A woman charged over one of South Australia's worst cases of child neglect is wanted on a warrant after breaching the terms of her supervised licence.

Trudy Quinlivan, 35, was one of six adults to be sentenced over the abuse of young children at a home in Adelaide's north in 2008.

Twenty-one children were found living in squalor at the home after suffering prolonged abuse under a strict regime implemented by the adults who lived with them.

The Supreme Court previously heard five of the children were emaciated and had been starved and beaten, and were choked to make them regurgitate scraps of food they had scavenged.

The children were also often forced to stand against a wall for hours.

Quinlivan was deemed mentally unfit to stand trial because of her extremely low intelligence and was released into the community on a strictly supervised licence for nine years.

The licence is the equivalent of the sentence she would have received had she been fit to stand trial and been found guilty.

Three men and two other women were jailed over the abuse.

The Supreme Court was told Quinlivan had breached the terms of her licence by not following the directions of a community corrections officer, not residing at a specified address and by failing two drug tests in the last two months.

The court heard she had tested positive for cannabis, codeine and morphine.

Quinlivan did not appear in court and the prosecution said she had not been seen for a week.

The court heard her last two addresses were visited by a member of the forensic mental health team and her mobile phone was called frequently.

Justice Ann Vanstone issued the warrant and Quinlivan will have to face court when she is arrested.