2002 GEORGIA LEGISLATURE: Barnes lauded for child welfare focus
But advocates say the state could be doing much more
Jane O. Hansen - Staff
Friday, January 18, 2002

Shawn Huff should not have been at the Georgia Capitol on Thursday. He shouldn't have been speaking before an audience that included the governor. And he shouldn't have been acting like a ray of hope.

As a former foster child who was beaten so severely he lost his eye and some hearing by the time he was 5, Huff, now 30, shouldn't have beaten the odds. But he did. And Thursday, at an event staged to thank Gov. Roy Barnes for sparing child welfare from budget cuts, Huff stood as a powerful success story and quiet reminder that the state hasn't done enough to protect Georgia's abused and forgotten children.

"We must be willing to recognize that services to protect children have to be comprehensive and sustained over time," said Huff, assistant director of an Atlanta organization that helps foster children become successful adults.

He made his remarks to about 200 child advocates, legislators and judges who gathered to thank Barnes for his continued support of child welfare services.

In a year of budget cuts, Barnes on Wednesday unveiled $14.4 million in new money for child protective services. Among the improvements: $3.5 million for 100 new caseworkers; $3.9 million for mental health and other services designed to keep families together; and $2.1 million to care for a projected increase of children in foster care.

These increases are on top of the $32 million Barnes pushed through the Legislature last year to increase the number of caseworkers, their salaries and the daily rate paid to foster families.

But they fall far short in the face of huge needs, advocates say. Last year, the state Division of Family and Children Services investigated more than 54,000 child abuse or neglect allegations; more than 34,000 were confirmed.

"More families are in trouble in Georgia, and as the economy slides, more kids are coming into foster care," said Normer Adams, executive director of the Georgia Association of Homes and Services for Children. "That's what scares us."

The proposed increases are "a drop in the bucket," said Don Keenan, a lawyer who sued the state, hoping to overhaul the child welfare system. "We're going to have group homes that are going to have to shut their doors this year because the state failed to reimburse them the way they promised."

Dee Simms, appointed by Barnes in 2000 to act as watchdog over the child welfare system, praised Barnes' budget, calling the increase in caseworkers the most significant piece. "We need to reduce the caseloads," she said.

But Simms pointed out that the department requested twice the number of caseworkers as Barnes recommended. In her first annual report released this month, Simms said the child welfare agency "is operating in crisis mode."

A federal review released last October also found Georgia's child welfare system needed more experienced caseworkers, safer emergency shelters for children and a range of mental health and substance abuse services.

It's a matter of priorities, Huff said, and Georgia has yet to make children a big enough one.

"On Sept. 11, this nation experienced a terrible tragedy," Huff said. "But for decades, our children have been experiencing tragedy. The airlines were able to procure in two weeks billions in bailout money. Yet we have never given child welfare the priority to bail out kids who are failing and losing their lives."