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GEORGIA
Item 1.1: Data provided in this report do not reflect all families and children who received preventive services. Information for this report comes from the Georgia Council on Child Abuse (GCCA) and the Children's Trust Fund of Georgia, both of which funnel State and Federal moneys into local preventive efforts. Preventive programs include First Step programs, Healthy Families Georgia, Family Links, Georgia Council on Child Abuse, Atlanta Outreach Center, Family Connection, Home Outreach Mitzvot Program, Starting Points Family Support, Lanier Area Council on Child Abuse Nurturing Program, Interactive Fathering Program, Positive Fathering, Teen Father Program, Moving Fathers In, Fathers and Families Reunification Project, Families and Schools Together, Hope House Parenting Program, Generation-Assisted Parenting Program, Family Preservation After Care Program, Support for At-Risk Parents, Second Step programs, Good Touch/Bad Touch, and the GCCA Statewide Helpline. Item 2.1: Reports not investigated were those that did not contain the components of a CPS report. These components are a child less than 18 years of age, a known or unknown individual reported to be a maltreater, and a report of conditions indicating child maltreatment. Reports not investigated include situations in which no allegations of maltreatment were included in the report or local, county protocols did not require a response. Such situations could have included historical incidents, custody issues, poverty issues, educational neglect/truancy, three previously unfounded reports from the same reporter, an unborn child, or juvenile delinquency. For many of these reports, referrals were made to other resources. Item 2.2: "Other" includes other nonmandated reporters and religious leaders or staff. Item 2.3: Cases assigned for investigation after December 1, 1998, may not have had dispositions available until January 1999. All cases reported in 1998 with dispositions completed by the end of January 1999 and with disposition data entered into the system are part of this report. Items 2.3 and 3.2: Georgia went from a three-tier (Confirmed, Unconfirmed, Unfounded) system to a two-tier (Substantiated, Unsubstantiated) system, based on a Georgia Supreme Court ruling March 20, 1998, which determined that a registry of the names of alleged perpetrators was unconstitutional. In previous years, the "Unconfirmed" tier mapped to the SDC category "Indicated." Item 3.5: The current data source can provide only data for removals that occurred up to the time when an investigation decision was made (policy requires that the investigation be completed within 30 days of the report's being received). Data on removals occurring after the decision, or within 90 days of the decision, were unavailable. Item 4.9: Georgia currently has no source for this item. According to a report by the Child Placement Project Study (a project of the Georgia Supreme Court), representation is not specifically mandated by statute for all deprivation hearings. Georgia's juvenile code does require representation at termination of parental rights. Court-Appointed Special Advocates (CASA's) provided 28,858 volunteer hours to 2,205 children in 1997, but this program keeps no count of individual contacts made. The program continues to expand in Georgia, with most of its work currently in urban areas. In 1998, 2,090 CASA's were appointed to represent children in Georgia. This number does not include court-appointed attorneys (guardians ad litem). The Child Placement Project Study is piloting in three counties a system that eventually will track assignment and contact information. At this time, the pilot includes only tracking information contained in the case plan. However, data on court orders and the representation of children will be added in the next few years. Item 5.1: The data source is the "Georgia Child Abuse and Neglect Report," which is filled out at the completion of an investigation. Item 6.1: The difference in the number of perpetrators and the number of children for whom the allegation of maltreatment was substantiated (Item 3.2) is explained by cases in which one maltreater is responsible for more than one incident of maltreatment. Items 7.1 and 7.2: In larger counties, staff included in these figures devote full time to CPS functions. In smaller counties, staff responsible for these functions may also be responsible for all social service functions. The numbers come from a workload study conducted by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) for the State of Georgia. In the study month of August 16 to September 15, 1998, NCCD found that 31 percent of workers' time in 30 sample counties in Georgia (representing one-quarter of the State population) was used for Investigation and Assessment functions and 6 percent was used for Intake and Screening functions. Applying these figures to Georgia's 777 currently filled CPS positions results in the estimates submitted. |