A new USA Today article highlights daunting details regarding the systemic issues in Florida’s child welfare system. In the last five years, there have been nearly 5,000 calls to the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) abuse hotline from various concerned members of the community. These calls come from teachers, healthcare professionals, day care workers, neighbors, and more. The complaints often warn of child abuse, neglect, sexual abuse, abandonment, etc. The number of foster care complaints filed against foster parents, group homes, and guardians rose by roughly 54% over the past five years. There is a direct correlation between the surge in referrals and 2014 legislation that made it easier to seize children from their parents to place them in state care. A consequence of the changes in the law includes having more children in need of foster care with no real place to send them.
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Archive for March, 202110-Year-Old Child Sexually Assaulted Multiple TimesFive men have been accused of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old child and four of them are free to continue abusing children after continuous systematic delinquencies failed to hold the men accountable for their crimes. Although the government institutions responsible for protecting the little girl were well aware of the frequent sexual abuse she suffered, the system failed to take any action to protect her, leaving her in the hands and mercy of her abusers. In May 2020, the Chicago Police Department (“CPD”) performed a rape kit test on the minor after a 37-year-old man assaulted her. The DNA results quickly identified the abuser as he has been a registered child sex offender for over fifteen-years. However, as a result of horrifying negligence, the CPD failed to arrest the sexual predator or take any additional steps to protect the child from him for nearly 10 months, providing him with the freedom he needed to continue sexually assaulting children without restraint. DCF Florida’s Chief Inspector General defends investigation into nonprofit executive payFlorida private social welfare agencies charged with caring for abused, neglected, and disabled children are under attack after Florida’s Chief Inspector General for the Florida Department of Children & Families (DCF) issued a preliminary report suggesting that their executives were being compensated well above the limits allowed by state law. Many of the executives had salaries well into six figures. There is a concern that federal and state appropriations are padding their executives pockets instead of having the funds reach the children they are supposed to serve. |
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