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Archive for May, 2009

Florida DCF Releases Report on Psychotropic Drug Use in Foster Children

May 29th, 2009   No Comments   Foster Care, Mental Health Issues, Psychotropic

Department of Children and Families Secretary George Sheldon discussed the Department’s Psychotherapeutic Drug Status Report at a media conference this week.

The report was compiled by DCF staff at the request of Secretary Sheldon following the apparent suicide of 7-year-old Gabriel Myers on April 16 in Margate. (Access the Report Here)

Following a full review of Gabriel’s case files, officials determined that he had been prescribed several psychotropic drugs that had not been accurately reflected in the DCF database that contains case notes and histories of foster care children.

Additionally, there was no indication of a signed parental consent form or a court order authorizing the administration of the drugs, as required.

Among the findings: (more…)

Mother’s Suit Seeks Justice for Autistic Son Killed by ‘Psychotropic Cocktail’

May 21st, 2009   1 Comment   Damage Claims, Psychotropic
Denis Martez and mother, Martha Quesada.

Denis Martez and mother, Martha Quesada.

Martha Quesada shed tears but was the poignant focal point of a press conference this week as she discussed her demands for justice for the death of her 12-year-old autistic son, Denis Martez.

His cause of death, according to the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner: Central Serotonergic Syndrome. This resulted from “the co-administration of multiple psychotropic medications with no monitoring or supervision,” the lawsuit claims.

“This is a clear case of a 12-year-child who perished because he was given a lethal combination of off-label, dangerous, anti-psychotic drugs to control his behavior without appropriate consent, administration and supervision.” said Howard Talenfeld, Quesada’s attorney and partner with Fort Lauderdale law firm, Colodny, Fass, Talenfeld, Karlinsky & Abate, P.A., in Fort Lauderdale. Partner Maria Elena Abate is co-counsel on the case.

“Tragically, this case is one of many cases where foster children and developmentally disabled children are given powerful drug to control their behavior instead of utilizing appropriate behavioral interventions,” Talenfeld said. “This is an important first step in seeking remedy for Ms. Quesada’s loss, and raising awareness of the cavalier prescription, administration  of medications to control behavior with little regard for possible counter-indications or devastating results.” (more…)

Round-Up: Crist Signs Records Law, State Reviews Foster Care Cases

May 18th, 2009   No Comments   Education Issues, Foster Care, Rights of Foster Children
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist

Florida’s foster children have been both a source of both eye-opening revelation about how they’re cared for, as well as the recipients of legislation designed to help them in the future.

In some good news for foster kids, Florida Governor Charlie Crist signed into law bills designed to help grant them access to records for medical and educational needs.  The Foster Folly News wrote  that the legislation benefits children in foster care as well as young people leaving foster care. The move “provides children in foster care better access to their own personal records often needed for medical and educational purposes.  Senate Bill 1128 ensures that disabled homeless children and children in foster care receive appropriate educational services.”

WEAR-TV reported that the bills can be credited, in part, to members of Florida Youth Shine, a statewide advocacy group that specializes in foster care and child welfare issues. “You’re great advocates, you truly are,” Crist said.

Recent news in Florida’s foster child and foster care landscape continued to center on the fall-out of the Department of Children and Families response to Gabriel Myers, the 7-year-old child who committed suicide in his foster home. Reporters and government leaders are scrutinizing how Gabrielwas prescribed powerful psychotropic drugs, and how the DCF plans to deal with such cases in the future. Among the stories… (more…)

Florida DCF Secretary Sheldon Convenes Psychotropics & Foster Kids Workgroup

May 14th, 2009   No Comments   Foster Care, Mental Health Issues, Psychotropic

Department of Children and Families (DCF) Secretary George H. Sheldon today announced that the Department is establishing a workgroup to determine the facts and circumstances surrounding the tragic death of 7-year-old Gabriel Myers. Gabriel died on April 16 when police indicated he apparently hanged himself in the shower of his foster parents’ Margate home.

At issue: The level of use of psychotropic and psycho-therapeutic medications among foster care children.


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Talenfeld to Chair Florida Bar Legal Needs of Children Committee

May 11th, 2009   1 Comment   News & Events

Children’s rights attorney Howard Talenfeld has been appointed to chair the Florida Bar Association’s Legal Needs of Children Committee.

howard-talenfeld-2-1

Talenfeld to chair Florida Bar Legal Needs of Children Committee

“I set out to appoint the best-qualified people for the job, taking into account their participation in the past, diversity and commitment to the committee,” Jesse Diner, President-Elect of the Florida Bar, said in making the announcement of new committee chairs.

“I am excited about being named to chair this vital committee,” Talenfeld said. “We have a critical mission that needs to be completed—obtaining quality representation for every child in the foster care system. With some of the best child advocates in the state on this committee, we have the opportunity to succeed over the next year.”

Talenfeld is a long-time advocate and pioneer in the fight to protect the rights and needs of society’s most vulnerable citizens, including foster children, the developmentally disabled and the mentally ill. (more…)

Guardian ad Litem Takes Moderate Cut In Tough Budget Year. Many Florida Foster Children Will Lose Their Voice in Court

May 5th, 2009   No Comments   Education Issues, Foster Care, Funding, News & Events

Florida’s Guardian ad Litem program emerged from this year’s Legislative budget process with fiscal cuts not as deep as originally feared.

The program’s funding will be reduced by $2.81 million. Proposed cuts were $7.6 million in the Florida House of Representatives, and $2.6 million in the Florida Senate.

In the Fiscal Year 2009-2010 Appropriations Act, the Florida Legislature will reduce the Guardian Ad Litem Program by $3.817 million, and then reinstate $1 million in non-recurring money. Therefore, if the Legislature does nothing for FY 2010-2011, the GAL will be cut by $1 million.

There were no simple or pleasant solutions. This was the toughest budgetary year many people have ever seen. Although advocates stepped in quickly to help negotiate a balanced approach to this tough budgetary call, many foster children will be left without Guardians.

But make no mistake: The cuts span the spectrum of child services. (more…)

Florida Foster Care Round-Up: Leekin Damage Suit for Fraud — & Kids Failed by the System

May 5th, 2009   No Comments   Damage Claims, Foster Care

A 7-year-old foster child, a career criminal and the Florida Department of Children and Families led the headlines regarding the foster care and child welfare arena across Florida and the nation over the past few weeks. Here are summaries of some of those and other stories…

In one of the biggest stories, The New York Times reported on April 30 in Suit Contends City Failed to Prevent Adoption Fraud, how lawyers contended in a lawsuit that New York City violated the rights of 10 disabled children who were adopted more than a decade ago by Judith Leekin, a former Queens woman now in a Florida jail and who abused them and used government subsidies meant for their care to support a lavish lifestyle.

The Miami Herald on April 30 wrote State probes apparent suicide of foster child, 7, an opening reporting salvo by journalists and columnists in what we expect to be a very chilling and alarming case – that of Gabriel Myers, the boy who took his own life at a Broward County foster home after a stormy nine-month odyssey through the state foster-care system and the questionable use of psychotropic drugs used to quell problem children.

(more…)

Stop Warehousing Florida’s Foster Children

May 4th, 2009   1 Comment   Foster Care

By Brian J. Cabrey, Esq.

The April 16 suicide death of 7 year old Gabriel Myers, a foster child in the custody and care of the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF), shocks the conscience.

Little Gabriel apparently hung himself with the shower hose in the bathroom of his foster home in Margate, Florida. The victim of sexual abuse, as well as other abuse and neglect that resulted in him being removed from his family and placed in foster care, Gabriel had been prescribed a variety of mind altering psychotropic medications while in foster care to deal with the myriad behavioral problems he was experiencing, no doubt largely the result of the abuse he had suffered. Reports are that he was on 3 or 4 different drugs, or combinations thereof, at the time of his death, all at the tender age of 7.

What is almost as shocking to the conscience as a 7 year old wanting to, knowing how to, and actually committing suicide, is that a 7-year-old would be on not just one, but multiple psychotropic medications. (more…)

Florida, New York Attorneys File Lawsuit For Failure to Protect Foster Children From Abusive Foster Mom

May 3rd, 2009   No Comments   Damage Claims, Foster Care
Attorneys Howard Talenfeld and Ted Babbitt discuss their federal lawsuit against New York City's Administration for Children's Services in the case of Judith Leekin's abuse of the foster care system and 10 children in her care.

As one of the children looks on, attorneys Howard Talenfeld and Ted Babbitt discuss their federal lawsuit against New York City's Administration for Children's Services in the case of Judith Leekin's abuse of the foster care system and 10 children in her care.

Calling her rapacious, her foster home a “house of horrors,” and the case “one of the worst child welfare disasters in the history of this country,” attorneys for 10 former foster care children of now-imprisoned foster mom Judith Leekin spelled out their case for damages this week before more than a dozen journalists.

Attorneys Howard Talenfeld, partner with Colodny, Fass, Talenfeld, Karlinsky & Abate, P.A., in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Ted Babbitt, partner with Babbitt, Johnson, Osborne & Le Clainche, P.A., in West Palm Beach, Florida, described the case, Leekin, and the New York City department whose job it is to oversee foster care kids and their caregivers.

The federal lawsuit claims New York City failed to properly screen Leekin, who – according to the Associated Press, “used fictitious identities to adopt 10 disabled children and later repeatedly abused, starved and imprisoned them in a ‘house of horrors.’” The  suit was filed Wednesday in Brooklyn federal court on behalf of the children whom Leekin, now 64 and imprisoned in Florida, adopted over an eight-year period ending in 1996. (more…)

Florida DCF Workgroup to Research Death of Foster Child, Gabriel Myers

May 1st, 2009   1 Comment   Foster Care, Rights of Foster Children

Department of Children and Families Secretary Convenes Workgroup to Evaluate Circumstances Surrounding Death of 7-year-old in Foster Care

TALLAHASSEE, FL — Department of Children and Families (DCF) Secretary George H. Sheldon today announced that the Department is establishing a  workgroup to determine the facts and circumstances surrounding the tragic death of 7-year-old Gabriel Myers.

Gabriel died on April 16 when police indicated he apparently hanged himself in the shower of his foster parents’ Margate home.

Following Gabriel’s death, the Department of Children and Families petitioned the court to release case files and notes relating to the child while in state care. Normally, case files are only made public following a death that is verified as a result of abuse or neglect, per Florida Statutes. However, DCF believed it was in the public interest to open the records to public scrutiny. A judge agreed and the petition was granted on April 22, 2009. (more…)

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    - The Miami Herald / Tallahassee, Florida – May 11, 2010 - Governor Signs Bill to Lift Limits on Sex Cases Florida's governor has signed a bill eliminating all time limits for filing criminal or civil action alleging sexual abuse of children. Gov. Charlie Crist signed the bill (HB 525) on Tuesday. It lifts statutes of limitations for pursuing criminal or civil sexual abuse cases in which victims are younger than 16 at the time of the abuse.

    - The Miami Herald / Miami, Florida – April 18, 2010 - Red Flags Overlooked in Prescription Drug Death of 12-Year-Old The prescription-drug death of 12-year-old Denis Maltez raises troubling questions about the state's safety net for disabled kids. The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's Office attributed the death to a life-threatening side effect of over-medication. Attorney Howard Talenfeld urged healthcare and disability administrators in a letter to better protect disabled children, ``who are powerless to protect themselves from being unnecessarily drugged for the convenience of staff. . . . Without proper oversight and action by your respective state agencies, these individuals will continue to be in harm's way.''

    - The Miami Herald / Miami, Florida – April 17, 2010 - Amendment to Bill Targeting Foster Kids' Medication Draws Fire Critics are questioning an amendment to a bill designed to protect foster children from being inappropriately medicated with mental-health drugs. One of the largest providers of inpatient psychiatric care for Florida foster kids successfully pushed for the amendment that will make it easier for group homes and treatment centers to begin medicating foster children without the consent of a parent or judge. The original legislation was prompted by the 2009 death of a 7-year-old Margate foster child, Gabriel Myers.

    - Miami Herald / Miami, Florida – April 8, 2010 - Incest Case Raises Questions About Child Welfare Policy A case of a man accused of sexually abusing his daughter raises questions about keeping families under one roof. When child welfare investigator Simon Roberts went to the home of a 39-year-old Miami man accused of having sex with his own teenage daughter, he found the man locked in a bedroom with the girl -- both of them undressed.

    - Cape Coral Daily Breeze / Cape Coral, Florida – April 3, 2010 - Child Welfare Agency Seeks Additional Funding Officials from the Children's Network of Southwest Florida are lobbying to increase funding for foster children living in the five counties of District 8. Children served by the Children's Network receive the lowest funding out of all 20 districts, an amount that is 32 percent below the state average of per child allocations.

    - CBS News / Fort Lauderdale, Florida – March 17, 2010 - After 7-Year-Old Gabriel Myers' Suicide, Fla. Bill Looks to Tighten Access to Psychiatric DrugsFORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (CBS/WFOR) The apparent suicide of 7-year-old boy Gabriel Myers, who was taking several psychiatric medications, has led to the introduction of a bill in the Florida legislature, which would assure that powerful mental health drugs dispensed to Florida foster care children would be more closely monitored..

    - St. Petersburg Times / Tampa Bay, FL – February 27, 2010 - Lawsuit Alleges DCF and YMCA Sent Girl into Sexually Abusive Situation The first time the Florida woman took her adoptive daughter to the dentist, an assistant asked if the girl had been sexually assaulted. "She just asked that because of how she reacted toward him,'' the girl's mother said. The abuse, which occurred when the girl was 7 years old and in foster care, could have been prevented and should have been recognized sooner, according to a suit filed in Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court that accuses the Department of Children and Families and the Sarasota YMCA of negligence and oversight failures — allegations that the DCF flatly denies. Attorney Howard Talenfeld says the girl should have never been in the Oldsmar home of Brian and Antonia Starmer, who are also named in the suit.

    - The Miami Herald / Miami, FL – February 21, 2010 - Our Kids: Florida Foster Care System Has Improved The incredible story of how Rachelle Louis-Jeune managed to rescue her family in Haiti was heartwarming and inspirational. Sadly, her story of bouncing and drifting through 23 foster homes in four years was unacceptably common during that era (1998-2002). It is important for readers to know that Florida's foster-care system was transformed after the transition to foster care and adoption services provided by private not-for-profits in a system called community-based care. Florida ranks third in the nation in the rate of children killed by child abuse and negligence, according to a report released Tuesday by non-profit child advocacy and lobbying group Every Child Matters.

    - The Miami Herald / Miami, FL – February 21, 2010 - Give Florida Kids a Voice in the System by Howard Talenfeld The most significant way Florida can improve the lives of at-risk children is to provide each of them with legal representation, something currently missing from our judicial system. This spring, Florida lawmakers are expected to take up consensus legislation crafted by the Florida Bar and Florida's Children First that provides attorneys to children with critical needs and to protect the rights of all children in dependency proceedings.

    - Sun-Sentinel / Fort Lauderdale, FL – February 21, 2010 - Florida DCF Employee Sentenced for Theft from ‘Vulnerable Citizens’ A former Florida Department of Children & Families employee who stole nearly $35,000 by creating dummy accounts for cash and food stamp benefits will spend five years in prison, a Broward County judge has ordered. In a prepared statement, a circuit administrator for DCF condemned Charles for stealing from "Florida's most vulnerable citizens."

    - The Daily News / Philadelphia, PA – February 16, 2010 - Ronnie Polaneczky: Florida High-Tech System Shows Promise in Tracking Children Over the past two years, Florida's Department of Children and Families has been phasing in a child-tracking program so brilliant, you gotta wonder why no one came up with it sooner: Caseworkers document each visit to a kid in DCF care by snapping a cell-phone photo of the child. The technology in these special phones not only stamps the picture with the visit's time and date but also uses GPS technology to pinpoint the place where the picture was taken.

    - The News-Press / Fort Myers, FL – February 16, 2010 - ‘Night on the Town' in Fort Myers to Benefit Foster Children Florida Repertory Theatre, Foster Care Advisory Services, and Vino de Notte restaurant are presenting "Night on the Town" Tuesday, Feb. 23 to benefit abused and neglected children in Southwest Florida. Foster Care Advisory Services has worked to fill the needs of those children since 1984.

    - The Tampa Tribune / New Port Richie, FL – February 10, 2010 - DCF to Pay $250000 in Case of Slain Pasco Child The Florida Department of Children & Families has agreed to pay settlements totaling $250,000 in the case of a 2-month-old girl who died after she was improperly placed in her biological father's care. Pasco Circuit Judge Walter Schafer approved the settlements during a hearing today.

    - Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach, FL – February 10, 2010 - Broward Nurse a Lifesaver for Haiti Victims Sent to South Florida DELRAY BEACH — Miraine Lamour was pulled from the ruins of what had been a third-floor classroom at Institut Louis Pasteur in Port-au-Prince five hours after the Haiti earthquake. Her leg was broken; her pelvis crushed. She couldn't move her legs. Lamour doesn't recall seeing a doctor for days until she wound up on the Navy medical ship Comfort.

    - ABC Action News / Tampa, FL – February 9, 2010 - Does Your Child’s Day Care Stack Up? AMPA, FL -- We trust them to care for our children, but how do you know if the daycare center you or someone in your family sends their kids to has a history of potentially dangerous violations and fines? An ABC Action News investigation has discovered that scores of daycare centers have been cited just in the last year.

    - First Coast News / Clearwater, FL – February 8, 2010 - Crist Touts State's Adoption Record More children are moving from foster care into adoptive homes than ever before, and today the governor praised the efforts that have made that possible. In 2009, there were a record 3,777 adoptions statewide, breaking the previous record set the year before. At the same time, Florida's foster care system is responsible for a third fewer children than just two years ago, totaling 19,797 as of July.

    - The Independent Florida Alligator / Gainesville, FL – February 2, 2010 - Haitian Orphans Get Help in Florida In response to Haiti’s earthquake, Florida is preparing foster homes to take in Haitian orphans by waiving homes’ occupancy limitations. In the aftermath of Port-au-Prince’s collapse, various organizations are working to get orphaned children out of Haiti and into a more stable environment. “Everyone here is sleeping in the dirt,” said Kyle Shropshire, an aid worker at an orphanage in Bon Repos, Haiti. “This is no place for a child.”

    - Florida Times-Union / Jacksonville, FL – January 22, 2010 - Jacksonville Foster Care Advocates Honored Nationally A 27-year-old man who spent his boyhood in Jacksonville's foster-care system and a child-abuse investigator who spent her career serving it have been nationally recognized for their dedication to making improvements to how it works. Former foster child Mike Dunlavy and foster parent and Florida Department of Children and Families child abuse investigator Joyce Andrews received Ruth Massinga Awards from the Casey Family Programs. Nancy Dreicer, DCF director for Northeast Florida, said the recognition is a "significant national recognition of the positive changes that we've made in foster care in Jacksonville."

    - NewsJournal Online / Volusia County, FL, January 19, 2010 - Locals, DCF Reach Out to Help Victims of Haiti Earthquake Local workers for the state Department of Children & Families are assisting in the Haiti earthquake relief effort, including receiving American citizens, many Haitian-Americans, who are arriving at Sanford and Orlando International airports from Haiti. Reggie Williams, DCF administrator in Daytona Beach, said staff members were at the airports Sunday and Monday. Workers are taking shifts, along with DCF staff from the Orlando area, to provide assistance to families, including mental health, temporary cash assistance and housing.

    - Capital News Service / Tallahassee, FL, January 19, 2010 - State Helps Haitian Orphans, Doesn’t Expect Refugees Florida is opening its ports to expatriates and orphans and is prepared to send refugees back to Haiti. More than 5,000 U.S. citizens caught in last Tuesday’s earthquake have returned to the States. “They haven’t slept in days. They are hungry, so the food banks have stepped up. The Red Cross is offering meals as they arrive,” said Florida Department of Children and Families Secretary George Sheldon.

    - The Miami Herald / Miami, FL – January 18, 2010 - Schools, Shelters Get Ready – Just in Case With the devastation in Haiti, South Florida is preparing once again to play a role assisting a troubled country. Though there is no sign of an exodus of Haitians heading to U.S. shores, governments and social service agencies are preparing for the possibility.

    - The Miami Herald / Miami, FL – January 17, 2010 - How a South Florida Foster Care Tragedy Led to Reform Florida child welfare administrators had seen children in their care get raped, tortured, strangled, starved. But never before Rilya Wilson had a foster child simply vanished. Social workers across the nation still study the case as a cautionary tale for what not to do in child protection. But if Rilya's name has become synonymous with scandal, children's advocates and Department of Children & Families leaders say, it also has become a touchstone of reform.

    - E! Online – January 12, 20101 - Tiger Woods has one person sticking up for him. A Florida lawmaker is demanding the state's Department of Children and Families investigate whether someone filed a false report alleging child abuse against the disgraced golfing great and his wife, Elin Nordegren, after news broke about his sex scandal.

    - The Florida Times Union / Jacksonville, FL – January 12, 20101 - Four Cheers: Foster Care Leaders One of the proudest achievements in Northeast Florida is the fact that this area leads the state in adoptions from foster care. The success in the Jacksonville area has been a major reason why Florida leads the nation in this statistic.

    - News-Journal Online, Daytona Beach, FL / January 10, 2010 - Child's Suicide Raises Medication Questions The April 2009 death of a South Florida 7-year-old foster child, Gabriel Myers -- who was prescribed several mind-altering drugs and hanged himself in his foster home -- sparked a statewide review in November that will result in new rules and legislation in the coming months for children under foster care. "We must do better for our children," said Alan Abramowitz, former local DCF administrator and state director of the DCF Family Safety Program Office. "Medication is not the cure-all."

    - TC Palm / Treasure Coast, FL – January 5, 2010 - Editorial: DCF Must Continue to Improve its Abuse Hotline Procedures cap:In a troubling account, the Miami Herald reported that thousands of calls to Florida’s statewide abuse hotline were screened out and not referred for investigation. Among them were calls claiming kidnapping, rape, aggravated child abuse and medical neglect, some of them coming from schools, judges and day-care workers.

    - WCTV-TV / Tallahassee, FL – January 4, 2010 - Task Force to Stop Child on Child Sexual Abuse Child on child sexual abuse touches and troubles the lives of thousands of children each year and the state of Florida is launching a new effort to stop it. The Florida Department of Children and Families identified more than 8300 children as either alleged perpetrators or victims of child on child abuse from 2008 to 2009.

    - Associated Press / Miami, FL – December 3, 2009 - DCF to Strengthen Response to Hotline Calls Florida social service administrators will strengthen their response to calls for help to the state's abuse hot line after a newspaper reported that thousands of calls each month are being "screened out" and not forwarded for investigation.

    The Florida Bar News / Tallahassee, FL – December 1, 2009 - Panel Says Kids Have a Right to an Attorney Legal Needs of Children Committee supports legislation to provide children in dependency court with lawyer. “When the state takes a child out of their home and into state custody, it seems to me that every single child that is the main focus of such a process is entitled to a lawyer to represent their rights against the state,” Rosemary Barkett, U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals judge, told members of The Florida Bar Legal Needs of Children Committee. “A clear signal came through loud and clear that the overwhelming consensus of this committee is that children in a dependency courtroom need lawyers,” said Howard Talenfeld, chair of the Legal Needs of Children Committee, shortly after the conference call.