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Florida’s Children First to Hold 2014 Broward Child Advocacy Awards & Reception on Feb. 27

January 21st, 2014   No Comments   Advocacy, News & Events

Florida’s Children First, the state’s premier child advocacy organization, will hold its 2014 Broward Child Advocacy Awards & Reception on Thursday, February 27 at 5:30pm at the 110 Tower in Fort Lauderdale (110 SE 6th Street, Fort Lauderdale 33301).

The event will honor:

Children’s Services Council of Broward County as the Children’s Advocate of the Year

Taevon Pierre & Aaron Dames as the Youth Honorees of the Year and

Forever Family Bella’s Group as the Youth Inspiration Award

Master of Ceremonies  will be Todd Templin, former WPLG reporter and current Vice President with Boardroom Communications.

Sponsors include Boardroom Communications; Colodny Fass Talenfeld Karlinsky Abate & Webb; Guardian Trust: Coral Gables Trust; Lifestyle Media Group; Daily Business Review; and Paul Palank Memorial Foundation.

For more information, contact: Debby Beck (fcf@floridaschildrenfirst.org or 954-796-0860).

We hope to see you there!

In Passing, Florida Child Highlights Fight for In-Home Skilled Care for Sick, At-Risk Kids

January 14th, 2014   No Comments   Advocacy, Disability Issues

The death of Karolina Gonzalez was more than the passing of a 12-year-old child known as a fighter to her family and children’s advocates who knew her. It was the final page in an ongoing story of a mother’s love for her daughter, and her battle with state health administrators to receive skilled in-home care for her daughter so Karolina could be cared for at home – and not institutionalized in a nursing home. Karolina’s struggle is over, yet she remains the personification of many families’ struggles to receive the in-home care needed to live “normal” lives.

Karolina suffered from the rare genetic disorder called Marshall-Smith Syndrome. Those affected often suffer severe breathing impairments, facial abnormalities and irregular bone maturation.

From when Karolina was diagnosed at age 4, her mother Marcia Saladin battled Florida healthcare administrators for their refusal to offer round-the-clock in-home assistance – and force parents either to provide the care or institutionalize affected children. The financial, physical and emotional burdens for many are insurmountable. The United States government eventually joined the battle.

Institutionalization was not an option for Saladin and Karolina. Hardships notwithstanding, Saladin appealed the state’s ruling and convinced the Agency for Health Care Administration to reverse its policy. 

Howard Talenfeld, the attorney who handled the family’s appeal, told the Miami Herald, “She inspired us all to fight for her and other children just like her. This was a little girl who couldn’t walk, who couldn’t talk, but she touched all of our lives.”

Florida Children’s Rights Attorney Calls for Gov. Scott to Make Right Call for DCF Head

January 1st, 2014   No Comments   Advocacy, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

In a letter entitled, “Scott and DCF must get it right,” Florida children’s rights attorney Gloria Fletcher argues in the Tallahassee Democrat that she and other child advocates are watching closely as Gov. Rick Scott weighs candidates and implications surrounding his next choice for secretary of the Department of Children and Families. The reason is clear, she says.

“The post and agency have been among the highest-profile — and most embattled — in the state over the past few years. The facts are heart-wrenching. More than two dozen children known to be at risk or under the watch of DCF have died in the past few years.”

“Like the governor, the candidate should have one over-arching belief,” Fletcher writes. “The mission of DCF is to serve at-risk kids and to ensure that the providers paid by the state to care for the state’s most vulnerable are held accountable for providing professional services. The kids must come first.”

Read the entire letter here.

Child Advocate: Should Permanent Florida DCF Chief Come From Within the Agency?

December 24th, 2013   No Comments   Advocacy, Commentary, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

As Florida Gov. Rick Scott mulls the naming of his next permanent secretary of the Florida Department of Children and Families, the post invariably will require someone up to the rigors and demands of the job. After all, dozens of children have died while under DCF watch. This leaves some to wonder whether the governor should look outside the agency – or first consider someone already there.

The post will be difficult to fill also because the term could be short, depending on outcome of the 2014 election.

Howard Talenfeld, a children’s rights lawyer and child advocacy attorney, and president of the watchdog group Florida’s Children First, admitted to a reporter recently that filling the post creates “a huge challenge” in “getting a quality secretary who would not have even a year to serve.”

Maybe the answer can be found within the agency, Talenfeld said. “”I would be hopeful that the department looks at some of the people who are there. There are some quality folks.”

Read the entire story and interview here.

Florida’s Vulnerable Children Need Your Support This Holiday Season – And All Year Long

December 23rd, 2013   No Comments   Uncategorized

Did you know some 19,000 children in the state of Florida won’t have a permanent and loving home this holiday season? Your financial support can help to protect these children. Help a foster youth have love and support this holiday season with Florida’s Children First.

Florida’s Children First is the state’s premier child advocacy organization. Donating just $10 today will help FCF protect the rights of not just one child, but all children in care – all year long.

Florida’s Children First receives no state or federal funding. We rely on the generous donations of people like you to continue advocating for the rights of children.

Donate Here

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Increased Scrutiny Makes Gov. Scott’s DCF Appointment Critical for Future

December 20th, 2013   No Comments   Advocacy, Commentary, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

By Howard Talenfeld

The post of Secretary of the Florida Department of Children and Families is one of the toughest jobs in Florida – and especially in Tallahassee. With the deaths of more than 20 foster children and at-risk kids under DCF watch, the result has been heightened scrutiny upon the agency. It also resulted in the resignation of embattled chief David Wilkins who was replaced by interim Secretary Esther Jacobo, who has taken some important first steps to fix the system by bringing in qualified child welfare experts to assess Florida’s failing system.

So, whomever Gov. Rick Scott names to replace Mr. Wilkins permanently must be ready for the challenge.

But more than battle-tested for the rigors and scrutiny of Tallahassee, the appointee has to be a child welfare professional who will prioritize protecting children over all others.

Never has the post of Florida Department of Children and Families Secretary been of a higher profile and importance than it is today. Cases of death, caretaker abuse, child-on-child sexual abuse, and children languishing in the system without permanent placement have now surfaced to the public spotlight while privatization of Florida child protection system system is still an experiment.

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Florida Child Advocacy Attorneys Named ‘Most Effective Lawyers’; Pro Bono Win Helps Seriously Ill Child, Family

December 7th, 2013   No Comments   Advocacy, News & Events

Howard Talenfeld, a Fort Lauderdale child child abuse and child advocacy attorney and shareholder with Colodny, Fass, Talenfeld, Karlinsky, Abate & Webb P.A., along with firm associate Nicole Coniglio, have been named the Daily Business Review’s Most Effective Lawyers in the Public Interest category.

The two child advocacy and Florida foster child attorneys were recognized specifically for their pro bono work representing a child and her family in an Agency for Health Care Administration hearing. The family was contesting AHCA’s denial of vital services for the child. As a result of their representation, the hearing officer determined AHCA was required to provide 24-hour, in-home care by skilled registered nurses, and not the part-time care by licensed practical nurses AHCA had been providing.

“We are honored to receive this honor, but more importantly to have helped this child and her family and many others in similar circumstances,” Talenfeld said. “Their story was like so many other children and families who struggle with trying to keep medically fragile children at home instead of placing them in nursing homes. Now, the child can remain at home and receive the care she needs from practitioners skilled in delivering that care.”

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Florida At-Risk and Foster Child Attorney Explores DCF Ills on Local News Show

November 18th, 2013   No Comments   Advocacy, Commentary, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

Howard Talenfeld on PutneyFort Lauderdale child advocate and Florida foster child attorney Howard Talenfeld, who has brought suit in many cases of wrongful death and sexual abuse and physical abuse perpetrated against Florida’s at-risk children, was a guest as Local 10’s Michael Putney discussed issues with Department of Children and Families. This comes after at least 25 children have died since April at the hands of abusive and violent parents or other caregivers. All 25 kids were known by DCF officials.

The topic was “The state Department of Children and Families and its inability to prevent the deaths of many children under its care” since April this year, utney said. “It’s an alarming trend and one that must stop.”

Watch the entire episode here.

Florida Department of Children and Families Sued for Disabled Child’s Death in ‘Warehousing’ Practice

November 15th, 2013   No Comments   Abuse, Court Cases

In a case attorneys for Florida foster children and other medically at-risk youth have watched closely, Florida Department of Children and Families was sued this week when a girl died following a move from her Tampa home to a geriatric facility in Miami Gardens. Though the former practice of “warehousing” medically fragile children has been reduced or resolved, attentive care for medically needy kids remains an issue.

Florida Child Advocate covered the original story and editorials about it back in November 2012. Now, the mother of the teenage girl from Tampa who died being taken from her mother under DCF orders and driven five hours to a Miami Gardens geriatric or senior nursing home has sued DCF and its agencies for the girl’s death. Read the news story here. 

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With 25 Kids Dead, Florida Department of Children and Families Must Change its Failed Policies

November 11th, 2013   No Comments   Abuse, Advocacy, Commentary

The Florida Department of Children and Families has argued for years in support of its policy of keeping troubled families together. In the wake of the deaths of 25 children known by DCF potentially to be at harm, some have called the policy flawed.

In this letter to the Tampa Bay Times, child advocate attorney Howard Talenfeld argues that in light of situations of wrongful death, physical abuse and sexual abuse of at-risk children and foster children, there is no doubt that DCF needs desperately to revamp its child protection system, as there is no excuse for a single death of a child where there are red flags known to DCF investigators. However, the best practice is to always try to keep children in their homes if it can be done so safely.

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Florida Department of Children and Families, Agencies Sued by Parents of Tortured Port Charlotte Boy

November 3rd, 2013   No Comments   Abuse, Court Cases

In a case of the Florida Department of Children and Families and its community-based care providers not paying heed to warning signs of child abuse and neglect against those in its care, DCF and several agencies are being sued by the adoptive parents whose adopted boy was left in a Port Charlotte home for several months – even after DCF child welfare officials were told his stepmother was torturing him.

The suit charges DCF, Lutheran Services Florida and Charlotte Behavioral Health Care with negligence.

In 2012, the stepmother was sentenced to a prison term of four years for aggravated child abuse, including smearing feces and urine on the boy’s face and sliding peanut butter sandwiches under his door.

The boy was later adopted by his paternal aunt and uncle. Today, he is 13 and lives in Tennessee.

“He told everybody that would listen what was happening to him and nobody believed him and he ended up in the same place night after night after night,” the attorney told the News Press. “This is going to affect him for the rest of the life.”

Palm Beach Post Editorial: Wellington Family’s Horror Latest Reason to Reform System for Paying Victims of Government Negligence

October 30th, 2013   No Comments   Abuse, Court Cases, Damage Claims

In this Palm Beach Post editorial, staff editorial writer Rhoda Swan argues that it’s long-past time that Florida legislators change their stance and process regarding claims bills necessary to pay multi-million dollar damage awards against state agencies like the Florida Department of Children and Families. As advocates have long said, reform the system, and pay the damage awards.

As Swan wrote, “A Wellington family awarded $5 million for the sexual abuse perpetrated on their son by a foster child must get in line with at least 25 other victims of government negligence in Florida.

“The judgment against the Department of Children and Families will become another ‘claims bill,’ which the Legislature must approve before the family is paid. Legislators passed no claims bill last session, because Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, wants to reform the system first.

“…Attorney Howard Talenfeld will lobby legislators to pay [the family]. Sen. Gaetz dislikes the role lobbyists play, but the system is the problem. Legislators should remove the politics by increasing what governments can pay without legislative approval. Delayed reform means delayed justice.”

Read the entire column here.

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