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Gov. Crist 2010 Budget Boosts Funding for Florida Children, Families, Foster Kids and Aged-Out Graduates

February 18th, 2010   1 Comment   Foster Care, Funding

At a time when tough economics call for fiscal belt-tightening across the state, Gov. Charlie Crist this year has shown tremendous resolve and vision.

This year, the Governor has recommended $77.5 million to support a variety of Florida Department of Children and Families initiatives designed to protect current foster children and those graduating out of care.

Attorneys, guardians, advocates and others who provide legal representation for these citizens laud the governor for his recommendations.

According to a document from the DCF, the governor’s budget proposals are anticipated to protect critical services for vulnerable Floridians.

“We are grateful that Governor Charlie Crist places such a high priority on continuing DCF’s progress in increasing adoptions of children in foster care, keeping children and families together and safe from abuse, preventing domestic violence and homelessness, and providing treatment for mental illness and substance abuse,” noted DCF Secretary George H. Sheldon. (more…)

Florida’s Adoption Program Earns National Respect, Awarded $10 Million

September 18th, 2009   No Comments   Funding, Psychotropic

We at Florida Child Advocate.com congratulate Florida Department of Children and Families Secretary George Sheldon and former Secretary Robert Butterworth for initiating an effort that recognizes that every child, regardless of age or disability, is adoptable. This is a great start, but we have a long way to go.

We’re not alone in recognizing this effort. The Miami Herald reports that Florida leads the nation in finding permanent homes for abused and neglected children.

Washington has recognized the work of what has become a model program, too. Reporter Carol Marbin Miller writes that Florida child-welfare administrators have received nearly $10 million in federal aid for Florida’s adoption program.

“For the second year in a row, the Department of Children & Families has led the nation — by a wide margin — in the number of children successfully adopted from foster care,” Miller writes. “For their efforts, DCF will receive a hefty bonus that can be used to boost next year’s adoption program.” Read More…


Florida DCF Making Strides In Foster Care Issues

August 17th, 2009   No Comments   Foster Care, Funding, Legislative & Regulatory Issues

The Florida Department of Children & Families (DCF) has made strides of late, both in recognizing the need for — and furthering its protections of — children in the state’s foster care program.

But it has much to do and still farther to go. In a story, DCF Report Rips Way Kids Get Meds by the Fort Myers News-Press, Stan Appelbaum, chairman of the Local Advocacy Council for mental health, said “I’m not a happy camper with the way medications are being used. The first thing that I’d take away from this review is that it’s not a perfect system.” The article also called medicating children in state care an “unregulated, haphazard process in which drugs are prescribed to help caregivers calm difficult children instead of treating them,” according to an initial state review.

As the Miami Herald recently reported: A panel found that “Florida’s mental health system for foster kids relies far too often on drugs, with little oversight, according to a draft report on the suicide of 7-year-old Gabriel Myers.” Read the full article here. (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…)

Auto Tag Drives the Message Home: Florida Kids Deserve Justice

January 15th, 2009   No Comments   Funding

kidsdeservejustice_plateIf you believe in supporting the justice needs of Florida’s kids, drive the message home.

Order the KIDS DESERVE JUSTICE specialty Florida license plate today or at your regular renewal time. The $25 plate cost is a charitable contribution to The Florida Bar Foundation. Every dollar goes to supporting grants for children’s legal services.

The Kids Deserve Justice specialty license plate funds free legal services to low-income children in Florida, helping them reach their full potential. Examples of these services include legal representation for abused and neglected children, legal help for children transitioning out of foster care or legal assistance for children needing special education testing or access to health care.

No administrative costs will be deducted by The Florida Bar Foundation.

For assistance or information, contact Shannon Stankiewicz at KDJ@flabarfndn.org.

Support Florida’s kids by driving the message home today!

Message to Florida Legislators: Protect the Children

January 5th, 2009   No Comments   Funding

This is an editorial from today’s Ft. Myers News Press. As the Florida Legislature begins a special session, the needs of certain residents should be kept far from the chopping block…

Legislators seeking ways to save money should save the children and spare  the most vulnerable residents from cuts.

That’s our mantra as the Florida Legislature begins a challenging two-week special session today to plug a gaping $2.3 billion shortfall in the current  budget.

With the economy blowing holes in the spending plans of every government, business, family and organization in the country, it’s with great reluctance  that we urge any spending program be kept off the cutting table.

But we do so for child protective services, mostly under the Department of Children and Families-and we urge you to contact our leaders in Tallahassee and do the same.

It’s not that education, health, law enforcement, roads, seniors and the environment aren’t essential service areas. They are, but the protection of vulnerable children cannot be diminished or postponed until the economy recovers. It’s a society’s most basic moral responsibility, as we see it. (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.