GEORGIA, — A 60+ page congressional report claims that hundreds of children have gone missing while in the custody of Georgia's foster care system, highlighting that some were reportedly sex trafficked.
“I wanted them to take away that there is a very serious problem here in Georgia," Emma Hetherington, a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Georgia and Director of the Wilbanks Child Endangerment and Sexual Exploitation (CEASE) Clinic testified in front of the Senate Subcommittee of Human Rights and the Law, which Georgia Democrat Sen. Jon Ossoff chairs.
The report highlighted that nearly 1,800 children who were under Georgia's Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) care were reported missing between 2018-2022. It states that representatives for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children testified that 410 of those children were likely sex trafficked.
DFCS argues that number is "based on national figures and projections, not evidence specific to any case from Georgia."
Hetherington said she believes the trafficking numbers are actually low compared to what’s happening across the state and within DFCS.
“That actually makes sense, given what we know about trafficking victimization, how often kids will disclose that, how often kids went away, and no one is looking for them,” she said.
Hetherington explained that the clinic she oversees, CEASE, opened in 2016 and started working with foster care children in 2017. CEASE is the nation’s first legal clinic dedicated to representing survivors of child sexual abuse.
“The children that we represent are all in foster care who are survivors of child sexual abuse, exploitation or human trafficking and sometimes all there,” Hetherington explained.
Hetherington said some of the children had been exploited before entering into foster care, and their first time being trafficked was in foster care.
“We know there is a high correlation across the country, not just in Georgia, between foster care and sex trafficking,” Hetherington said.
DFCS said in a response to the congressional report that the 1,800 missing children number is likely skewed by those "who were located after they aged out of custody and who declined to sign back into DFCS custody." In those cases, DFCS said, the child has been found but "cannot be reported as back in DFCS care." The agency says recent data from the federal Children's Bureau "lists Georgia as one of the national leaders for its low rate of maltreatment in foster care."
The full report and DFCS response is at the bottom of this article.
Hetherington spoke to the general conditions children in the system face, and noted that a lot of the children in foster care are highly vulnerable.
Previous 11Alive reports show that a predator could target any child from any background, but what makes foster kids more vulnerable is the fact they’re often missing a specific need.
“What we do know about kids in foster care is some of them have been in the custody of the state since they were very young, maybe they were neglected, physically or sexually abused, and as they get older and going through child development, some may start to have behaviors that are a manifestation of their trauma,” Hetherington described.
She added, “At that point, they might run away, especially girls, who tend to run away more, and they’re seeking love, seeking affection, care and sometimes food. They just want someone to love them.”
This is where vulnerability can lead them right into the arms of a predator, she said.
“Traffickers know that these are the kids who are going to be the most vulnerable and most likely to lure in," Hetherington said.
Once they’re groomed and lured in by a predator, it’s often challenging for these children to get out of the cycle, she said. And, as the congressional report stated, many go missing.
However, Hetherington said it’s not solely DFCS’ responsibility to find these missing kids. She explained that certain state and federal requirements must be followed when a child in foster care goes missing.
“Every child in foster care has an attorney... there are judges in these cases, sometimes the child may be on probation, they a have a probation officer, so there are multiple people that should be having eyes on these kids and could report them as missing, but so often they’re not,” Hetherington said.
She said she hopes that with the release of the congressional report, some fundamental changes will be made across the board.
“To me, this is an opportunity to say 'yes, some things are broken here.' And it’s not just Georgia. It’s the entire country," Hetherington admitted. "Every single state has similar issues.”
She added, “Some (states) are better than others, we’re (Georgia) better than others but none of that matters, what matters is that we know that there are gaps in our system, we know there are children that go missing, we know there are children who are trafficked, and no one is looking for them.
“If we can’t work together, if we’re not transparent and we’re hiding information from each other, there’s no way that we’re actually going to find these kids, help them find healing and help reunite them with people who will love them without expectations in return,” Hetherington explained.
She said she hopes those who can make a real difference will step up and help break the cycle many children find themselves in while in the state's care.
“The sad reality is that children in foster care, especially those who have been sexually abused, enter along what’s known as a sexual abuse to prison pipeline,” Hetherington said.
She said it goes back to the behaviors often triggered by past trauma.
“Those behaviors are criminalized, especially in Black and brown girls, LGBTQ youth and those are the population of kids that are disproportional in the foster care system, and because of that, unfortunately, the system doesn’t see them as victims,” Hetherington said.
She added, “I don’t think it’s because they don’t want to, it’s because they don’t necessarily know how to identify, they don’t see those behaviors as making sense for a trauma response lens."