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Abuse, Advocacy, Department of Children & Families (DCF), Legislative & Regulatory Issues

Leading Florida child advocate and children’s rights attorney Howard Talenfeld addressed the Florida Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee this week, as they sought to stem a year’s worth of damning news of dozens of children who died from abuse and neglect while under the watch of the Florida Department of Children and Families and its various community based care providers and private contractors.

Later, the Florida Senate committee passed several proposals advocates and leaders hope will improve the quality and quantity of regulation over the state’s child welfare system. The goal, in part, is to improve what Senate President Don Gaetz called “a porous system,” according to the Miami Herald.

Addressing the wide-ranging areas in need of correction, Talenfeld spoke of the need to directs DCF to keep siblings together when placed into foster case, as well as tackling child-on-child sexual abuse, expanding child safety plans and extending 60-day case reviews.

“After 60 days, it’s over,” Talenfeld said. “There’s no one watching the children. There’s no one watching the family and someone is waiting for the next shoe to fall.”

Read the Miami Herald coverage here.

Proposed Law to Provide Attorneys for Disabled Children Passes House Civil Justice Sub- committee

February 20th, 2014

Abuse, Advocacy, Department of Children & Families (DCF), Dependency, Disability Issues

Tallahassee, Fla. – (February 19, 2014) – By a unanimous vote, HB 561, sponsored by Representative Erik Fresen (Miami), was approved by Florida’s House Civil Justice Sub-committee today. The proposed bill would provide attorneys for Florida’s disabled children who linger in foster care for an average of up to five years, and sometimes longer.

“In order to protect the well-being and welfare of one of our most vulnerable populations in the State of Florida, our disabled dependent children, we must provide them with additional tools,” said Rep. Fresen, the bill’s House sponsor. “By providing these children legal representation, we are helping to ensure that all of the benefits afforded to them are delivered with the ultimate goal of finding permanent residency.”

Under HB 561, the attorney would provide necessary legal services, including Medicare waiver benefits and, most importantly, seek to focus dependency courts on finding permanent families for these children. Recognizing the need for skilled representation, these lawyers would represent disabled children in applications for benefits and denial of benefits from the state and federal agencies, like the Florida Agency for Persons with Disabilities, the Agency for Health Care Administration or the Social Security Administration.

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

November 15th, 2013

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.

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

November 11th, 2013

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.

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

November 3rd, 2013

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

Read the entire column here.

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.”

Will $5 Million Verdict in Foster Child-On-Child Sexual Abuse Case Help Florida DCF, Community-Based Providers Learn Their Lesson?

October 28th, 2013

When a six-member jury decided that the sexual assault of one child by a foster child who was known to be a juvenile sex offender by the Florida Department of Children and Families and its community-based care providers could have been avoided and should have consequences, they were reiterating what child advocates have said all along. Their $5 million verdict against Florida DCF only drove home the point even more forcefully.

Was history repeating itself in the Palm Beach County courtroom, where testimony of the sexual abuse and humiliation suffered by the victim brought tears to the plaintiff’s attorney and jurors alike?

DCF and community-based care providers failed to warn the foster family of the 10-year-old foster child’s own history of violent sexual abuse. Then, after the abuse occurred, they tried to deflect blame and say the foster parents should have known. Child advocate attorney Howard Talenfeld was co-counsel on the case. Read the newspaper account here.

Emotional Tale of Child-on-Child Sexual Abuse Blames Florida Department of Children and Families, Community Based Care Provider

October 17th, 2013

Attorneys for a man who as a child suffered sexual abuse by a foster child taken into his family home had a Palm Beach County courtroom in tears – and foster child advocates again wondering when the Florida Department of Children and Families and its community-based care providers ever would learn the lessons of the past.

The family was not told by DCF of the sexual abuse the foster child had suffered from less than two years of age – abuse that transformed him into a sexual predator. Instead, he was placed with the family.

As jurors heard of childhood games gone horribly wrong, “… [a]ttorneys representing DCF and Camelot [community care] have countered that the couple knew enough about [the foster child’s] background to understand the potential risk he posed to [their son].”

The foster child was known to be a juvenile sex offender. Shame on DCF for not warning another family of the full and complete history of a foster child. Several years ago, DCF paid $10 million in damages under very similar circumstances.

When will DCF learn the lessons of the past?

Children’s Rights Attorney: More Work Needed at Florida Department of Children and Families

October 15th, 2013

Abuse, Advocacy, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

As a child advocate and children’s rights lawyer and foster care abuse attorney specializing in children who have suffered physical abuse, sexual abuse and even wrongful death, Howard Talenfeld works with a number of other leading attorneys throughout Florida in representing these individuals harmed in these cases. One such children’s rights attorney is Gloria Fletcher, who recently was published in newspapers in Tallahassee, Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale regarding proposed changes at the Florida Department of Children and Families. Changes are good, yet more are needed, notes Fletcher, who has sued on behalf of children physically abused and sexually abused while under the watch and care of DCF and its agencies. Her letter is below…

“I applaud interim DCF Secretary Esther Jacobo for her efforts to address the issues with our state’s child protection services. One method has been the use of outside experts to review the safety model, tools, and practice manual intended to improve the performance of child protective investigators and community based care agencies.

“The results of this initiative – the Casey Family Programs report – displays the true need for DCF to fix its child protective investigation “transformation” before real change can be made. In fact, the report itself says “The Safety Model’s Guidelines are incongruent with child protection practices designed for babies and toddlers, the age group at greatest risk for serious inflicted injuries and maltreatment fatalities.” Further evidence that more work is needed before DCF’s new model will achieve its intended purpose of protecting our kids.

‘High-Risk’ Placement Leaves Child Sexually Abused, Florida DCF On Trial

October 2nd, 2013

The Florida Department of Children and Families and a community-based care provider are at the center of a civil lawsuit seeking damages filed in Palm Beach County by a foster family whose foster child was a known sexual abuser who abused their natural son.

The foster child suffered a past that left him “so horribly damaged” – a past the two social service agencies should have warned them of, according to their complaint and news reports.

The family is seeking unspecified damages against Florida DCF and Camelot Community Care, a nonprofit child welfare group hired by DCF to oversee the foster child’s case. Instead, the agencies cast blame upon the foster family.

To attorneys, though, the case is clear. DCF made a high-risk placement without informing the plaintiffs that the foster child was sexually aggressive. DCF permitted the foster child to share a bedroom with an 8-year old boy and violated its own procedures designed to protect against sexual abuse,” Howard Talenfeld, co-counsel for the family, said later. “Camelot Community Care, DCF’s expert hired to treat this child, assess risk and provide therapy, violated the same procedures and failed to take the necessary actions that would have protected both children.”

The trial is expected to last four weeks.

Medically Needy Child Dies Under DCF Care and Amid Provider Bickering

September 30th, 2013

Abuse, Commentary, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

On Florida Child Advocate, we’ve advocated for attorneys and attorneys ad litem for developmentally disabled and medically fragile children and foster and at-risk children – and to put an end to their needless and senseless wrongful death, personal injury and physical abuse. We’ve admonished the Florida Department of Children and Families and their contracted community-based providers for not seeing that these citizens receive the critical and appropriate medical care they need, and we’ve lauded the legislature for funding that care.

So it’s saddening and frustrating to read that a young child under the watch of DCF and under the care of two such providers died as those providers debated who should handle and pay for her care. In brief, this young child should have had assigned to her a skilled child advocacy attorney to argue for her needs. Simply put, she died because no one skilled to do so was there on her side advocating for her very specific and necessary medical needs.

Read just part of her story to get a sense of her suffering, and now plain it would seem to an outsider that she needed someone to advocate on her behalf…