Every year, Georgia’s Division of Children and Family Services (DFCS) authorizes drug tests for thousands of parents who are under investigation for child mistreatment or are seeking to reunify with their children in the foster care system.
The system is set up to protect children and allow institutions to evaluate whether Georgia parents are on the right track or unfit to care for a child. But what parents, judges and county caseworkers may not know is that the nationwide testing company that DFCS paid to administer the tests, Averhealth, was embroiled in allegations of widespread laboratory testing inaccuracies.
“The Current GA is a small but mighty staff, but we had a new lead on a long-term story that we needed help to get to publication. Rose Ciotta visited our newsroom and met everyone — we were so comfortable with her thoughts that we knew IEC would be a match. They worked to find an editor with expertise in Georgia child custody law, Ken Foskett, and he and Jake Shore worked as partners for 7 months to push the story to the finish line. I’d recommend IEC for any newsroom looking for expertise and experience for the tough stories that need to be told.
-Susan Catron
We’re grateful for the experience and we hope it’ll match again.”
Managing editor | The Current GA
Editor: Ken Foskett
Ken Foskett teaches investigative reporting to early career journalists in the master’s
degree program for investigative journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism
and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. As a visiting professor at
Cronkite’s Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, Foskett leads students in
reporting, writing and publishing investigations that meet professional standards and
follow Cronkite’s teaching-hospital methodology of learning. Foskett’s professional
career spanned 32 years at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in Atlanta, where he
published award-winning work as both a reporter and editor. He is president emeritus of
the Georgia First Amendment Foundation, past chair of the Atlanta Press Club and
holds board positions at both organizations. He is the author of Judging Thomas: The
Life and Times of Clarence Thomas (William Morrow, 2014) and lives in metropolitan
Atlanta.
Editor: Sarah Cohen
Sarah Cohen worked as a reporter and editor specializing in data reporting at The New York Times and The Washington Post. She has also served as the Knight Chair in Journalism at both Duke University and Arizona State University.
As a database editor at The Washington Post, she shared in the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting and was a Pulitzer finalist for public service.
Cohen is currently working with Big Local News in support of local investigative reporting and serves as a board member of the Fund for Investigative Journalism and Investigative Editing Corps. She is a former president of Investigative Reporters and Editors.
Top image: Kristen Clark-Hassell is seen at the playground where she used to play with her children in Camden County, Ga., on November 20, 2024. Clark-Hassell had her parental rights terminated in 2022 after the state drug tested her using a lab probed for false claims, and the results came back positive. She denies using drugs. (Justin Taylor/The Current GA)