WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rachel Aldridge’s 2-year-old daughter, Brooklyn, died in DFCS custody in 2018.

Nineteen-year-old Mon’a Houston spent five years in 18 different placements before she aged out of custody. She described being overmedicated, often isolated, and rarely hearing from her caseworker.

The two women were among hundreds of witnesses and sources interviewed by the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Human Rights, which launched bipartisan inquiry into the welfare of children in foster care, with a focus on Georgia.

In January 2018, Brooklyn was removed from Aldridge’s custody after her arrest.

“I had already arranged for my sister, a registered nurse, and brother-in-law, a federal law enforcement agent, to take Brooklyn on the day on my arrest,” Aldridge said at the committee’s hearing Oct. 25. “They knew Brooklyn and are very close family members. She adored them. They were also certified foster parents. DFCS refused to honor my wishes and rejected them as responsible caregivers for Brooklyn.”

Brooklyn, however, was placed in her father’s home. While he was working, Brooklyn was often left in the care of her father’s live-in girlfriend, Amanda Coleman, Aldridge explained. Aldridge said she had concerns about methamphetamine use in the home and noticed bruises on Brooklyn’s body when she visited.

Aldridge said she repeatedly reported her concerns to DFCS but they allowed Brooklyn to remain in the home. Brooklyn ultimately died of blunt force trauma to the back of the head and Coleman was convicted in the murder.

“The system meant to protect children failed Brooklyn at every level, from management down to the caseworker repeatedly,” Aldridge said. “They failed to follow the policies meant to keep my child safe and violated our rights. …The child welfare system is supposed to protect families not destroy them. Brooklyn would still be alive if anyone at DFCS had just been willing to listen to me, her own mother.”

Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-GA, chair of the committee, said DFCS failed to follow several protocols in Aldridge’s case. They failed to allow Aldridge, as Brooklyn’s custodial parent, the right to object to her placement; failed to act on reports of drug and physical abuse; and DFCS failed to run a background check on Coleman before placing Brooklyn in the home.

“If they had run a background check, they would have found that Ms. Coleman had a criminal history and that DFCS had previously pursued a child neglect case against her,” Ossoff said.

Houston, who aged out of DFCS care at 18, said she would often go more than six months without seeing her DFCS caseworker and felt alone. The only time she was able to reach caseworkers by phone was when she was got into trouble at a placement, she said. 

“One of the worst parts about being in care is that I was overmedicated,” Houston told the committee. “DFCS kept telling my doctors to up my dosage because I was not behaving. I was overmedicated to the point of feeling overtired and sluggish. It hurt to walk. But I had trauma and no one to talk about it with.”

After being arrested after a fight at a group home, Houston said DFCS refused to pay her bail. Houston was ultimately offered an own recognizance bond and was subsequently released to DFCS custody.

“They picked me up and put me in a hotel for two weeks. The hotel was my last placement. I thought my case manager was finally coming to see me [but] she sent somebody else instead like always,” Houston said. “This person told me to sign a bunch of papers. I was so angry that my caseworker didn’t show up that I just signed the papers.

She continued: “If I knew what the papers said I would have never signed them. The person said to me, you just signed yourself out of care. You need to be checked out at the hotel by 11 a.m., and we are not responsible to help you get back to Savannah once you’re signed out.”

Ossoff referenced an internal DFCS audit that showed that while DFCS does initiate timely investigations in almost 90% of the abuse and neglect reports that were audited, it systematically fails to address the risks and safety concerns associated with those children.

“According to DFCS’ own internal assessment, DFCS fails in 84% of cases to, ‘make concerted efforts to assess and address risks and safety concerns to children in their own homes or in foster care,’ which is a federal child protection benchmark,” Ossoff said.  

Those failures include: Failing to report or formally assess and investigate maltreatment allegations about a family; failing to substantiate those allegations, despite evidence that would support substantiation; and closing cases before safety concerns are adequately addressed.

Child welfare attorney Emma Hetherington, who is also the director of the Wilbanks Child Endangerment and Sexual Exploitation Clinic at University of Georgia, described some of the horrors and lack of protections her (child) clients have endured in DFCS custody.

“Being placed in solitary confinement with no therapeutic oversight after a suicide attempt … being handcuffed during an intra vaginal ultrasound to confirm pregnancy after being trafficked … being prohibited from going to school in-person by placement that was approved by defects specifically for trafficking victims in order to protect other students and school employees from their promiscuity,” Hetherington recalled. “While my clients may not have suffered these acts of abuse and neglect at the hands of DFCS employees, DFCS knew about this treatment and they did nothing to stop it or remedy it. Instead, they have blamed my clients for their fear, anger and victimization.”

Days after the committee hearing, Ossoff also revealed a recent study conducted by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which found that 1,790 children in Georgia’s DFCS custody were reported missing between 2018 and 2022.

“Children who go missing from care are left more vulnerable to human trafficking, to sexual exploitation, and other threats to their health and safety,” Ossoff said.

The committee plans to release a report and recommendations upon concluding its investigation.

A DFCS spokesperson did not respond to CNHI’s request for an interview to address some of the issues discussed during the committee hearing.  

A Georgia legislative committee has been meeting in recent months to study and discuss foster care and adoption reform. The committee is expected to complete its work by Dec. 1 and generate a report which could lead to legislative proposals or agency recommendations.