DEPENDENCY
The set of laws
that regulates protective placement of children by the Department of Family and
Children Services is known as the Juvenile Code and is contained the Official
Code of Georgia, Title 15, Chapter 11. A parent whose child has been removed is
entitled to legal representation. If the parent is indigent, the Court will
appoint an attorney, but parents who do not qualify for indigent counsel must
hire an attorney or face the process without representation. The Juvenile Code
dictates strict timelines by which cases are decided and moved through the
system. This means that parents whose children are judged to be dependent have
only a short time to fix what it is about themselves, the home, or the family
that made the child unsafe. This is done by following a Case Plan, which
establishes what services the DFCS will provide to the parent to remedy the
causes of dependency and what the parent must accomplish in order to show that
it is safe for the child to return home. A skilled child welfare attorney guides
a parent through this process, assures that the Case Plan is effective and
realistic, and advocates for the return of the child as soon as possible.
Without effective representation, a parent risks getting saddled with an unfair
case plan, a lack of services, and a case that simply stagnates while the child
remains in foster care.