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In January, child advocates, guardians, child welfare attorneys and others watched as the Florida Department of Children and Families pulled its $65.5 million contract from community based care provider Hillsboro Kids, in part because eight children had died under its supervision in two years. Add one more to the list.
Young child Gabrielle Crawford, born with multiple birth defects, died in December while under the care of his mother – who’d already had four children taken from her. Though he was never expected to live past 2 – he was was 8 months old at the time of his death – Gabrielle had broken bones and a bruise on his face.
“On Thursday, the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner’s Office called Gabrielle a homicide victim,” wrote the Tampa Bay Times. “The state Department of Children and Families called his death another example of the failure of Hillsborough child protectors to avert a tragedy unfolding before their eyes.
“No other region in the state has a child death rate as high,” the Times wrote. The nine deaths, said Mike Carroll, DCF’s Suncoast regional director, ‘were the driving force to change lead agencies.’ He said DCF and (new CBC) Eckerd would immediately began reviewing ‘every single child’ under supervision in Hillsborough County, about 2,500 children.”
The Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) has tagged a Panama City- and Bay Country-area lead agency for child welfare services at No. 1 in the state by a new system of measurements, wrote the Panama City News Herald. The organization, The Big Bend Community Based Care, earned the top spot in the inaugural report.
The rankings are tallied by various information and measures, including administrative costs, ratio of children receiving preventive services, and the percentage of children enrolled in school. The rankings are part of the new DCF and the Florida Coalition for Children monthly “scorecard” that measures success with the 20 community-based care organizations across the state.
“We were very consistent across the board,” said Mike Watkins, CEO of Big Bend. “We got good marks for safety and controlling administrative costs.” Read the entire story here.
Advocates and child welfare attorneys have long said Florida’s child welfare system needs fixing, strengthening and correcting in order to correct foster child and vulnerable children’s abuse, deaths and personal injury. Yet critics say several bills being reviewed by lawmakers and named for Nubia Barahona – the 10-year-old girl allegedly killed by her adoptive parents last February – could have little positive effect.
“Indeed, some of the bills’ provisions will give the agency greater discretion to ignore calls to the state’s abuse hotline, or to cease an investigation at any time when an investigator believes the report is false,” writes the Miami Herald.
A bill in the state Senate would eliminate state standards designed to lower caseloads for Department of Children & Families investigators, though it is an article of faith among trade groups that lower caseloads lead to better outcomes for children.
Howard Talenfeld, President of Florida’s Children First, and David Gagne, Florida Youth Shine Secretary, went on NBC’s Live Miami to speak about the mission and goals of Florida’s Children First. The non-profit organization founded by child advocate attorneys from around the state speaks on behalf of children at risk. The two called for viewers to visit the organizations’ websites to support their ongoing work
Howard Talenfeld, a partner in the foster care / disabled persons practice with Colodny, Fass, Talenfeld, Karlinsky & Abate P.A., in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, recently was named a Pro Bono Finalist in the Most Effective Lawyers 2011 by the Daily Business Review.
The publication reviewed the case of Markus Kim, a former New York City foster child who was swindled by his adoptive parents out of $400,000.
Florida’s Children First, a statewide organization dedicated to protecting foster children and other at-risk youth, recognized Palm Beach County individuals for their tireless work to advocate for the state’s most vulnerable citizens at its annual Palm Beach Fundraising and Awards Reception at Boca Raton’s Bridge Hotel November 29.
Emcee Jim Sackett, FCF Executive Director Christina Spudeas and Richard Slawson
More than 50 of the area’s prominent business and community leaders, as well as individuals and families concerned about Florida’s foster care youth were in attendance to support the organization and its cause, including recently retired WPTV News Channel 5 Anchor Jim Sackett.
Sackett served as Emcee for the evening’s award ceremony, including a special award he presented to a former foster child, Earle James, who he once profiled in a “Thursday’s Child” segment 10 years ago. Earle overcame a difficult background of abuse and loss to become an advocate for children, speaking at parent and youth workshops. His father, Michael, who adopted Earle after seeing the “Thursday’s Child segment” accepted the “Youth Honoree of the Year” award on Earle’s behalf.
Dolce is a nationally recognized civil litigator. He will serve with various prominent statewide advocates for victims of sexual abuse.
“I’m gratified to have the opportunity to join Florida’s foremost professionals in the ongoing effort to provide dignity and justice to sexual violence survivors and to combat ongoing sex crimes,” Mr. Dolce said.
The FCASV is a nonprofit organization that serves as an informational resource to the State of Florida and agencies that provide support programs for victims and survivors of sexual violence. In addition to administering a toll-free rape crisis hotline, the FCASV hosts an annual statewide conference for sexual violence counselors and other professionals.
Florida’s Children First, a statewide organization dedicated to protecting foster children and other at-risk youth, recognized Orlando individuals for their tireless work to advocate for the state’s most vulnerable citizens at its annual Fundraising and Awards Reception. About 80 of the area’s prominent business and community leaders, as well as individuals and families concerned about Florida’s foster care youth were in attendance to support the organization and its cause, raising nearly $5,000. Tampa Bay Buccaneers player Jeff Faine and Orlando Sentinel writer and foster parent George Diaz among those recognized.
The 2011 Orlando Child Advocates of the Year were Jeff Faine and Susan Khoury. Jeff is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers center and founder of The Faine House, a special home for youth aging out of the foster care system offering young adults a safe place to live while they complete their education or pursue career training.
Susan has been a Guardian ad Litem program director for the Orange County Bar Association for the past 23 years. She supervises more than 13 staff members who recruit, train and support approximately 700 lawyers in Orange County who volunteer to represent the best interest of children in the Orange County juvenile courts.
This is the story of a child adopted by manipulative parents, robbed of $400,000 in life insurance money his mother left to him – and one child advocacy attorney’s successful effort to seek full recovery for the child left alone and penniless. ‘On your own but not alone’ is the story of Markus Kim and Fort Lauderdale attorney Howard Talenfeld’s pro bono quest to make things right.
As a member of the Bar’s Legal Needs of Children Committee, Talenfeld has seen horrible, deplorable crimes. Yet the 2008 call from a legal aid lawyer in New York was different. As the Florida Bar News wrote, …”that call led [Talenfeld] to Kim, a former foster child whose adoptive parents conned him out of $400,000 of life insurance money left to him by his deceased mother. Those parents took the money after Kim turned 18 — when the policy took effect — then fled to Florida, using the funds to pay off mortgages.”
Putting aside the complaints of child advocates, a legal aid attorney, parents and two of its own members, the Palm Beach County School Board last week voted 4-2 to continue the practice prone restraint — albeit as a last resort — when for subduing special-needs children, the Sun-Sentinel wrote.
The paper also reported that “federal studies have linked the use of prone restraint in other parts of the country to injuries and deaths. A Palm Beach Post series last year noted hundreds of incidents where the technique was used and the complaints of some parents who called for a ban on prone restraint.”
Some wanted the practice banned. Barbara Briggs, an attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County, cited the case of an autistic kindergarten student subdued using prone restraint 14 times last year, sometimes for as long as 30 to 35 minutes. Read the entire story here.
- Miami Herald – Miami, Florida – December 30, 2011 - Barahona Judge’s Efforts to Ferret Out Leaks Detailed Court records released to The Herald document a judge’s efforts to identify lawyers or child welfare administrators she suspected of leaking secret material to the newspaper.
- Miami Herald – Miami, Florida – December 17, 2011 - South Florida Charter Schools Admit Few Special Needs Children From South Dade to the northern reaches of Broward County, only a handful of students with profound disabilities make it into charter schools, according to a Miami Herald / State Impact Florida analysis of student enrollment data. The trend holds true across the state, where 87 percent of charter schools don’t serve any students with the most intense support needs.
- Associated Press – State College, Pennsylvania – December 16, 2011 - Penn. Deputy Attorney General Cites PSU 'Inaction' A graduate student waited a day after allegedly seeing a child being sexually assaulted on Penn State's campus before telling his supervisor, football coach Joe Paterno. Paterno waited another day before calling the university's athletic director, who looped in a school vice president. "I think it's a sad, sad, sad day, when you think about all of these victims, and you saw the inaction by a number of supposedly important, responsible adults. And there's a lot of inaction in this case," Marc Costanzo, a senior deputy attorney general, said after the preliminary hearing.
- Palm Beach Post – Miami, Florida – December 9, 2011 - Barahona Records: Neighbor Says Jorge Barahona Was 'Super Paranoid' Jorge Barahona was given to paranoia and fears of conspiracies around him that he expressed to a neighbor, according to investigative materials released this week by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s office, fears that may have led him to murder his adopted daughter and almost kill her brother, Victor.
- The Miami Herald – Miami, Florida – December 9, 2011 - Pleas by Nubia Barahona’s Family Went Unheeded — Until It Was Too Late Relatives of Nubia and Victor Barahona were convinced that the children were being abused by their adoptive father. But they couldn’t get anyone to listen. Nubia Barahona, 10, was found dead in the back of her adoptive father's pickup truck in Broward on Valentines Day.
- Associated Press – State College, Pennsylvania – December 8, 2011 - Ex-Penn State Coach Sandusky Jailed on New Child Sex Abuse Charges Based on 2 New Accusers Former Penn State University assistant coach Jerry Sandusky spent Wednesday night behind bars after new child sex abuse charges were filed against him based on the claims of two new accusers, including one who says he screamed in vain for help while Sandusky attacked him in a basement bedroom.
- Gainesville.com – Plant City, Florida – Mentally Disabled Man Forced to Stand on Ant Hill A 21-year-old worker at a group home was arrested, and the facility where he worked was later shut down after authorities said he forced a mentally disabled man to stand barefoot on fire ant hills as punishment for stealing money. Florida MENTOR's Ike Smith Group Home's license has been suspended. Florida MENTOR continues to operate other facilities throughout the state. The Department of Children and Families and the Agency for Persons with Disabilities are investigating.
- Orlando Sentinel – Orlando, Florida – December 3, 2011 - Orlando Mom Was Foster Parent to Hundreds of Kids Dorothy Pearl Johnson didn't have children of her own. However, as a foster parent for four decades, she mothered about 400 children. Johnson, 87, continued to nurture children until a few months ago, when her failing health forced her to stop. After battling leukemia, she died on Tuesday in the home on Trentonian Court where she had cared for hundreds of children as if they were her own.
- New York Times – New York – November 22, 2011 - Drugs Used for Psychotics Go to Youths in Foster Care Foster children are being prescribed cocktails of powerful antipsychosis drugs just as frequently as some of the most mentally disabled youngsters on Medicaid, a new study suggests.
- USAToday – State College, Pennsylvania – November 16, 2011 - Penn State Case Presses Others to Tighten Abuse Laws Lawmakers and university officials across the USA are moving quickly to tighten up rules on who must report sexual abuse on campus in the wake of the Penn State scandal.
Reuters – State College, Pennsylvania – November 13, 2011 - A Long History in Penn State Child Abuse Case It will not be so easy to wipe out the stain on Penn State's reputation from the alleged abuse and what critics see as a cover-up by university officials who were told that Sandusky was seen raping a young boy in a shower in 2002. The case has drawn comparisons to the child abuse scandals that rocked the Catholic Church, whose top officials are also accused of covering up child abuse over decades.
Forbes – State College, Pennsylvania – November 11, 2011 - Conrad Murray, Penn State and Why the Powerful Enable Evil After Dr. Conrad Murray was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Michael Jackson, the blogosphere, rightly, called him an enabler in a long line of celebrity enablers. Allegations that Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky raped a pre-teen boy in the college shower seem less shocking than the nauseating cover-up that follows.
