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Archive for the ‘Rights of Foster Children’ Category

Warning to Prospective Parents: Swindle Foster Kids’ Money and Face Jail Time

September 2nd, 2010   No Comments   Adoption, Foster Care, Rights of Foster Children

News that a Tampa, Florida, area couple allegedly stole more than $400,000 from a foster child’s life insurance payout reveals how society’s most vulnerable children remain susceptible – even while in a system designed to protect them or once they’ve aged out and are on their own.

To prospective parents the indictment against the Davenport, Florida, couple also should stand as a warning to those who would swindle money from kids who need it badly: Get caught, and jail time may await.

According to news reports, Radhames Antonio Oropeza, 53, and Asia Concepcion Oropeza, 52, are said to have invited to Florida a foster child whose mother had died, and whose father was in jail. The child was given the proceeds of a $400,000 life insurance policy when he turned 18. The young man’s name has not been released.

Authorities claim the couple convinced the boy he was making real estate investments. The couple faces charges of conspiring to commit fraud and wire fraud. (more…)

Most Effective Lawyers: Four Years of Work Led to Settlement in DCF Case

December 15th, 2009   No Comments   News & Events, Rights of Foster Children

The Daily Business Review, a leading legal and professional publication in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and South Florida’s tri-county community, recently named law firm partners Howard Talenfeld and Tracey McPharlin among its Most Effective Lawyers.

To the two foster care and child advocacy attorneys, partners with Colodny Fass Talenfeld Karlinsky & Abate P.A., the proposition seemed simple: placing children who are known sexual offenders into a foster home where other foster children reside is a dangerous practice.

But it took nearly four years to persuade a court to recognize that the Department of Children and Families workers who placed two teenage boys with a known history of sexual predation into a home with three younger children acted with deliberate indifference. The workers were not, the lawyers argued, entitled to qualified immunity. Read the original article here…

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Florida DCF Secretary Sheldon Says Agency Changing Culture

September 3rd, 2009   No Comments   Rights of Foster Children

This article from the News Service of Florida reveals Florida Department of Children & Families Secretary George Sheldon’s belief that the agency at the center of state foster care issues is changing its culture.

“Gov. Crist made it very clear that if you make a mistake, admit it and try to fix it,’’ Sheldon said.

“Despite recent critical reports, Department of Children and Families Secretary George Sheldon said this week that he is convinced the beleaguered agency is beginning to change a long-engrained culture,” the article began. “A recently-completed internal report raises questions as to whether the agency has the right kind of employees who are willing to use common sense to avoid ongoing mistakes, such as one that came to light with the suicide of a 7-year-old child in South Florida.

“These mistakes wind up costing taxpayers millions of dollars because the state ends up settling lawsuits that accuse the agency of negligence.”

See the entire article here…

Florida Governor, Legislature Must Curtail Use of ‘Chemical Restraints’ on Foster Children

August 18th, 2009   No Comments   Foster Care, Legislative & Regulatory Issues, Psychotropic, Rights of Foster Children

“It seems to be a prerequisite for foster children to be on medication.”

These words were spoken by the adoptive father of two 12-year Florida girls. And the reality he spoke of just shouldn’t be the case.

As Florida Gov. Charlie Crist was barnstorming the state discussing Florida’s successes in fostering adoptions, Mirko Ceska was telling the governor about the continued prevalence of psychotropic drugs in the lives of foster kids and others in the state’s care. Read the Miami Herald article here.

Powerful psychotropic should not be used as “chemical restraints” for minor foster children. But such use is widespread instead of behavioral approaches designed to address the real losses in their lives. (more…)

Lawyers Go to Bat For Children in Florida Care

July 25th, 2009   No Comments   Foster Care, Rights of Foster Children

Plantation lawyers Howard Talenfeld & Jesse Diner hope to improve legal representation of kids in state care.

Jesse Diner, left, and Howard Talenfeld are working together to help Florida's foster care and vulnerable children.Jesse Diner, left, and Howard Talenfeld are working together to help Florida’s foster care and vulnerable children.

Two Broward lawyers are hoping to work toward a major change for kids who have been taken from troubled homes.

Howard Talenfeld and Jesse Diner, both of Plantation, say they want to make sure every child in state care has a voice when moving through the court system. Both have taken on lead roles in recent months with the Florida Bar Association and one of their main priorities will be to improve the legal representation of children in foster care.

“I realized the single greatest improvement we can make in the child welfare system is to give every child a voice when they are taken away from their parents,” said Talenfeld, a longtime foster care and child advocate attorney.

Read Complete Miami Herald Story Here.


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…)

Round-Up: Crist Signs Records Law, State Reviews Foster Care Cases

May 18th, 2009   No Comments   Education Issues, Foster Care, Rights of Foster Children
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist

Florida’s foster children have been both a source of both eye-opening revelation about how they’re cared for, as well as the recipients of legislation designed to help them in the future.

In some good news for foster kids, Florida Governor Charlie Crist signed into law bills designed to help grant them access to records for medical and educational needs.  The Foster Folly News wrote  that 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.”

WEAR-TV reported that 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.

Recent news in Florida’s foster child and foster care landscape continued to center on the fall-out of the Department of Children and Families response to Gabriel Myers, the 7-year-old child who committed suicide in his foster home. Reporters and government leaders are scrutinizing how Gabrielwas prescribed powerful psychotropic drugs, and how the DCF plans to deal with such cases in the future. Among the stories… (more…)

Florida DCF Workgroup to Research Death of Foster Child, Gabriel Myers

May 1st, 2009   1 Comment   Foster Care, Rights of Foster Children

Department of Children and Families Secretary Convenes Workgroup to Evaluate Circumstances Surrounding Death of 7-year-old in Foster Care

TALLAHASSEE, FL — Department of Children and Families (DCF) Secretary George H. Sheldon today announced that the Department is establishing a  workgroup to determine the facts and circumstances surrounding the tragic death of 7-year-old Gabriel Myers.

Gabriel died on April 16 when police indicated he apparently hanged himself in the shower of his foster parents’ Margate home.

Following Gabriel’s death, the Department of Children and Families petitioned the court to release case files and notes relating to the child while in state care. Normally, case files are only made public following a death that is verified as a result of abuse or neglect, per Florida Statutes. However, DCF believed it was in the public interest to open the records to public scrutiny. A judge agreed and the petition was granted on April 22, 2009. (more…)

Doing Good Can Be Good For Foster Children, the Developmentally Disabled & Practice

March 16th, 2009   No Comments   Foster Care, Guardian ad Litem & Representation, News & Events, Rights of Foster Children

Doing Good Can Be Good for Florida’s  Foster Children, the Developmentally Disabled, and Even Your Legal Career — a summary of a presentation to the Jacksonville Bar Association to encourage lawyers to do pro bono representation which occurred on March 19, 2009.*

By Howard Talenfeld

When I attended law school, like many other students, I did not pursue any specialization. After launching my practice as attorney in 1980, I was fortunate and handled significant commercial litigations (and not so important small claims cases), large personal injury claims (and not so important soft tissue injury cases), critical cases behalf of a municipality (and some traffic citations), and appeals in cases affecting thousands of people (and appeals affecting few).

Indeed, by many measures I was successful and even made partner in my present firm, Colodny, Fass, Talenfeld, Karlinsky & Abate, P.A., after one year of practice. However, something important was missing.  In spite of my financial, personal and professional successes, my practice did not give me great personal satisfaction.

In 1988, my law firm began representing the Florida Department of Health & Rehabilitative Services (“HRS). It happened as a fluke because one of its ALF licensees was seeking to hold the Governor Martinez in contempt. This opportunity occurred because our firm had a good reputation for its work as outside counsel hired by the state of Florida Division of Risk Management, and my partner, Joel Fass, was also the “go to” lawyer for Department of Regulation prosecutions. Our immediate success in this case mushroomed in to representing HRS as outside counsel across all of its major program areas: Children & Families, Delinquency, Economic Services, Developmental Disabilities and the Office of Licensing & Certification.

However, it was no accident that this occurred. (more…)

Parental Rights Get Boost in Court Rulings

November 30th, 2007   No Comments   Rights of Foster Children

Daily Business Review -- Nov. 30, 2007 — “Parental rights receive boost from recent court rulings” This article highlights recent court rulings regarding increasing the degree of proof needed to prove bad parenting before granting access to children by third parties.

· The National Law Journal -- Nov. 26, 2007 — “Parental rights getting a boost from courts” Colodny, Fass, Talenfeld, Karlinsky & Abate Shareholder Howard Talenfeld was featured in an article about third-party claims for custody and visitation of children.

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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.