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.