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Archive for the ‘Commentary’ Category

Florida’s Child Advocates Laud Judge’s Ruling on Medical Costs for At-Risk Kids

January 2nd, 2015   No Comments   Advocacy, Commentary, Court Cases

In an important win for Florida’s most vulnerable children – and the doctors and advocates who serve them, a U.S. federal judge this week ruled that the state’s healthcare system for those children violates various federal laws. The move follows a decade-long battle by pediatricians who care for those kids, but have done so at fees sufficient to ensure adequate care.

In his ruling, US Circuit Judge Adalberto Jordan pediatricians and various specialists were subject to a Medicaid budget set by the state at an artificially low level. As a result, many of those doctors elected not to participate in the insurance program that serves the needy. Kids were receiving sub-par medical and dental care, or none at all, especially when families were forced to drive long distances to find doctors still participating in the state program.

“This is a great day for the children in this state,” Dr. Louis B. St. Petery, a Tallahassee pediatrician and executive vice president of the Florida Pediatric Society, told the Miami Herald. Dr. Petery helped spearhead the suit.

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Children’s Deaths Live On As Political Talking Points In Governor Campaign

October 15th, 2014   No Comments   Abuse, Advocacy, Commentary

Any child advocate, guardian ad litem or attorney who protects foster children and at-risk kids physically or sexually abused, harmed or otherwise a target of personal injury know discussions of their care and protection are delicate matters. So it is frustrating to those same advocates, guardians and attorneys to see candidates in the Florida governor’s race discussing the fate of at-risk kids in the highly charged and politicized campaign for the state’s highest office.

The Associated Press reported this week that Republican Florida Gov. Rick Scott has been telling the state’s voters that children neglected or abused in Florida are more safe with him as governor than when Charlie Crist was in Tallahassee.

While the two sides disagree about the statistics, and media reports are questioning the figures, one point remains: kids are not fodder for candidates for public office.

To be sure, children die, even those under the watch of or known to be at possible harm by the Florida Department of Children and Families. The Miami Herald investigative series, Innocents Lost, revealed some 477 kids known by Florida DCF have died over the past several years.

That they die is bad enough. That they’ve become fodder for the campaign trail is disheartening and disturbing.

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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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As ‘Crisis’ Looms, We Praise Florida Foster Families in Protecting At-Risk Kids’ Needs

August 8th, 2014   No Comments   Advocacy, Commentary, Department of Children & Families (DCF), Foster Care

The Florida foster child care system can be a challenging place for foster kids – and foster families. Much as the state encourages families to volunteer to provide stable, if temporary, homes to these at-risk children, foster parents find a blend of reward and difficulty in their tasks.

It’s an unenviable situation across the board. A newspaper investigation found that 477 kids who were known to be at risk by the Florida Department of Children and Families were not removed from their homes. Instead, the agency has supported a policy of “family preservation,” believing that a safe natural family home is the best place for at risk kids.

We agree. But for those kids who are truly in harm’s way, removal – at least temporarily – often is the answer.

In the wake of the investigation, experts believe more kids will be removed from their biological families. If that’s the case, adults and families must be encouraged to become foster providers to nurture at-risk children as attempts are made to help biological parents create safe and nurturing homes for their children.

Read this Florida Weekly story on the successes and trials of foster families. You’ll discover who they are, why they care for at-risk children, how they’re treated – and mistreated – by the system, and why many have fostered dozens of children and even helped some biological parents become better parents to their children.

We applaud their efforts.

As Governor Signs Bills, Legislative Session Proves Good to Florida’s Medically Needy, Dependent Children

June 26th, 2014   No Comments   Advocacy, Commentary, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

It was an especially successful legislative session for at-risk, medically needy and other foster care children throughout Florida. After passing the Legislature with bi-partisan support, two bills were signed into law this week by Governor Rick Scott ensuring Florida’s most vulnerable children have the best care from the Department of Children and Families, and skilled legal representation when in the dependency system.

The first bill was an overhaul of DCF’s child welfare process. The second bill “could begin to give voice to children long rendered voiceless,” the Miami Herald wrote. Howard Talenfeld, a leading child advocacy attorney and foster care damages lawyer and supporter of the new laws, had said this has been a long road.

“It’s been our mission since 2002 to enact a law like this because disabled children are the most vulnerable children to come into our child welfare system. Unfortunately, they have to face a maze of bureaucratic hurdles in order to obtain the benefits they need to be safe and to survive in the foster care system,” the Herald quoted Mr. Talenfeld, who also is president of Florida’s Children First, the state’s premier child advocacy organization.

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North Florida Gainesville Foster Child Lawyer: We Must Break Cycle of Abuse to Keep Kids From Repeating It

June 23rd, 2014   No Comments   Abuse, Advocacy, Commentary, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

North Florida and Gainesville foster child attorney and children’s advocate Gloria Fletcher wrote this letter in response to news that a 2-year-old boy, Justin Polk, was beaten and strangled to death in an Orlando-area hotel room. While no one’s been charged with his death, the Florida Department of Children and Families had been called to Justin’s home several times for reported domestic violence. If the reports were true and had Justin survived, writes Ms. Fletcher, who also serves on Florida’s Children First, he might have continued to live amid the cycle of abuse that scars society. We must break that cicle. Below is her letter…

Child advocate attorneys like myself in Gainesville, Ocala and throughout North Central Florida often fight in courtrooms and the public realm to protect the rights, health and welfare of Florida’s at-risk children. But all too often, the worst abuses go on in places we cannot see or reach – behind the family’s closed doors.

That’s apparently where 2-year-old Justin Polk died this month. He died in an Orlando hotel room of blunt force trauma and strangulation. No one has been charged with his death, though his mother and her boyfriend were arrested on charges of child abuse.

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Child Advocate: Should Permanent Florida DCF Chief Come From Within the Agency?

December 24th, 2013   No Comments   Advocacy, Commentary, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

As Florida Gov. Rick Scott mulls the naming of his next permanent secretary of the Florida Department of Children and Families, the post invariably will require someone up to the rigors and demands of the job. After all, dozens of children have died while under DCF watch. This leaves some to wonder whether the governor should look outside the agency – or first consider someone already there.

The post will be difficult to fill also because the term could be short, depending on outcome of the 2014 election.

Howard Talenfeld, a children’s rights lawyer and child advocacy attorney, and president of the watchdog group Florida’s Children First, admitted to a reporter recently that filling the post creates “a huge challenge” in “getting a quality secretary who would not have even a year to serve.”

Maybe the answer can be found within the agency, Talenfeld said. “”I would be hopeful that the department looks at some of the people who are there. There are some quality folks.”

Read the entire story and interview here.

Increased Scrutiny Makes Gov. Scott’s DCF Appointment Critical for Future

December 20th, 2013   No Comments   Advocacy, Commentary, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

By Howard Talenfeld

The post of Secretary of the Florida Department of Children and Families is one of the toughest jobs in Florida – and especially in Tallahassee. With the deaths of more than 20 foster children and at-risk kids under DCF watch, the result has been heightened scrutiny upon the agency. It also resulted in the resignation of embattled chief David Wilkins who was replaced by interim Secretary Esther Jacobo, who has taken some important first steps to fix the system by bringing in qualified child welfare experts to assess Florida’s failing system.

So, whomever Gov. Rick Scott names to replace Mr. Wilkins permanently must be ready for the challenge.

But more than battle-tested for the rigors and scrutiny of Tallahassee, the appointee has to be a child welfare professional who will prioritize protecting children over all others.

Never has the post of Florida Department of Children and Families Secretary been of a higher profile and importance than it is today. Cases of death, caretaker abuse, child-on-child sexual abuse, and children languishing in the system without permanent placement have now surfaced to the public spotlight while privatization of Florida child protection system system is still an experiment.

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Florida At-Risk and Foster Child Attorney Explores DCF Ills on Local News Show

November 18th, 2013   No Comments   Advocacy, Commentary, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

Howard Talenfeld on PutneyFort Lauderdale child advocate and Florida foster child attorney Howard Talenfeld, who has brought suit in many cases of wrongful death and sexual abuse and physical abuse perpetrated against Florida’s at-risk children, was a guest as Local 10’s Michael Putney discussed issues with Department of Children and Families. This comes after at least 25 children have died since April at the hands of abusive and violent parents or other caregivers. All 25 kids were known by DCF officials.

The topic was “The state Department of Children and Families and its inability to prevent the deaths of many children under its care” since April this year, utney said. “It’s an alarming trend and one that must stop.”

Watch the entire episode here.

With 25 Kids Dead, Florida Department of Children and Families Must Change its Failed Policies

November 11th, 2013   No Comments   Abuse, Advocacy, Commentary

The Florida Department of Children and Families has argued for years in support of its policy of keeping troubled families together. In the wake of the deaths of 25 children known by DCF potentially to be at harm, some have called the policy flawed.

In this letter to the Tampa Bay Times, child advocate attorney Howard Talenfeld argues that in light of situations of wrongful death, physical abuse and sexual abuse of at-risk children and foster children, there is no doubt that DCF needs desperately to revamp its child protection system, as there is no excuse for a single death of a child where there are red flags known to DCF investigators. However, the best practice is to always try to keep children in their homes if it can be done so safely.

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With Advocates’ Guidance, Florida Department of Children and Families Embraces Needed Reforms

October 4th, 2013   No Comments   Advocacy, Commentary

As it promises change and improvement in the interest of the safety of foster children and at-risk kids statewide, the Florida Department of Children and Families has asked organizations to lend guidance of its child safety model. The work of at least one policy group – Casey Family Programs – has gained the attention of DCF Interim Secretary Esther Jacobo and other child advocates and attorneys.

Casey’s report found DCF’s safety measure lacking. This comes in the wake of the deaths of 20 children whose situations were known to DCF and its community-based care providers. Casey found that DCF must broaden its focus from children in danger to include children at-risk of becoming so.

Noted Casey’s Alan Puckett and Dee Wilson: “The safety model…does not clearly convey the cumulative emotional and developmental harm which children may suffer from chronic neglect or from the combination of chronic neglect with physical abuse or sexual abuse. In many chronically referring families, children may be neither in present or impending danger nor truly safe given the cumulative developmental and emotional impact, and occasional significant harm, which may result from low level chronic maltreatment.”

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Medically Needy Child Dies Under DCF Care and Amid Provider Bickering

September 30th, 2013   No Comments   Abuse, Commentary, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

On Florida Child Advocate, we’ve advocated for attorneys and attorneys ad litem for developmentally disabled and medically fragile children and foster and at-risk children – and to put an end to their needless and senseless wrongful death, personal injury and physical abuse. We’ve admonished the Florida Department of Children and Families and their contracted community-based providers for not seeing that these citizens receive the critical and appropriate medical care they need, and we’ve lauded the legislature for funding that care.

So it’s saddening and frustrating to read that a young child under the watch of DCF and under the care of two such providers died as those providers debated who should handle and pay for her care. In brief, this young child should have had assigned to her a skilled child advocacy attorney to argue for her needs. Simply put, she died because no one skilled to do so was there on her side advocating for her very specific and necessary medical needs.

Read just part of her story to get a sense of her suffering, and now plain it would seem to an outsider that she needed someone to advocate on her behalf…

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