Better Courts for Kids is a member of the National Association of Court Monitoring Programs.

HOME ABOUT US WHY COURT MONITORING? LEGISLATION HOW YOU CAN HELP		Our Mission As an advocacy group, Better Courts for Kids seeks safety, timely hearings, fair treatment, and ultimately a permanent home for every child in Georgia's foster care system. Our goal is to ensure that juvenile courts serve the best interests of children and are accountable to the public. Better Courts for Kids supports open juvenile court and seeks to establish citizen court monitoring or watch programs in Georgia juvenile courts. The court monitoring program will focus on court procedures relating to time line and accountability standards in deprivation proceedings. Time line standards examine the actual time elapsed from entering foster care to permanacy with nationally established time lines.  Adhering to required time lines helps ensure that children are placed without delay and unnecessary continuances in a permanent home. Accountability standards mandate that judges, attorneys and case workers achieve and maintain high standards of conduct.  These accountability standards require attorneys and case workers to be knowledgeable about child abuse issues and to be fully prepared for all court hearings.  Adherence to time line and accountability standards would encourage judges to deny and/or prevent unnecessary continuances of deprivation hearings.  The overall goal is to prevent children from languishing in foster homes by achieving family reunification, adoption, or appropriate long-term placement with other family members or foster care within a reasonable time.
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