Updated: Atlanta foster care system still struggles to meet federal benchmarks
Seven years after a federal lawsuit calling for reforms, Atlanta's foster system still has "a ways to go"
More than seven years after a lawsuit brought the child welfare system in metro Atlanta under federal oversight, officials have failed to meet numerous benchmarks set to ensure a safe environment and positive outcomes for foster children in the state's dependency system.
The most recent federal monitoring report, out today and obtained by CL in advance, shows that Georgia's Department of Human Services (which oversees DFCS, the state organization tasked with investigating child abuse and neglect) made little to no progress in improving the system in the last six months of 2011.