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

Man Charged with Abuse Approved as Foster Parent by Florida Department of Children and Families

October 11th, 2014   No Comments   Abuse, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

Florida’s foster child advocates and attorneys who represent foster children who have suffered personal injury, physical abuse and sex abuse, and wrongful death are left wondering again how a man known by the Florida Department of Children and Families who was granted a foster parent license ended up being charged with killing a child in his care.

In a twist on news reports of children dying while under the watch of DCF, newspaper reports this week claim that DCF and its private contractors may have failed to completely review the background of Michael Beer before granting him a foster care license. The Port St. Lucie, Florida, foster parent was charged this week with beating to death Trysten Adams, a 2-year-old foster boy in Beer’s care.

Twenty years ago, Beers failed to help another 2-year-old who had been severely abused, according to news reports. The Miami Herald  reports that Florida DCF approved Beers’ foster care license in 2013, even though it knew of the episode.

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Agency, Senator Team Up to Help Foster Care Young Adults In Need

October 7th, 2014   No Comments   Advocacy, Department of Children & Families (DCF), News & Events

In a previous article on this website, entitled When is a Florida Foster Child Not a Foster Child?, we answered that question with a simple response: When the foster child is a young adult, is disabled and is in need of care. For foster abuse attorneys and lawyers who advocate for victims of neglect and oversight, the argument long has been that Florida’s disabled foster “children” aged 18 to 22 are not foster kids in the eyes of the state Agency for Persons with Disabilities.

Those children are caught in a catch-22. Officials at the Agency for Persons with Disabilities have believed the Department of Children and Families or Medicaid are responsible for paying for the extended care of disabled individuals in foster care. DCF and others felt ADP should be footing the bill.

With the issue getting nowhere, finally advocates and legislators stepped up.

Working together, ADP director Barbara Palmer and state Sen. Nancy Detert finally agreed fixed some legal language in a 2013 law. As a result, those Florida foster residents aged 18 to 22 who opt to stay in care will soon be able to do so. The bill will be picked up by the state.

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The Spirit Family, the Florida DCF and the Nagging Question: When is Enough Not Enough?

October 5th, 2014   No Comments   Advocacy, Commentary, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

When is enough not enough? In a case of rampant and reported child abuse, personal injury and continual poor care and physical harm to six children – who all lived amid horrible squalor – the lives and deaths of the Spirit children at the hands of their grandfather should have been no surprise to the Florida Department of Children and Families. The case has child advocates and children’s rights attorneys wondering what went wrong.

Dating back to 2008, the calls to the state’s abuse hotline began and grew numerous, as did the investigations. Mother Sarah Spirit, daughter of Don, the grandfather who killed this grandchildren and Sarah before turning the gun on himself, was the subject of ongoing reports and attempts to intervene.

The children were burned, beaten, poorly supervised, starved, suffered medical and dental neglect and were sent to school to teachers who also questioned their treatment and care.

Child advocates and children’s rights attorneys who protect at-risk kids and families from personal injury, wrongful death and physical and sexual abuse learned through the media the horrors that went on in the Spirit home in Bell, Florida.

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When is a Florida Foster Child Not a Foster Child? When Disabled and Needing Care

September 24th, 2014   No Comments   Advocacy, Department of Children & Families (DCF), Rights of Foster Children

When is a disabled foster child not really a foster child? Apparently, Florida’s disabled foster “children” aged 18 to 22 are not foster kids in the eyes of the state Agency for Persons with Disabilities, whose officials believe the Department of Children and Families or Medicaid are responsible for paying for the extended care of disabled individuals in foster care between ages 18 and 22.

For advocates and attorneys who champion and represent foster kids who face potential abuse, personal injury and other harm, this is another issue of key importance, especially for those whose daily life is a caregiver’s struggle.

It was a situation the Florida Legislature thought it had resolved in 2013, when it passed a law ensuring disable foster persons were allowed to stay in state care until they reached age 22. The new law lacked one key element: Direction as to which agency would pay for the care.

In an effort to provide guidance, Sen. Nancy Detert (R-Venice) is pushing for a solution. She has discussed the issue with children’s advocates and service providers. It’s a critically important issue for Florida’s disabled foster persons.

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DCF Alerted Two Weeks Before Fatal Bell Murder Suicide

September 23rd, 2014   No Comments   Advocacy, Department of Children & Families (DCF), News & Events

Child advocates and children’s rights attorneys who protect at-risk kids and families from personal injury, wrongful death and physical and sexual abuse learned through the media the horrors that went on in the home of Don Spirit in Bell, Florida. Apparently the Spirit family and the Florida Department of Children and Families were familiar with one another, too.

Child welfare investigators had visited the family’s home in North Florida just outside Gainesville earlier this month, according to news reports. What DCF personnel found was a continuation of the life Mr. Spirit, his daughter, Sarah, and her six children had lived for years.

The grandfather, who had served jail time and had been reported for physical abuse, was there with Sarah, who also served time for various criminal offenses, including drug use. They suffered extreme poverty with little hope.

Then, last week, Mr. Spirit erupted in a violent outburst, killing Ms. Spirit, all her children, and then himself in a horrific episode that has child advocates and children’s rights attorneys puzzled as to what went wrong.

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Cycle of Addiction, Abuse, Death: Mother, Children Murders and Grandfather’s Abuse and Suicide

September 21st, 2014   No Comments   Abuse, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

As Florida child advocates and children’s rights attorneys grapple with the wrongful death, personal injury, and physical and sexual abuse suffered by the state’s at-risk and foster children, news from North Florida point to the cycle of mistreatment and abuse families suffer. The murder / suicide of a mother and her six children at the hands of her abusive father point to the horrors of the cycles of poverty, drug addiction and physical abuse.

Don Spirit apparently killed his daughter, Sarah, 28, and her six young children, before killing himself last week in the small North Florida town of Bell. Ms. Spirit’s fears were not unknown to local authorities. Several times she had reached out to police and agencies, even incurring threats of harm from her father for doing so.

Their lives spent together in what the New York Times called “a cycle of extreme poverty, drug addiction and domestic violence” came to an end this month. In death, they were released from the grips of repeated arrests for drugs and violence, the yoke of debt and drug addiction.

But the cycle lives on for countless other families caught in the same maelstrom.

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Article: Probes Into Alleged Abuse, Neglect at Florida Disabled Home Highlight Concerns

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

As guardians, advocates and attorneys for Florida’s most vulnerable children fight to prevent wrongful death and personal injury among at-risk children, we continue to learn of instances statewide where some levels of institutional care leave advocates wanting greater oversight. The Florida Department of Children and Families and regulatory officials have investigated claims of abuse and neglect at facilities statewide. One such facility is the Carlton Palms Educational Center in Central Florida, which has been the subject of such inquiry at least 140 times. The facility, which serves children and residents with severe disabilities, never has been disciplined, according to a recent news article.

No disciplined even followed the death last year of Paige Elizabeth Lunsford, a severely autistic and non-communicative 14-year-old child who almost immediately after admission to the facility in 2013. Soon after her arrival, she began retching, throwing up, was unable to eat and thrashed and flailed uncontrollably, according to those reports.

Soon, caregivers at the facility put the girl in restraints. But they never sought care beyond the teachers, nurses or doctor on staff. They never took her to an area hospital. As she lay with her wrists, ankles, biceps and waist bound, Paige grew increasingly ill.

The child from Margate, Florida, eventually died.

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Hard Work Pays for Premier Florida Foster Child Advocacy Group

September 12th, 2014   No Comments   Advocacy, Department of Children & Families (DCF), Florida Youth Shine, Legislative & Regulatory Issues

From Tallahassee to Main Street, Florida’s Children First enjoyed remarkable success over the past year in its mission to help the state’s vulnerable, abused and at-risk children. The organization and its supporters helped usher in several new laws and public interest efforts that together make life safer for Florida’s foster children and others. 

Among the initiatives, two bills the organization and its backers had proposed were made into law. They included the Counsel for Dependent Children with Special Needs (HB 561), which will help ensure legal counsel is provided to special-needs children in the state dependency system. The other was Juvenile Sentencing Reform (HB 7035), in which FCF served as part of a vital coalition of backers who helped advocate for the measure.

FCF also helped to get key language incorporated into important laws that were enacted this session. The language and bills included creation of a Website to Report Child Deaths or Neglect (SB 1666); Child-on-Child Sexual Assault (SB 1666); Services & Provision Tracking (SB 1666); and Accountability on Delivery of Services Through Community Alliance Boards (SB 1666).

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Florida Foster Child Attorney, Advocates Agree: ‘Pivotal Time’ Child Welfare

September 4th, 2014   No Comments   Abuse, Advocacy, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

When Florida Department of Children and Families interim Secretary Mike Carroll told foster child attorneys and child abuse advocates this week that he sought to both save children’s lives and also to “protect the light” in children’s eyes, he found no argument among attendees at the annual Child Protection Summit.

The audience of staunch child advocates and attorneys who represent at-risk children also fight for the rights of Florida’s most vulnerable citizens – the young, abandoned, sexually abused and those otherwise in need of guidance and protection in their lives.

The past few years have been both tough and promising. The Florida DCF has been under significant scrutiny, with a spate of deaths of children under its care or knowledge. A recent newspaper investigation revealed almost 500 such kids have died while supposedly under its watch or knowledge.

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Even in Death, Disabled Child Serves as Example that Helped Pass Vital Law

August 27th, 2014   No Comments   Abuse, Advocacy, Court Cases, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

Advocates for Florida’s at-risk children are watching closely as a case unfolds regarding the aftermath of the death of Tamiya Audain. The 12-year-old, severely disable child died when the caregiver in whose care she was placed while under the protection of the state neither fed nor appropriately cared for the girl, officials charge. Tamiya died from starvation last year.

Four women have been charged in connection with her death. But to child advocates and whose who support efforts to improve the oversight of children under the care of the Florida Department of Children and Families and other local or state agencies, Tamiya’s death helped get passed critical legislation this year.

In fact, Tamiya became the example used by advocates to get the Florida Legislature to pass a law funding legal counsel for disabled kids.

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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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