What is FCA?

Child Advocacy Blog

Search

Archive for the ‘Adoption’ Category

If Gay Adoption Ban Upheld, Florida DCF Will Leave Gill Children: Sheldon

September 20th, 2010   No Comments   Adoption, News & Events

DCF Secretary George Sheldon is placing the welfare and stability of two young boys over the controversial politics of Florida’s law banning gay adoption. Regardless of the ruling of Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal, Secretary Sheldon  will not remove the children from their home.

In one of the most heated national controversies related to gay adoption, Florida Department of Children and Families Secretary George Sheldon said that if an appeals court reverses a judge and rules that Florida’s ban on adoptions by gay couples is valid, DCF won’t remove the two children.

“Those children appear to be safe , well-adjusted,” Sheldon said. “We’re not in the business of doing that (removing them).”

George Sheldon

George Sheldon

Sheldon told The News Service of Florida that even if the 3rd District Court of Appeal – or eventually the Supreme Court – rules that the adoption of two boys by Martin Gill, a gay man, was wrongly allowed, the state won’t move to remove the children from his home.

Gill was allowed to adopt the children by Miami-Dade circuit court judge Cindy Lederman, who in allowing the adoption, found the state’s ban on gay people adopting children unconstitutional. That ruling came in late 2008 and the state appealed the ruling to the district appeals court where a decision is yet to come down.

(more…)

U.S. Sends Florida $5.7M for Boosting Foster Care Adoptions

September 16th, 2010   No Comments   Adoption, Funding

According to the Associated press, Florida has received some $5.7 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for increasing the level of adoptions of children in foster care.

HHS stated this week that Florida was one of 39 states rewarded for boosting numbers of adoptions since 2007. The states use the incentive money to improve their child welfare programs, the AP reported.

The news report continued: The 12 months ending June 30 saw 3,368 foster children adopted in Florida. That was fewer than the two record years before it, but still more than before the state started an aggressive public awareness campaign three years ago. Read the entire story here.

DCF Chief to Florida Gov. Crist: Don’t Drop Gay Adoption Lawsuit

September 16th, 2010   No Comments   Adoption, News & Events

In news from Tallahassee, it was reported in the Palm Beach Post that Florida Gov. Charlie Crist should not drop a lawsuit that could result in a final decision about whether Florida’s 30-year-old ban on gay adoption is constitutional.

The recommendation came from George Sheldon, secretary of the Department of Children and Families.  According to the Post, Sheldon is a Democrat appointed by then-Republican Crist in 2008. He leads the DCF, the agency that challenged a Miami judge’s ruling that Florida’s law barring gay couples from adopting children is unconstitutional. Crist said yesterday he is reviewing whether to drop the lawsuit after releasing a gay-friendly platform in his quest as an independent candidate for U.S. Senate.

Read the entire Post story here.

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…)

Child Advocate: Florida Adoption of Haiti Orphans May Be a Long Process

January 24th, 2010   No Comments   Adoption

Legal declarations and parental rights are part of a long wait for those seeking to adopt children — including orphans arriving from the Haiti earthquake, Florida child advocate attorney Brian J. Cabrey, Esq., tells the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The touching images of Haitian children arriving on U.S. soil pulls at the heartstrings of many Americans, especially those who want to adopt children. But adoption experts say that compassion for the displaced children and the reality of child adoption – both in and outside of the United States – are two different things.

Even under usual circumstances there are enormous misconceptions about the intricacies of child adoption, experts say. And those misconceptions could explain the flood of offers to adopt children who have suffered immeasurable loss.

“People have to realize that there is often nothing fast-moving about the process of adoption, much less adoption of the children coming out of Haiti right now,” says Cabrey, a former senior attorney with the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) and board member of Florida’s Children First, a statewide child advocacy organization that seeks to serve foster, abused and neglected children. Read the entire article here…

National Adoption Month Highlights Need to Find Florida Foster Kids Permanent Homes

November 27th, 2009   No Comments   Adoption, Guardian ad Litem & Representation

I recently met with a young lady, R.J., who came into the Florida child welfare system in Miami at the age of 3 as a healthy child. R.J. exited the system at the age of 18 with very serious mental illnesses.

Even more appalling is that R.J. has eight brothers and sisters who each came into the system at roughly the same ages. Each spent roughly the same amount of time in the system. None were ever adopted. Despite having juvenile court judges, a guardian ad litem and many caseworkers, these nine children have endured this horrific and unacceptable result.

They are not alone.

Almost half of Florida’s foster children, or 9,321, have been in out-of-home care more than a year, despite state or federal requirements for permanency in less than one year. A quarter (more than 5,000) have been in out-of-home care more than two years. More than 2,500 children have been without a family for longer than three years. Read this Florida Bar News story on The Legal Needs of Children panel’s report. (more…)

Newer Entries »