This legislation requires DFCS to acknowledge in writing to the informant within 24 hours of receiving information about suspected child abuse and the completion of investigation. This legislation specifies that in the absence of a DFCS agency, the law enforcement agency or prosecuting attorney shall acknowledge receipt of report, and the results of any investigation.  This legislation should have no impact on the counties with DFCS offices, for those without a DFCS office the responsibility will fall to local law enforcement.

This legislation transfers certain responsibilities for juvenile issues from the Department of Human Services (DHS) to the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC). It also creates an advisory board to the CJCC for juvenile justice issues to consist of 33 members appointed by the Governor, that is responsible for creating a three year plan and provide annual reports of progress annually.  This legislation was amended to include the transfer of the licensing of domestic violence shelters from DHS to CJCC. This bill will have no fiscal impact on counties, but could create mandates in the future.

This legislation changes the juvenile code to include recommendations made by the Georgia Council on Criminal Justice. The juvenile code rewrite inadvertently assigned all juvenile traffic cases to juvenile court, which caused a major increase in caseload and the juvenile courts do not have the administrative capability to handle traffic cases.  This legislation corrects the statute to transfer jurisdiction for those traffic cases back to other local courts that handle traffic offenses.  Additionally this bill authorizes the district attorney to file petitions and prosecute CHINS cases in juvenile courts.

County Impact:  District Attorney's can now prosecute juvenile cases. 

This legislation requires that parents or guardians in dependency proceedings may only waive the right to an attorney if the waiver is made knowingly, voluntarily and on the record