Melissa Carter

Morehouse School of Medicine has established a Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CAP) Fellowship, in which Emory's Barton Center will play an important part. Barton Center’s Melissa Carter and Randee Waldman hold adjunct faculty appointments that serve to formalize and institutionalize the programmatic partnership between the Barton Center and the Morehouse CAP Fellowship.

The Georgia Division of Family and Children Services dissolved its child abuse registry after four years. Officials say the database made it more difficult to accurately track and punish abusers. However, cases are still tracked via the SHINES Portal, the statewide, automated child welfare information system. Barton Child Law and Policy Center Executive Director Melissa Carter tells the AJC why the dissolution was prudent.

Oklahoma lawmakers may soon sanction private adoption agencies turning away same-sex couples, Religion News reports. Melissa Carter, executive director of the Barton Child Law and Policy Center at Emory Law, opposes Georgia legislation similar to Oklahoma's, calling it unneeded and "unnecessarily hostile from a values standpoint." But she adds: "I don't think it's true that we've seen either a notable increase or a notable decrease (in adoptions) as a result of these bills."

Some Georgia senators say allowing adoption agencies to turn away married gay couples will result in more adoptions of foster children, according to a recent bill. Georgia shouldn't pass laws that encourage adoption agencies to turn potential parents away, said Melissa Carter, executive director of Emory Law's Barton Child Law and Policy Center. Gay children could be harmed if SB 375 passes and faith-based adoption agencies send them back to foster care, she said. "Children will stay in foster care longer, and the longer they stay in foster care, they're less likely to be adopted," Carter said.

Melissa Carter, executive director of Emory Law's Barton Child Law and Policy Center, was quoted in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution story that alleges a volunteer coach with the Pope High School wrestling program sexually abused young boys for years, despite one mother's efforts to have him arrested. In 2017, the coach pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two boys in Pennsylvania. Carter said there appeared to be multiple occasions when adults in positions of responsibility for children failed them. "The law itself is just a minimum, and often the law doesn't answer for us what the ethical or moral thing to do is," Carter said. "We all, as adults, should be aware of the signs and symptoms of abuse."

Proposed changes to Georgia's adoption laws are overdue, says Barton Child Law and Policy Center Executive Director Melissa Carter. Changes include shortening the time a birth mother can change her mind after signing adoption documents from 10 to four days, and allowing adoptive parents to reimburse the birth mother for basic living expenses during the pregnancy. Present laws haven't been updated since 1990. "Prospective adoptive parents will look to adopt children in other states where the laws are more friendly," Carter said. "This bill is a necessary and overdue modernization of our adoption laws."

The Barton Child Law and Policy Center expanded its clinical offerings in 2011 with the addition of the Appeal for Youth Clinic. 

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal says he opposes a Senate effort to add "religious liberty" protections to a bill dealing with adoptions, a change that could allow private adoption agencies receiving public money to refuse to place children with LGBT families. Melissa Carter, director of Emory's Barton Child Law and Policy Center, is also concerned the bill could be defeated because of the proposed change. "It's certainly a possibility that the entire bill could be lost as a casualty of these efforts," she said. Lost in the fight is how much the present laws need an update, she says. "As a legal practice, adoption is a highly technical area. Over time it needs to be updated and modernized."

When Baker & Hostetler Partner Emily Crosby learned how children of incarcerated parents struggle, she contacted Emory Law's Barton Child Law and Policy Center to do something about it. The Support Kids of Incarcerated Parents (SKIP) program recently marked its success with a gala featuring "Orange Is the New Black" author Piper Kerman. Director Melissa Carter tells the Daily Report 11 percent of Georgia's foster children have an incarcerated parent. About 70 percent of children with a parent in jail or prison end up incarcerated themselves.

More than 100 Georgia minors under the age of 18 are in adult prisons. That's due to Georgia's so-called "seven deadly sins" law, which is shorthand for the seven charges that vault juveniles to adult court. The approach was meant to deal with kids who were becoming "super-predators." Melissa Carter, who leads Emory Law's Child Law and Policy Center, says it's time to revisit get-tough on youthful offender laws.

Georgia Governor Nathan Deal has appointed Melissa Carter to the Georgia Commission on Family Violence.

Most of Georgia's child welfare system would be dismantled and turned over to private companies under a new bill introduced this week by Senate lawmakers.

A plan to put private organizations in charge of Georgia¿s approximately 7,000 foster children is moving too fast for some child advocates who want more study before overhauling the system.

A working group of state senators Monday heard a second round of testimony on whether the state should further privatize its foster care system.

An opinion piece by Barton Child Law and Policy Center Director Melissa Carter

Emory Law students worked on the passage of a landmark overhaul of Georgia juvenile code.

Melissa Carter, director of the Barton Child Law and Policy Center, discusses a proposal to overhaul Georgia¿s juvenile justice system that has passed the House and is expected to be before the Senate this week.

A special state council today will recommend repairs for a juvenile justice system that spends $91,000 a year for each bed in its state detention centers. Council members point to the enormous expense of incarcerating young offenders in a state ¿youth development campus,¿ or YDC, while producing poor results, as evidence that the system isn¿t working.

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal appointed Barton Child Law and Policy Center Executive Director Melissa Carter to the Commission on Family Violence.