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Southwest Florida Child Advocates to Gather Oct. 2 to Honor Foster Kids, Supporters

August 25th, 2014   No Comments   Advocacy, News & Events

Are you a Florida children advocate? Join Florida’s Children First, the state’s premier foster child advocacy organization, as it hosts its annual fundraiser and awards events in Sarasota this fall. The events will celebrate recent successes in the Florida Legislature, and the child advocates who help the state’s at-risk kids throughout the year.

Florida’s Children First 2014 Sarasota Reception will be held on Thursday, October 2, 2014 from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM at the Sarasota Yacht Club (1100 John Ringling Blvd., Sarasota, FL 32436).

Florida’s Children First will honor child advocates in Sarasota at its annual fundraising and awards event. Community and business leaders, and all other persons concerned about the future of Florida’s children, especially abused, abandoned and neglected children and youth, will be in attendance.

The event will honor Senator Bill Galvano, Champion of Children’s Rights. Senator Galvano has been a member of the Florida Senate since 2012, representing the District, which serves DeSoto, Glades, Hardee and parts of Charlotte, Highlands, Hillsborough and Manatee Counties.

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Central Florida Child Advocates to Celebrate Children, Supporters and Big Legislative Wins

August 21st, 2014   No Comments   Advocacy, Florida Youth Shine, Funding

Foster child advocates and supporters of at-risk children from across Central Florida will join Florida’s Children First, the state’s premier foster child advocacy organization, in September as FCF hosts its annual fundraiser and awards event. This year’s event will be special cause for cheer as advocates celebrate recent successes in the Florida Legislature – and the child advocates who help the state’s at-risk kids throughout the year.

Florida’s Children First 2014 Orlando Reception will be held on Thursday, September 18, 2014, from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM at the Law Offices of Broad & Cassel.

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Florida Department of Children and Families Adds New Data to Child Deaths Site

August 17th, 2014   No Comments   Abuse, Advocacy, Department of Children & Families (DCF), Investigations, Legislative & Regulatory Issues

Florida child abuse attorneys and advocates are watching a move to boost transparency around the deaths of children known to the Florida Department of Children and Families to be at risk of harm. The agency has added to a new website five years of data regarding child abuse deaths.

The pubic site, which was mandated by the Florida Legislature in the wake of the deaths of almost 500 children over the past several years, is being updated each week. It includes new data on the fatalities children stemming from neglect, abuse or other harm.

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Child Advocates: Hotels, Offices No Place for Florida Foster Children

August 11th, 2014   No Comments   Advocacy, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

Over-crowding among foster children in Miami-Dade County and throughout Florida has child advocates watching closely as the situation unfolds – and as the Department of Children and Families and its community based agencies deal with the outcomes.

News about the placements broke earlier this month and forced Florida DCF to jump into action. This situation has existed for more than a year. This year, one agency said it has seen a 44% rise in the number of kids entering the system, and is actually working with 33% more kids this year over the same time last year.

The news came on the heels of sweeping changes by the Florida Legislature to how the state handles foster children and at-risk youth populations. After a year of intense scrutiny, especially following news that almost 500 kids known to the DCF had died over the past several years, the new laws took effect July 1.

Yet the lack of placements in Miami-Dade County exacerbated the problem.

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As ‘Crisis’ Looms, We Praise Florida Foster Families in Protecting At-Risk Kids’ Needs

August 8th, 2014   No Comments   Advocacy, Commentary, Department of Children & Families (DCF), Foster Care

The Florida foster child care system can be a challenging place for foster kids – and foster families. Much as the state encourages families to volunteer to provide stable, if temporary, homes to these at-risk children, foster parents find a blend of reward and difficulty in their tasks.

It’s an unenviable situation across the board. A newspaper investigation found that 477 kids who were known to be at risk by the Florida Department of Children and Families were not removed from their homes. Instead, the agency has supported a policy of “family preservation,” believing that a safe natural family home is the best place for at risk kids.

We agree. But for those kids who are truly in harm’s way, removal – at least temporarily – often is the answer.

In the wake of the investigation, experts believe more kids will be removed from their biological families. If that’s the case, adults and families must be encouraged to become foster providers to nurture at-risk children as attempts are made to help biological parents create safe and nurturing homes for their children.

Read this Florida Weekly story on the successes and trials of foster families. You’ll discover who they are, why they care for at-risk children, how they’re treated – and mistreated – by the system, and why many have fostered dozens of children and even helped some biological parents become better parents to their children.

We applaud their efforts.

Florida Foster Child Attorney Hits TV to Support Children’s Services Council

August 3rd, 2014   No Comments   Advocacy

In November, Broward voters will be asked if the Children’s Services Council should remain in existence. Reauthorization for each Children’s Services Council in Florida is required by law to ensure electoral oversight on how taxpayers’ dollars are used and to justify themselves to voters.

Howard Talenfeld, co-chair of Citizens for Broward’s Children countywide political action committee that supports the reauthorization recently took to the media to discuss the importance of this measure. Talenfeld also is founder and president of Florida’s Children First, the state’s premier foster child and at-risk children’s organization.

Children’s Services Council “is everything, from all of the early education programs and truancy prevention programs to tutoring and independent living,” he said. “We’re now seeing because of these kinds of programs and the outcome measurements from these programs dramatic improvements in what is happening with children.”

Watch his entire interview below.

Florida’s Children First to Host Two Fall Events for Foster Children Advocates

July 29th, 2014   No Comments   Advocacy, Florida Youth Shine, Fundraising & Support

Florida’s Children First, the state’s premier foster child advocacy organization, will host its annual fundraisers and awards events in Orlando and Sarasota this fall. The events will celebrate recent successes in the Florida Legislature, and the child advocates who help the state’s at-risk kids throughout the year.

Florida’s Children First 2014 Orlando Reception will be held on Thursday, September 18, 2014, from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM at the Law Offices of Broad & Cassel.

Florida’s Children First 2014 Sarasota Reception will be held on Thursday, October 2, 2014 from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM at the Sarasota Yacht Club (1100 John Ringling Blvd., Sarasota, FL 32436).

Continue reading for honorees and event details…

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New Law a Start, Now Florida Legislature, Agencies, Advocates Must Monitor Children’s Safety

July 2nd, 2014   No Comments   Abuse, Advocacy, Department of Children & Families (DCF), Legislative & Regulatory Issues

With regard to The Herald’s series, Innocents Lost, about the 477 children who died while known by the Department of Children and Families to potentially be at risk, the cases all involved DCF’s knowledge from prior investigations of multiple red flags for children who would be at significant risk of future serious harm or death if left with their families.

In no system should children die at the expense of keeping families together, and this is where the Florida Legislature new enactment SB 1666 placed child safety as paramount. However, this law does not change federal mandate under the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 for states to use reasonable efforts to preserve families where it can, without jeopardizing the lives of children.

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As Governor Signs Bills, Legislative Session Proves Good to Florida’s Medically Needy, Dependent Children

June 26th, 2014   No Comments   Advocacy, Commentary, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

It was an especially successful legislative session for at-risk, medically needy and other foster care children throughout Florida. After passing the Legislature with bi-partisan support, two bills were signed into law this week by Governor Rick Scott ensuring Florida’s most vulnerable children have the best care from the Department of Children and Families, and skilled legal representation when in the dependency system.

The first bill was an overhaul of DCF’s child welfare process. The second bill “could begin to give voice to children long rendered voiceless,” the Miami Herald wrote. Howard Talenfeld, a leading child advocacy attorney and foster care damages lawyer and supporter of the new laws, had said this has been a long road.

“It’s been our mission since 2002 to enact a law like this because disabled children are the most vulnerable children to come into our child welfare system. Unfortunately, they have to face a maze of bureaucratic hurdles in order to obtain the benefits they need to be safe and to survive in the foster care system,” the Herald quoted Mr. Talenfeld, who also is president of Florida’s Children First, the state’s premier child advocacy organization.

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Foster Child Attorney Praises Governor Scott for Signing Dependent Child Bill

June 26th, 2014   No Comments   Advocacy, Dependency

Comments from North Florida foster child advocacy attorney Gloria W. Fletcher, who also is Vice President of Florida’s Children First, the state’s premier child advocacy organization, were published in a press release from Florida Governor Rick Scott. The governor’s announcement discussed his signing of House Bill 561, which requires the appointment of an attorney to represent dependent children who have special needs, unless a pro bono attorney represents the child.

Ms. Fletcher had high praise for a number of advocates and lawmakers who sponsored, backed or supported this important bill. Read Gov. Scott’s release here.

In her comments regarding Gov. Scott, Ms. Fletcher wrote, “It takes more than leadership to sign a bill that will help a constituency who cannot vote, has no money to donate to campaigns, and may never know the heroes who came to their aid. But that’s the true definition of character.

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North Florida Gainesville Foster Child Lawyer: We Must Break Cycle of Abuse to Keep Kids From Repeating It

June 23rd, 2014   No Comments   Abuse, Advocacy, Commentary, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

North Florida and Gainesville foster child attorney and children’s advocate Gloria Fletcher wrote this letter in response to news that a 2-year-old boy, Justin Polk, was beaten and strangled to death in an Orlando-area hotel room. While no one’s been charged with his death, the Florida Department of Children and Families had been called to Justin’s home several times for reported domestic violence. If the reports were true and had Justin survived, writes Ms. Fletcher, who also serves on Florida’s Children First, he might have continued to live amid the cycle of abuse that scars society. We must break that cicle. Below is her letter…

Child advocate attorneys like myself in Gainesville, Ocala and throughout North Central Florida often fight in courtrooms and the public realm to protect the rights, health and welfare of Florida’s at-risk children. But all too often, the worst abuses go on in places we cannot see or reach – behind the family’s closed doors.

That’s apparently where 2-year-old Justin Polk died this month. He died in an Orlando hotel room of blunt force trauma and strangulation. No one has been charged with his death, though his mother and her boyfriend were arrested on charges of child abuse.

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Sen. Sobel Calls Florida Department of Children and Families Missing Records Inquiry a ‘Whitewash’

June 14th, 2014   No Comments   Abuse, Advocacy, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

State Senator Eleanor Sobel (D-Hollywood), a staunch advocate for the state’s at-risk children and chairwoman of the Senate’s Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee, has spoken out against the Department of Children & Families investigation records relating to kids who died under DCF watch “a cover-up and a whitewash,” according to news reports.

The investigation explored the agency’s inability to present documents and records regarding the kids’ deaths, especially those of 30 children in Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, Okeechobee and Broward counties in DCF’s Southeast Region. Some have suspected possible destruction of child death records.

“I just think this is a huge cover-up that is going on to save their jobs and protect their public image at the expense of these kids,” Sen. Sobel was quoted in the Miami Herald. “They are obstructing information, they are obstructing justice, and they are obstructing transparency.”

At the request of the newspaper, the inquiry by DFC resulted in no records, files, emails or even hand-written notes.

“…though the inquiry was designed to quell criticism that DCF was hiding details — and entire records — regarding the deaths of children the agency is tasked with protecting, agency watchdogs and children’s advocates now have no means of scrutinizing the work product,” the paper reported.

Read the entire story here.

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