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Archive for the ‘Department of Children & Families (DCF)’ Category

In Florida and U.S., Aging Out Means New Issues for Foster Care Kids

July 18th, 2011   No Comments   Advocacy, Department of Children & Families (DCF), Foster Care, Rights of Foster Children

In Florida and nationally, foster care was designed to provide a safe haven for society’s most vulnerable citizens – the abused, neglected and overlooked children. Yet, what happens when they “age out” — turning 18, independent and no longer wards of the state? As this article shows, in Washington state, as well as in Florida and nationwide, advocates, rights attorneys and guardians ad litem have worked tirelessly to help kids find independence once beyond the support of the foster care system.

In the article, “State’s foster care system discharges ill-equipped young adults; Despite program’s good intentions, teens are out on their own and unprepared,” The Spokane Review writes of a national issue: Kids who on their 18th birthday, some with behavioral health problems, are turned out of group or foster homes where they’d spent their lives in the state’s care. They are to start on their own — often unprepared.

“Recently cut off of the powerful psychotropic drugs that had been used to control his aggression, Tyler Dorsey ended up in the Spokane County Jail on a domestic violence charge six weeks after aging out of child welfare,” the publication wrote.

“A new state law might have protected Dorsey, who was turned away by numerous agencies because of his juvenile record of assault…[The law] entitles foster youth without a high school diploma or GED to remain in foster care until age 21 by opting into the federal Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act.”

Read the entire story here.

Florida Department of Children and Families Hurries To Test New Welfare Applicants

July 1st, 2011   No Comments   Department of Children & Families (DCF), Legislative & Regulatory Issues

Rushing to make good on Gov. Rick Scott’s and the Florida Legislature’s push to test applicants, Florida social service officials mapped out and sought final public input on broad policy guidelines as the state launches its drug testing of new applicants for welfare benefits.

According to NorthEscambia.com, “Following up on legislation passed by lawmakers only a few months ago to require applicants for temporary financial assistance to take drug tests, Department of Children and Families officials said formal procedures would not be ready until mid-July at the earliest but the agency would proceed nonetheless to administer the new law.”

The Website continued, “Among a litany of concerns from stakeholders, including Florida Legal Services and the ACLU, were questions of whether applicants who test positive for drugs would be immediately flagged by DCF and risk having their children removed from their custody.” Read the entire story here.

Florida DCF Rule: Positive Drug Test Will Lead to Child Abuse Hotline Referral

June 28th, 2011   No Comments   Department of Children & Families (DCF), Foster Care

Florida’s child advocacy community is watching closely as the Florida Department of Children and Families institutes a new policy regarding drug testing of welfare recipients. Starting next month, Florida’s social service agency will refer every welfare applicant who fails a drug test to a child abuse hotline, reports the Tampa Tribune. While some state officials claim such results will be used to remove children from their parents, civil rights activists fear it will do just that.

“Beginning Friday, anyone applying to the state for temporary cash assistance must pass a drug test to receive benefits,” the paper reported.  “Applicants must pay the test’s cost, which will be refunded for those who pass. That upfront expense could exceed $100, according to state documents, for those who need a medical review to confirm that the drug detected is one for which they have a legal prescription,” it reported.

Read the entire story here.

Florida DCF, Care Givers Say New Plan Will Improve System

May 23rd, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

Coming on the heels of the unsuccessful efforts of 20 private agencies that tried to have the Florida Legislature limit their liability, a “plan” is afoot to better protect foster and other vulnerable children Community Based Care providers are paid to manage. Notes the Palm Beach Post Editorial Board, “…A better use of their time will be putting into practice the changes that resulted from the terrible discovery three months ago along Interstate 95 in West Palm Beach.”

In a compelling editorial, the editorial board recounted “the horrific death of Nubia Barahona and equally horrific injuries sustained by her twin brother, Victor, allegedly at the hands of their adoptive parents.” The case “showed flaws in Florida’s child welfare system but did not indicate failure.

“Everybody started saying, ‘Well, the system is broken,’ ” said Carlos de la Cruz Jr., board chairman of Our Kids of Miami-Dade/Monroe, which handled the twins’ adoption. As he pointed out, that is not true.

Read the entire story here.

Legal Advocates: Barahona Adoption, Death Prompts Needed Changes at Agency Monitoring Foster Kids

May 22nd, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Damage Claims, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

Is change in the wake of the horrific death of Nubia Barahona and the critical injuries sustained by her twin brother sufficient to prevent future abuse to foster and adopted children in Florida? Without such change, lawsuits, damages, claims of personal injury and wrongful death will only continue, notes Florida child advocacy attorney Howard M. Talenfeld, president of Florida’s Children First.

Nubia Barahona

Nubia Barahona

The Palm Beach Post reports this week that “leaders of the private agency once charged with ensuring Nubia Barahona was safe with her adoptive family say the girl’s death has led to changes that could help caseworkers detect threats to foster children.”

“This case has caused a shift in [caseworkers’] thinking. — ‘Are these foster parents the good people? Do they want to adopt for good reasons?'” Our Kids CEO Frances Allegra, told the paper. Allegra recently co-wrote a 10-page plan to improve its case management in response to the death.

The paper notes that the final version of the plan has been reviewed and approved by Department of Children & Families Secretary David Wilkins. Read the Post’s story here.

Foster, Child Care Advocates: Miami’s Low Child Removal Rates ‘Keep You up Nights’

May 16th, 2011   No Comments   Department of Children & Families (DCF), Protection

Miami-Dade County has the lowest rate of calls to the state’s child abuse hotline among Florida’s large counties, the Associated Press reports. Some experts say the reason is that Miami’s largest ethnic groups worry a call to the hotline — or any government agency — will only make matters worse.

For child welfare advocates, attorneys and guardians ad litem, that reality among Hispanic – namely Cuban – and Haitian communities could be one reason why Florida’s most populous county has the lowest percentage of children placed into foster care, the AP surmised.

Child care advocates also worry warning signs are going unheeded – that Miami-Dade investigators aren’t removing children and instead are hoping to keep families together.

“Miami keeps you up at night worrying because you know there are calls that aren’t coming in and cases we aren’t hearing about,” Alan Abramowitz, a former family safety director for the Department of Children and Families, told the AP.

Read the entire story here.

Florida Child Welfare Costs Up Since Privatization. What About Care?

May 15th, 2011   No Comments   Department of Children & Families (DCF)

Low operational costs has been the promise of privatization of governmental services. Yet in child welfare — one of Florida’s longest-running and largest efforts into privatization — costs have risen, a Sun Sentinel analysis found. Meanwhile, advocates and child welfare attorneys wonder about the effects on vulnerable and foster children in programs overseen by the Department of Children and Families.

“Florida spends more than $1 billion a year on abused and neglected children, up from $717 million in 2000, when the state began farming out foster care and adoptions to private agencies, according to the state Department of Children & Families,” the paper reports.  “Adjusted for inflation, spending is up $105 million over 2000.”

“It’s not cheaper,” state Sen. Nan Rich, D-Weston, told the paper. “That’s what everyone says when they talk about privatization — it’s cheaper. That has not been proven.”

The paper’s takeaway: “Florida spends more today on child welfare despite caring for far fewer foster children. That’s because of a shift in favor of preventing abuse and keeping families together.” Read the entire story here.

Calls to Palm Beach County (Florida) DCF Child Abuse Hotline Spike

May 2nd, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

Cases opened by the Florida Department of Children & Families child protection investigators in Palm Beach County resulting from calls to its child abuse hotline was the highest in March over the previous 10 years. The number of children removed from their homes also climbed in kind.

According to an article in the Palm Beach Post, “the local figures reflected statistics statewide and are almost certainly connected to at least one widely publicized case that unfolded in part in Palm Beach County: the death of Nubia Barahona, 10, who was found dead on Feb. 14 in the bed of a truck parked just off Interstate 95 near Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard.”

Read the entire story here.

State Reviews, Revises Findings in Gabriel Myers Foster Care Suicide

April 25th, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Department of Children & Families (DCF), Foster Care, Investigations, Psychotropic

The investigations, questions, hearings and discussions lasted more than a year following the apparent suicide in a Florida foster home of Gabriel Myers, a 7-year-old boy on the care of Florida Department of Children and Families — and under the influence of a cocktail of psychotropic medications.

Gabriel Myers (image from Florida DCF)But it wasn’t to be that easy. Florida child welfare administrators, who closed their case in 2010 after finding that none of Gabriel’s caregivers had abused or neglected him.

The agency soon reopened the case, backtracked, and according to reports in the Miami Herald, “verified allegations that Gabriel’s foster parents and their then-19-year-old son, who was baby-sitting that day, were responsible for Gabriel’s death — one of the most controversial in agency history.”

Discussions leading to the new outcome centered on a series of difficult questions that confronted the child welfare agency as it was seeking to redefine itself and promote a greater sense of family among foster children. Read the entire story here.

Florida Lawsuit Claims Child-on-Child Sexual Abuse in Foster Care

April 16th, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

The Florida Department of Children and Families, area care providers and others have been accused in a lawsuit of allowing the abuse to happen, and then failing to seek mental health care for the then-10-year-old boy after he twice tried to commit suicide.

The mother of the former foster child describes in the lawsuit how the boy was moved to 11 different homes in 18 months. Now 13, he has been reunited with his mother since 2008, reports the Sarasota Herald Tribune.

The paper reports that defendants include the Sarasota YMCA, the local contractor for foster care services. Its chief executive declined to comment on the pending lawsuit. Read the entire story here.

Social Welfare Workers Face Threats, Low Wages, Even Arrest Doing Their Jobs

April 4th, 2011   No Comments   Department of Children & Families (DCF), Funding

Whether in Florida and the Department of Children and Families, or in any other state where government agencies are charged with protecting young lives, when child welfare workers investigate an abuse case, what will they face? A gun or hostile parent? A ferocious dog? A meth lab or criminal whose intentions are unknown?

Many child welfare workers do their jobs out of love and a mission to protect society’s most vulnerable citizens. Yet burn-out, low salary, and even fear of taking blame being arrested for missing clues that result in a child’s injury or death leave many wondering about careers with child welfare agencies.

A recent Associated Press article told the story of one New York worker. “Workers at child welfare agencies around the country tell similar stories of taxing, emotional and frustrating jobs that are low in pay and high in stress because of hostile families, tight budgets and overburdened court systems. Workers juggle several cases, make as little as $28,000 a year and usually burn out after a couple of years.”

Read the entire story here.

Medicaid Reform Would Limit Families of Child Abuse, Injury, Death Right to Sue

March 30th, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Advocacy, Damage Claims, Department of Children & Families (DCF), Legislative & Regulatory Issues, Medicaid

A Medicaid-reform effort has lawmakers seeking to limit the rights of poor people to sue doctors, hospitals and child-welfare companies. “In the midst of expanding HMO-style management in Medicaid, the Legislature is passing a raft of proposals that limit the liability of Medicaid doctors, hospitals, nursing homes and private community-based care companies,” writes the Miami Herald.

Backers of the legislation include doctors and hospitals, the paper writes. Because they’re working for the state (which itself is shielded from lawsuits and some damage awards), the Medicaid providers and child-welfare companies should receive the same protections.

Opponents of the proposed legislation, including Democrats, child advocates and trial attorneys, claim such legislation will hold no one accountable in such cases like Nubia and Victor Barahona. The two Miami children allegedly were abused by their adoptive parents. Such legislation also would help the insurance industry, the paper wrote. Read the entire story here.

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