placements. 

In 2009, the Supreme Court of Georgia Committee on Justice for Children began this one-year project.  The Cold Case Project is and continues to be conducted in full partnership and support with the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services and the Georgia Office of the Child Advocate.  Originally, eleven attorneys served as Supreme Court of Georgia Fellows to the project. Cases were reviewed of children who had been in foster care for long periods of time. Reviews of these cases included a look at diligent search reports, case plans, transition living plans, referrals to independent living, permanency hearing order and reasonable efforts to achieve permanency documentation. Legal barriers to permanency and ways to overcome such barriers were pursued. Approximately 200 cold cases have been reviewed in DeKalb and Fulton.

The Cold Case Project is now a continuing project based out of DFCS and is moving to review cases state wide.

read more:
J4C Featured Project
Article by Michelle Barclay from the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange   

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Provider Watch, an email newsletter of the
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                       Normer Adams, Editor
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