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Archive for the ‘Department of Children & Families (DCF)’ Category
When a 14-year-old girl used Facebook Live to live-stream her suicide, the world came to discover the help she desperately needed and never received from Florida’s social services agencies, notes her attorney. Her destructive behavior and long stint in foster care should have been sufficient warning. But as with other cases, warning flags were missed, overlooked, or ignored.
Foster care had been part of Nakia Venant’s life since 2009 – 10 different foster homes and child shelters, even hotels and a child welfare office, since last April alone. Excessive corporal punishment initiated some of the outbursts; alleged sexual abuse by another child while in state care exacerbated her situation. Then, she committed suicide while streaming live on social media, notes Howard Talenfeld, the child welfare attorney representing Venant’s mother, in an article in the Miami Herald.
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Florida child advocates and attorneys who represent children raped and abused in the child welfare system are struggling to comprehend how and why a 14-year-old girl, who reportedly had been sexually abused while in state care, hanged herself while streaming the event on Facebook Live this week. “I have to bury my baby,” her mother, Gina Alexis, said through sobs.
 It’s another example of how Florida’s experiment with privatization of its child welfare system is a failure, said Howard Talenfeld and Stacie Schmerling. The Fort Lauderdale attorneys are representing Alexis, mother of Naika Venant.
During a press conference at their law office, Ms. Alexis cried, “I trusted Florida foster care. Instead she kills herself on Facebook.”
Some blame social media. Talenfeld told those seeking answers to look elsewhere. “We first need to look more than anywhere else at what is going on in our backyards in Florida,” Talenfeld told the media gathered in his Fort Lauderdale law office. “Facebook is a method of communication, a method where the message was sent, but the reality is Facebook didn’t rape her. Facebook didn’t fail to provide her services. Facebook didn’t take her into care promising her a better life.”
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A Miami-Dade Circuit Judge chastised the Florida Department of Children and Families Broward County office for not following more closely the case of a toddler whose mother now reports the child has died.
According to news reports, after Judge Cindy Lederman learned that Broward DCF was not monitoring the family, whose children had previously been removed following the mother’s arrest, the judge said, “It seems like someone in Broward is sleeping, all the priors here and nothing was done. It’s astounding, quite frankly.”
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Another infant has died while under the watch of the Florida Department of Children and Families and one of its privately contracted providers, spurring child advocacy attorneys and lawyers who fight for at-risk children or those suffering abuse or harm to closely follow this case.
Miracle Collins, only 7 months old, was taken from her mother in February after reports of domestic violence, according to news reports on a Tampa Police Department report. Eckerd Kids, a contractor to the Florida DCF, placed the child with a family friend. The child was sleeping on the couch, and later was found unresponsive.
A DCF critical incident team is investigating the death.
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Children across Florida who have suffered rape, child sexual abuse, child abuse, and other personal injury often wait years to receive damage awarded by the court or juries – if they ever receive the money at all. Claims bills now before the Florida Legislature could make money available to help these victims receive the money they desperately need.
In one example, a Wellington boy, 9, was sexually assaulted by a foster child his parents had agreed to raise, not knowing the boy had suffered sexual abuse and had become a child-on-child predator. A Palm Beach County jury in 2013 found that the Florida Department of Children and Families was negligent and awarded the boy $5 million for damages and what could be a lifetime of treatment and therapy.
He’s yet to receive any money. “He’s living a life of paralysis,” said Howard Talenfeld, the attorney representing the now 22-year-old man.
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When the Florida Supreme Court issued its Juvenile Rules Opinion this week on requiring attorneys for Florida foster children with special needs, it was the successful culmination of a 10-year effort by the state’s leading foster child advocates, including the Florida Guardian ad Litem (GAL) program and Florida’s Children First (FCF), as well as the Legal Needs of Children Committee of The Florida Bar.
The Court ruled to implement legislation requiring legal representation for at-risk children facing administrative hearings. Read the ruling here.
Since the 1990s, FCF, the state’s premier child advocacy organization, and the GAL have worked closely advocating the legislation. They two organizations jointly submitted comments to the court supporting advancement of state legislation providing for attorneys ad litem and other programs to require legal representation for children in the child welfare system.
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Every South Florida child advocate and foster abuse attorney fights to prevent child abuse, personal injury and other harm or damages like those a Miami judge saw in a video this month. He called the events they endured the result of ineptitude and incompetence. The judge was responding to the violent “cockfights” and brawls children at a Miami group home for foster kids were forced to perform – with the encouragement of an adult supervisor.
“I saw a cockfight … between foster kids,” Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman said in court, according to news reports. The supervisor was “provoking and encouraging violence” as “these two boys battled it out and beat each other up.” The supervisor has since been fired.
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Florida child welfare administrators have had a long, troubled history with privatization of foster care services provided to the state’s at-risk, harmed, abused, and needy children. Our children have suffered sexual abuse, child abuse, personal injury, and other harm for years. Florida, it seems, wasn’t the only state with issues. A lawmaker in Kansas, the first state in the U.S. to privatize such care, has written a report on that state’s failures with foster care privatization and now is seeking to rescind the state’s program.
In what had been the first-in-the-nation privatized foster care system, the state legislator looked back on the program’s 20 years, only to see “increasing scrutiny and a record number of children in foster homes,” local media reported. In his report, “When Children Die We Must Act,” the lawmaker concluded that “the mid-1990s privatization wasn’t successful, the Topeka Capital-Journal (http://bit.ly/1RxWskK ) reported.
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Florida child advocates and child abuse attorneys who represent children and families in cases of wrongful death, child abuse and other personal injuries, are watching closely as the Florida Department of Children and Families reviews the death of Knowellan Kelly, a 15-month-old who died at All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg Sunday night.
Though Florida DCF had received a report on suspected abuse four months ago, allegations were unsubstantiated and the DCF Critical Incident Rapid Response Team was not been dispatched to investigate this incident, according to news reports.
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As Florida’s child advocates and attorneys who fight for the rights of kids who suffer child abuse, sexual abuse and other physical personal injury mourn the finding of the bodies of two children in recent days, Florida Department of Children and Families Secretary Mike Carroll had an admission. The Florida DCF chief admitted this week that Florida’s child-protection system failed in both cases.
Speaking to the Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee, Carroll said that in both the case of 2-month-old Chance Walsh and 11-year-old Janiya Thomas, who was found to be missing for more than a year when authorities sought to remove five kids from their mother’s home, the agency could have done more.
A call to a child abuse hotline regarding Walsh was dismissed by a hotline counselor. The discovery of a body in a freezer is suspected of being that of Thomas. The autopsy is not yet complete. Read more here.
While Carroll’s admission is laudable, children under the watch for suspected child abuse or sex abuse still are slipping through the cracks. It’s similar to the case of Phoebe Jonchuk, whose father was accused of dropping her from a bridge into Tampa Bay. The man’s attorney reportedly had called the abuse hotline warning of potential harm. Still, she died.
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The 2009 death of 7-year-old Gabriel Myers, an abused foster child found hanging from a shower fixture in his foster home in Margate, Florida, shone a bright light on the state’s policy of allowing doctors to prescribe psychotropic drugs on foster kids. His suicide was a horrible tragedy – one that led to outrage and supposed reform. Six years later, advocates and attorneys who fight for the rights of foster children who suffer child abuse, sexual abuse, and other physical and personal injury have discovered little has changed.
 The same “black box” medications Gabriel had received, even though they were intended for adults, at the time were part of a list the Department of Children and Families found were given to 16 percent of cases where foster kids were medicated – often without the consent of a parent or judge.
Despite all this, the practice continues. The preliminary report from the researchers with Florida’s child-protection system revealed that 11 percent of foster kids today are prescribed these psychotropic medications without caregivers following proper procedures, according to the Florida Institute on Child Welfare at Florida State University.
That’s 2,434 of 21,899 children who had open prescriptions for at least one psychotropic drug. Further, of 140 of the children’s files reviewed, only one in five met the requirements for administering psychotropic medications, often with consent forms that were completed late – if they were completed at all.
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Florida child advocates and attorneys who fight for the rights of abused, neglected and physically abused and sexually abused children are awaiting more information following the stabbing of a young Sarasota, Florida, girl, allegedly at the hand of her mother.
The 6-year-old girl was left fighting for her life in the hospital. Meanwhile, her mother, Ashley Parker, was jailed on charges of attempted murder. In late June, Sarasota police were called to the family home to find the daughter stabbed in the stomach and legs. The child’s “insides were hanging out with Band-Aids on her stomach,” according to police reports.
To those who know the family, this isn’t the first time the authorities have had to respond to the family’s home. Some reportedly believe that the Florida Department of Children and Families should have done more and ultimately failed the young girl.
“What I really think they should’ve did is took the little girl out of the house,” a neighbor told the news media. “The little girl would go to crying and shaking and stuff like that she was very afraid of her.”
DCF reportedly isn’t saying much. Some recall the case of Phoebe Jonchuck, the 5-year-old whose father threw her off a bridge into Tampa Bay. Her father, who later was charged with her murder, was known to be a risk to the child.
If the Department of Children and Families knew of problems in the Parker household, then questions will arise anew about what DCF officials knew, when they knew it, and – if they failed to act – why the girl was left in harm’s way.
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Jacksonville, FL – September 20, 2024 – Action News Jax- Duval County teacher under investigation after 8-year-old is injured A Beauclerc Elementary School teacher is being investigated by Duval County Public Schools after a physical incident with an 8-year-old student.
Miami, FL – September 3, 2024 – Miami Herald- Rising costs of care could strain funding for Florida program for brain-damaged kids Facing withering criticism from parents, advocates, lawmakers and insurance regulators, Florida’s compensation program for children born with catastrophic brain injuries opened its bank account three years ago and improved the lives of some of the state’s most disabled children.
Orlando, FL – September 2, 2024 – Orlando Sentinel- Autism drowning deaths prompt push for children’s specialized swim lessons Drowning is the number one cause of death for kids with autism and Florida leads the nation in fatalies.
Aventura, FL – August 5, 2024 – WSVN News 7- Parents arrested after leaving toddler in hot car while they shopped at Target in Aventura, police say A man and woman were arrested on child abuse charges after allegedly leaving their 2-year-old child in a hot car while they shopped at Target in Aventura.
Austin, TX – July 18, 2024 – WPLG Local 10- Largest housing provider for migrant children engaged in pervasive sexual abuse, US says Employees of the largest housing provider for unaccompanied migrant children in the U.S. repeatedly sexually abused and harassed children in their care for at least eight years, the Justice Department said Thursday, alleging a shocking litany of offenses that took place as the company amassed billions of dollars in government contracts.
Daytona Beach, FL – July 9, 2024 – WESH 2- Police: Man arrested in Daytona Beach after dangling, dropping child off second-floor resort balcony A 31-year-old man was arrested on Saturday after allegedly dropping a 4-year-old off the second floor of a Daytona Beach resort, according to an affidavit from the police department.
Palm Coast, FL – July 7, 2024 – WSVN 7- Florida woman charged with child neglect after good Samaritan finds 2-year-old son wandering near busy road alone A good Samaritan found a 2-year-old boy wandering in a Florida neighborhood all alone, and now the child’s mother is facing charges after she was found fast asleep inside their home.
Homestead, FL – May 16, 2024 – WPLG Local 10- Homestead couple accused of murdering their 6-month-old baby girl Two 24-year-old parents brought their 6-month-old to Homestead Hospital in cardiac arrest Sunday afternoon; doctors found that the baby had no pulse and signs of severe child abuse, according to police.
Brevard County, FL – May 16, 2024 – WESH 2 Orlando- Family sues Brevard County day care for alleged child abuse and negligence An incident at a Brevard County day care involving a child and teacher has led to more allegations of child abuse and negligence after the Department of Children and Families studied surveillance video.
Chicago, IL – May 7, 2024 – WSIL – TV- Lawsuit alleges pervasive child sexual abuse at Illinois juvenile detention centers for decades A group of 95 people filed a lawsuit in Illinois on Monday alleging they were sexually abused as children in juvenile detention centers across the state for over two decades.
Wildwood, FL – May 4, 2024 – Fox 35 Orlando- Florida DCF worker accused of abusing 11-year-old foster child A Kids Central employee was arrested after he aggressively threw an 11-year-old foster child onto a couch and hurt her, according to an arrest affidavit from the Wildwood Police Department.
Tallahassee, FL – May 3, 2024 – The Tampa Bay Times – Nearly 600,000 Florida kids shed from government health care, study says Nearly 600,000 Florida children lost their government-provided health insurance last year after the federal government ended the national COVID-related health emergency, more than any other state except Texas, according to a newly released report by the Georgetown Center for Children and Families.
Miami, FL – April 22, 2024 – WSVN 7- Mother charged with child neglect after dropping baby in water at Miami Beach while intoxicated, police say
A judge on Monday had words of advice for a mother accused of being under the influence while caring for her young child.
St. Petersburg, FL – April 10, 2024 – WPLG Local 10- DeSantis signs 5 bills to crack down on sexual predators Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis held a press conference in St. Petersburg Wednesday morning.
Tampa, FL – March 24, 2024 – News Channel 8- Toddler suffers 2nd, 3rd degree burns at Florida day care, family says A 10-month-old in Central Florida faces months of recovery, surgeries, and treatments after 30% of his body was burned while at day care, NBC affiliate WESH reported.
Chicago, IL – March 8, 2024 – The Center Square- Legislator questions whether new DCFS director brings needed changes Concern is growing that conditions at the long-troubled Illinois Department of Children Family Services may be getting worse for many of its abused or neglected children.
Largo, FL – March 6, 2024 – Fox 35 Orlando- Parents arrested after fleeing with 3 children from Largo custody meeting: Police Two parents were arrested and booked into the Pinellas County jail after taking off with their three children from a mandatory visit at the Department of Children and Families office in Largo.
Miami, FL – February 5, 2024 – The Miami Herald- Florida man who faced death penalty over child sex abuse takes life-in-prison plea deal Though Florida prosecutors sought the death penalty for a man accused of sexually abusing a child, making use of a new law Gov. Ron DeSantis signed last year, the accused man instead pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.
Miami, FL – January 31, 2024 – The Miami Herald- After Herald investigation, women report coach’s alleged sexual abuse to Key Biscayne police A woman who says she was repeatedly sexually abused 13 years ago by a Key Biscayne gymnastics coach finally told her story to police on Tuesday.
Gainesville, FL – January 19, 2024 – WCJB 20- Gainesville man arrested for human trafficking of an 11-year-old girl A registered sexual predator was arrested after Gainesville Police Department officers say he sexually abused an 11-year-old girl.
Miami Beach, FL – January 12, 2024 – WPLG Local 10- Miami Beach parents jailed after signs of ‘severe physical abuse’ in 2-month-old, police say Authorities arrested a Miami Beach couple on felony charges Thursday after they said the couple’s 2-month-old son was found unresponsive with signs of “severe physical abuse,” including more than a dozen rib fractures.
Miami Beach, FL – January 12, 2024 – WTVJ NBC 6 – Miami Beach couple arrested after severely injured infant found with 18 fractured ribs A Miami Beach couple is facing charges after their infant son was hospitalized with severe injuries including 18 fractured ribs, authorities said.
Fort Myers, FL – January 7, 2024 – Fort Myers News Press – Keeping at-risk children, families intact takes a community After a decade of work inside Florida’s child welfare system, I could see there had to be a better way.
Miami-Dade County, FL – January 5, 2024 – WPLG Local 10 – Boy, 6, calls 911 to report mom left him, little brother alone in filthy Miami-Dade home, cops say A 6-year-old boy called 911 Wednesday night to tell Miami-Dade police his mother left him and his 2-year-old brother home alone. Police said they arrived to find disgusting conditions.
Chicago, IL – January 3, 2024 – WGN 9 Chicago – DCFS still failing to find appropriate care for kids, leaving them locked-up, report shows An annual report to legislators, prompted by a WGN Investigates series, shows the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services is still leaving kids in crisis in psychiatric hospitals and juvenile jails longer than necessary.
Chicago, IL – January 3, 2024 – WBEZ Chicago – What’s next for Illinois’ beleaguered Department of Children and Family Services? The Department of Children and Family Services is officially transitioning leadership. But the agency has long faced systemic issues.
West Palm Beach, FL – October 3, 2023 – The Palm Beach Post – Child abuse or bad parenting? Jury hears case of Jupiter dad who kept teen locked in room in garage Was it aggravated child abuse? Or simply bad parenting?
Tallahassee, FL – September 7, 2023 – Tallahassee Democrat – Florida legislative watchdog says DCF may be at odds with sex trafficking law Florida does not know if its Department of Children and Families is following state law for the care of teens found to have been commercially sexually exploited according to the Legislature’s watchdog, the Office of Program Policies and Government Accountability.
Miramar, FL – September 5, 2023 – WPLG Local 10 – Miramar man accused of raping trafficked teen who ran away from foster care A Miramar man faces multiple felony charges after authorities accused him of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl who ran away from a Miami Gardens foster facility and subsequently ended up becoming a human trafficking victim.
Chicago, IL – September 1, 2023 – State of Illinois – Illinois DCFS Launches Child Welfare Dashboard and Study of Child Protection Services to Increase Transparency and Accountability Keeping with his pledge to bolster Illinois’ child welfare system, Governor JB Pritzker unveiled today a new online data dashboard featuring unprecedented insights and performance indicators maintained by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS).
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