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Archive for June, 2009

Though Renewed, ChildNet Must Reduce Re-Abuse of Kids in System

June 27th, 2009   No Comments   Abuse, Foster Care

Once troubled ChildNet foster care agency signs 5-year contract with Broward

By Jon Burstein: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

The private nonprofit agency running Broward County’s child welfare system seemed on the verge of chaos — FBI agents raided its main office, the state threatened to pull funding and the group’s board fired the chief executive officer. All of those woes engulfed ChildNet within a matter of hours April 13, 2007 — a day dubbed “Black Friday” by some local child welfare advocates.

On Thursday, the same Fort Lauderdale building where FBI agents once draped crime scene tape was the scene of another significant day in ChildNet’s history, this time a happy one. The group’s president signed a $333 million contract with the state Department of Children & Families to continue managing Broward foster care for the next five years.

Read Full Article Here

Howard Talenfeld, president of the advocacy group Florida’s Children First, commended current ChildNet President and CEO Emilio Benitez’s efforts in improving child welfare services, but said he’s still seeing a disturbing trend of children who after entering the ChildNet system are placed in situations where they are abused again.

In addition, it would have been unusual for another company to be chosen to take over ChildNet’s contract, Talenfeld said.

“The nature of the system is structured in such a way that it’s virtually impossible for a new agency to come in and compete with the holder of an existing contract,” he said.

FlaBar President Diner Makes Legal Representation of Foster Children a Critical Priority

June 26th, 2009   No Comments   Rights of Foster Children

For far too long, Florida foster children haved needed their own voice and legal counsel in their own dependency case and now before other state and local agencies that make critical decisions that critically affect their lives.

Representation should be of primary concern. Currently, only 60-80% of children in the dependency system are represented by the GAL program – and very few by attorneys. Quality representation of each child in foster care, before School Boards, Agency for Persons with Disabilities, and the Agency for Healthcare Administration, to name a few agencies, may be the single most important step we can take to positively impact the lives of foster children.

This year, Jesse Diner, President-Elect of the Florida Bar, has placed among his highest priorities taking the recommendations of the 2002 Commission on the Legal Needs of Children and introducing legislation to create a Statewide Office of the Children’s Advocate.

My appointment this May to chair the Florida Bar Association’s Legal Needs of Children Committee is part of that goal. Our committee will help write legislative language and seek passage of laws and regulations critical to fulfilling the state’s mandate to serve the best interests of the children in its care. (more…)

Sun-Sentinel: Child’s Death Exposes a Big Problem in Foster-Care Reform

June 25th, 2009   No Comments   Foster Care, Mental Health Issues, Psychotropic

THE ISSUE: Child’s death exposes a big problem in foster-care reform.

Sun Sentinel Editorial Board

It wasn’t that long ago when the Florida Department of Children & Families was seen as a hapless bureaucracy. Whether it was their seeking to incarcerate an 8-year-old to ensure he received proper care, or simply losing youngsters supposedly under its care, it didn’t take much for DCF to make a mockery of its role in child welfare.

The good news is that DCF is no longer that troubled agency. Unfortunately, many of those problems that once bedeviled DCF now belong to those local nonprofits and government agencies that are under contract with the state to provide foster care and other child protective services. Thank community-based care for that. (more…)

Florida Department of Children and Families’ Role ‘Should’ be to Protect Foster Kids

June 18th, 2009   No Comments   Foster Care, Mental Health Issues, Psychotropic

By Brian J. Cabrey

As published as a letter to the editor in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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, shocks the conscience. Gabriel apparently hung himself with the shower hose in the bathroom of his foster home in Margate.

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 three or four different drugs, or combinations thereof, at the time of his death.

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. Most such drugs have never been tested for pediatric use, and have not been FDA-approved for such use. Their prescription and use with kids is generally “off label,” meaning there are no approved instructions or guidelines for such use. (more…)

It’s Time to Recognize – And Appreciate – Florida’s Foster Parents

June 7th, 2009   No Comments   Foster Care
George Sheldon

George Sheldon

George H. Sheldon is Secretary of the Florida Department of Children and Families. This column originally appeared in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

It is time to recognize the thousands of Florida foster parents who open their hearts and their homes to children in need of a safe, loving and nurturing environment, and who — when the time is right — can let them go again.

Foster parents have the ability to love a child as their own, regardless of whether the child lives with them for a month or a year. They have the challenging task of providing an environment that helps a child heal and prepare to go back home, if possible, or to a new permanent home. Foster parents are a vital resource for these children as they wait between a painful past and an uncertain future. (more…)

Florida Uses Electronic Records to Place Foster Kids in Relatives’ Homes Out-of-State

June 5th, 2009   No Comments   Foster Care

Waiting for a permanent home for weeks or months may feel like an eternity to a Florida child in foster care.

It is especially frustrating when a grandmother, aunt or other relative living out of state is ready and willing to provide a home for a boy or girl removed from a family because of abuse or neglect.

The Florida Department of Children and Families’ (DCF) response has been to implement a fully electronic database to facilitate the transfer of dependent children outside of Florida.

Once the Department committed itself last year to speeding up out-of-state transfer of a child by using electronic records, DCF has significantly reduced the time it takes to exchange required information about the child with the appropriate state. Florida is the leader among the states in its use of electronic records for what is known as the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC).

The price-tag on converting to electronic records was $3,000, and about $100,000 a year is being saved on postage. (more…)

Attorneys: Florida Agency for Persons With Disabilities Must Curtail Psychotropic Use in APD Residential Facilities

June 4th, 2009   No Comments   Foster Care, Psychotropic

Psychotropic medications used without appropriate consent of parents and guardians has hit near epidemic proportions in the Florida foster care and group home setting. The public first realized this with the suicide of Gabriel Myers, 7, and weeks later, with a wrongful death lawsuit filed following the overdose of Denis Martez, 12.

The situation needs improved oversight — and the practice must stop.

In the following letter to Jim DeBeaugrine, Director of the Florida Agency for Persons with Disabilities, attorneys Howard Talenfeld and Maria Elena Abate, partners with the Fort Lauderdale law firm Colodny, Fass, Talenfeld, Karlinsky & Abate, P.A., call for Mr. DeBeaugrine to survey all licensed group homes working with his Agency as a first step in curtailing such use.

See the original letter here.

June 4, 2009
Jim DeBeaugrine, Director
Florida Agency for Persons with Disabilities
Tallahassee, FL  32399

Re:  Death of Dennis Maltez–Investigation of Psychotropic Drug Use in Group Homes

Dear Director DeBeaugrine,

As attorneys for the estate of Denis Maltez, and long-time advocates for the rights of society’s most vulnerable citizens, we are very concerned about the role psychotropic drugs played in his death from serotonin syndrome. I know that you are quite familiar with this case as your agency took emergency action and suspended the license of Rainbow Ranches, in part because of the inappropriate use of such drugs. (more…)

Crist Signing Supports Florida Foster Kids in Education, Healthcare

June 2nd, 2009   No Comments   Foster Care, News & Events
Child advocate attorney Howard Talenfeld greets Florida Gov. Charlie Crist at the historic signing ceremony.

Child advocate attorney Howard Talenfeld greets Florida Gov. Charlie Crist at the historic signing ceremony.

Florida’s foster children have a friend in Governor Charlie Crist.

With child advocate lawyers and other activists looking on, the governor in May signed legislation designed to help foster children statewide.

At a signing ceremony at the Children’s Services Council in Fort Lauderdale, Crist signed into law bills to help grant foster kids access to records for medical and educational needs.

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,” wrote Foster News Folly.

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.


Florida Foster Children Get Too Many Psychotropic Drugs With Too Little Oversight from State DCF

June 1st, 2009   No Comments   Foster Care, Psychotropic

Gabriel Myers (image from Florida DCF)The Florida Department of Children and Families Work Group issued its report on the role psychotropic medications played in the April suicide of Gabriel Myers – and the results were stark and unacceptable.

In the report issued this week, the DCF reported that 2,669 of Florida’s 20,235 foster children under the age of 17 were given one or more psychotropic drugs – with one in six, or about 16 percent, lacking required permissions. Some 73 kids 5 or younger are on the drugs.

Most shocking: Florida passed a law in 2005 requiring parental consent or a judge’s approval before administering psychotropic drugs.

Why is this important? These powerful psychological and mood-altering medications are used to control children’s behavior often in lieu of appropriate behavioral interventions. Many are often prescribed even though there is no FDA approval and there are significant side effects, including depression that could lead to suicide. Thus, they must be administered in appropriate situations where behavioral interventions have been exhausted, with a court order and under the close supervision of prescribing physicians well versed with the individual child’s health and care regimen. (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.