Florida Child Advocate.com -- The Florida Foster Care Survival Guide -- is the one-stop resource for protecting the rights of children under the state’s care. We created this site for children, the families who love them, the caregivers who serve them, guardians who advocate for them, and the attorneys who counsel them in how to access resources and agencies, understand their rights, and address dependency, damages or disability claims.
Florida attorneys associated with Florida Child Advocate represent current foster children, former foster children and the physically disabled and developmentally disabled in negligence, abuse, physical abuse and sexual abuse, civil rights and damages claims against the Florida Department of Children and Families, its lead agencies and community based care providers, and other child welfare providers. These attorneys have helped recover hundreds of millions of dollars in damage claims in one of the largest and most successful Foster Care and Disabled Persons practice areas in the county.
This site is sponsored by the law firm Justice for Kids. Attorneys involved with this site include Howard Talenfeld, Stacie J. Schmerling, Justin Grosz, Nicole R. Coniglio, Lisa M. Hoffman, Lelia Schleier, Jillian E. Tate and Julianna B. Walo.
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To any Florida attorney who fights and sues to protect the rights of and prevent damages to disabled, vulnerable or foster children, the past two years have been tough to watch. Over that time, Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration has been attempting to balance its budget on the backs of Florida’s Medically Fragile Children and their parents who want to care for them at home by violating the Federal Medicaid Act and chopping the number of hours that they are willing to reimburse parents for medically necessary private duty nurses.
Through their contracted agent, eQ Health Solutions, Inc, AHCA ignores the medical histories and the number of hours these parents have received and are entitled to in attempt to force the parents, many of whom have full time jobs to care for these children — many of whom are on ventilators, have trach tubes to breath and are fed through G-tubes. AHCA ignores the capacities or lack of capacity of many of the parents to assess emergencies and intervene with life saving procedures.
When jurors this week convicted Geralyn Graham of abusing and kidnapping foster child Rilya Wilson, who had been left in her care and later lost for almost two years by the Florida Department of Children and Families – but deadlocked on the murder charge — it represented a partial victory for the system and little Rilya. The kidnapping charge comes with 30 years to life in prison, with the aggravated child abuse bringing 30 years with five additional years for child abuse. But 10 years after her disappearance, questions and concerns still remain for those concerned about avoiding child abuse, personal injury and damages t0 Florida’s most vulnerable.
Although justice was done today when the jury finally convicted Graham of kidnapping and aggravated child abuse, Florida DCF has forgotten many of the lessons learned from the Blue Ribbon Panel about the 193 other children who are listed n DCF’s web site as missing from their placement today.
They are ages 6 through 18 and the public has no idea how long each of the children has been missing. One is as young six years old girl, and DCF does not know where she is today.
How many other Rilya Wilsons are out there. How many will perish? How many are victims of physical and sexual assault? How many are in harm way?
Colodny, Fass, Talenfeld, Karlinsky, Abate & Webb shareholder and foster child advocate and personal injury attorney Howard Talenfeld was interviewed on WSVN 7 News Miami regarding a suspected sexual abuser who attacked two teens at Kids in Distress in Wilton Manors. In the aftermath of the assault, two child care workers at the emergency shelter for abused and neglected children were fired. But the two victims could suffer life-long mental pain following the assault, Talenfeld said.
Meanwhile, police continue to search for man who jumped the fence, sexually assaulted the two teens, then ran off. Police now are distributing a police sketch of the man, who police believe has a tattoo on one shoulder and the scar from a gunshot wound on the other shoulder, the Sun-Sentinel reports.
Several years ago, Rilya Wilson went missing while under the care of a foster parent – and the apparent watchful eyes of Florida Department of Children and Families case workers. Now, word has emerged that Dontrell Melvin hasn’t been seen by county and regional child protective services since summer 2011.
Another child slipped through the cracks and is lost. The news raises serious questions about the Florida Department of Children and Families, its children hotline and the wisdom of recent budget cuts. To be sure, these two cases are dissimilar. Rilya was in foster care; Dontrell is more a case of investigative woes by the Broward Sheriff’s Office and Child Net’s failure to provide protective services.
Yet, the end result is the same. A child is missing – and no one knows where he or she is. Read the story here.
More to the point, in the case of little Dontrell, no one even looked for about 18 months. Now, Hallandale Beach Police are on the hunt.
Unlike Rilya’s case, where her foster mother, Geralyn Graham is being tried in Rilya’s purported death (as no body ever has been found), one can only hope for a positive outcome. UPDATE: Police on Friday reportedly found human remains in the Melvin yard.
Still, police are asking anyone who knows anything of Dontrell’s whereabouts or details to call 954-457-1400 or Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.
Florida child advocates, attorneys and legal guardians who have seen physical abuse, mistreatment and neglect of the state’s most medically and at-risk disabled children applaud the U.S. Department of Justice proposed overhaul of the state’s programs for these vulnerable populations – even as leaders from the Florida Department of Children and Families and the Agency for Healthcare Administration defend their practices.
The federal government this week pressured state leaders to improve its care and treatment of those children who suffer from severe medical conditions. The harsh indictment of Florida’s program and history of care for this population came in the form of a 17-page settlement proposal from federal civil rights lawyers, who offered “a comprehensive blueprint for overhauling the state’s system of care for frail youngsters,” wrote the Miami Herald.
In it, the DOJ “demands the state stop slicing in-home nursing services for frail youngsters, stop ignoring the requests of family doctors who treat disabled children and stop sending hundreds of children to geriatric nursing homes — where they often spend their childhoods isolated from families and peers,” the paper wrote.
Meanwhile, leaders from heads of three state agencies, including the Agency for Healthcare Administration and the Florida Department of Children and Families, defended at a Tallahassee news conference the state’s process of housing of hundreds of disabled children in nursing homes.
As parents this week complained about the care of their disabled children – claiming the state chooses to warehouse these medically fragile youths in senior nursing homes instead of letting them be cared for by family in their own homes – Florida child advocates, attorneys and legal guardians wonder when the state’s practice will stop. The lack of appropriate oversight, as well as the potential physical abuse, mistreatment and neglect of the state’s most medically and at-risk disabled children, leaves this vulnerable populations crying for better care.
In one case, lawmakers heard about Christian Perez. Twice in the past year, state health administrators ignored the boy’s pediatrician’s prescribed care regimen and reduced how many hours caregivers assisted the severely disabled boy at his Miami-area home.
Parents at the meeting rebuked state agency leaders who said private vendors contracted to administer care and oversight huddled with children’s primary care physicians before making decisions regarding care.
North Florida and Gainesville foster child advocate attorney and Florida’s Children First Board Member Gloria Fletcher wrote the following commentary on the lasting impact of December’s Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting – and the need to press for real change in the laws and statutes that can better protect Americans.
Newtown, Aurora, Sanford, Tucson, Blacksburg, Fort Hood, Littleton. The names of these towns and locations – and the haunted memories of the killings committed there – have been seared into the collective American consciousness like scars on our psyches. As a North Florida and Gainesville foster child advocate attorney who’s seen the abuse of at-risk and foster children, I’m as saddened and heartbroken as any witness anywhere.
We’re all left to find solace. To soothe our pain and even our guilt following each, we promise change – to gun laws, to access to firearms by those deemed incompetent by the courts or physicians, to information-sharing and protections that may help prevent such incidents from ever happening again. We’re emboldened by a purpose-driven mission to right our course.
Then, over time, our outrage fades. Inevitably, something else – a “fiscal cliff” debate, a bowl season, the malaise of summer, the deceptive healing power of time itself – overtakes our seemingly limited capacity to sustain outrage and follow through on our demands for change.
We let our guard down. We forget. And it happens again.
The case was dramatic – where most tend not to be. In a hearing room, a single mother – present with her severely disabled 10-year-old daughter – fought state healthcare administrators to give her child the care doctors say she needs. With child advocacy attorney Howard Talenfeld at her side, the woman alternated between stating her case – and providing the type of care she insists the child will not get if sent off to a geriatric nursing home, like so many such disabled children are under Florida guidelines and practices.
She’s not alone. “In September, the U.S. Justice Department said Florida had ‘planned, structured and administered a system of care that has led to the unnecessary segregation and isolation of children, often for many years,’ in geriatric nursing homes,” reported the Miami Herald.
“Children in such homes often spend their days in virtual seclusion, lying in bed or watching television, the civil rights division wrote.” With Talenfeld at her side and handling the case pro bono, the single mother sought to fight the way Florida cares for its most at-risk, disabled children.
Attorneys and guardians who advocate for children’s rights and protection from abuse and neglect are alarmed after a video was released showing a guard at a juvenile prison battering a teenage detainee. The guard, Shannon Linn Abbott, 33, was arrested. Yet, after she bailed out of jail, she returned to her job the next day supervising children. Administrators with the Department of Juvenile Justice expressed dismay.
This week, the department officially requested that the privately managed youth prison’s director remove Abbott from having any access to children, the Miami Herald reported. A video is available on the Herald site.
“It is our expectation, at the very least, that this staff member will have no contact with youth in any of our programs,” wrote Laura K. Moneyham, a DJJ assistant secretary.
The Daily Business Review in Miami / South Florida reports on the 10 severely disabled adults, including four who are homeless, who will get help under a $9.7 million settlement with New York City for abuse they suffered as children or young adults in an adoption scam perpetrated by Judith Leekin.
Two South Florida law firms – one whose partner is Howard Talenfeld, considered among the top child abuse, personal injury, damage claims and wrongful death attorneys focused on foster child and at-risk populations – negotiated the settlement.
The lawsuit filed in New York federal court in 2009 in collaboration with Children’s Rights Inc., a New York-based nonprofit law firm.
“The partial settlement could not have come at a better time because four of these young adults are homeless and need the settlement immediately just to survive,” said Talenfeld, with Fort Lauderdale firm Colodny, Fass, Talenfeld, Karlinsky, Abate & Webb said. “We’ve come too close to losing one or two former Leekin children, and we had to act.”
The other attorney, Ted Babbitt of Babbitt, Johnson, Osbourne & Le Clainche in West Palm Beach, said $3 million each would go to two adoptees placed with foster mother Judith Leekin through a city-run adoption office. The city’s liability was higher in those cases because of its direct involvement.
In a 15-year-old court case against a “colossal breakdown” of New York City’s foster care system, damages were awarded to 10 disabled people whom their plaintiff attorney said were fraudulently adopted and subsequently subjected to years of horrible child abuse and physical abuse. The $9.7 million award settlement for damage claims in the case of foster parent Judith Leekin, who moved to Florida and now at 67 is in prison for a fraud conviction, comes at “a crucial time” for the plaintiffs, said plaintiff attorney and Florida child advocacy lawyer Howard M. Talenfeld, as quoted in the New York Times. The former foster children now are mostly in their 20s. Some are homeless. All have special needs, from physical and developmental disabilities, to retardation and autism. Because of the precariousness of the plaintiffs’ situation, Talenfeld told the paper, trusts or structured settlements will be used to ensure they “will have resources to protect them in the future.”
City officials admitted no fault in the settlement. The city was the first of four defendants in the case. Cases against three private adoption agencies that had contracts with the city are pending. In all, Ms. Leekin collected $1.68 million in foster child subsidies by using aliases to adopt the children. Instead of providing them care, she restrained them with plastic ties and handcuffs, beat them with sticks and hangers – and personally lived a lavish lifestyle.
In the wake of the death of Marie Freyre – the 14-year-old Tampa child with cerebral palsy forcibly removed from her home and placed in an adult nursing home, where she soon died – the Florida Department of Children and Families now is pushing to curb the practice of steering foster kids to such institutionalized care.
Administrators are demanding “high-level approval” before kids can be admitted to a nursing home or moved from one to another. The agency also will recruit foster parents with the skills to care for the state’s most fragile and at-risk children.
Christina Spudeas, executive director at Florida’s Children First, the state’s premier child advocacy organization, told the paper that DCF must do more than slow the move of kids into nursing homes. It must remove them all children from such institutions.
“It’s a travesty,” Spudeas told the Herald. “There is no doubt at all that children need proper supports in the home environment.”
The original policies not only seemingly made little sense – in Marie’s case, taking her from her mother, who’d provided care for all her life. In-home care and oversight can be far less expensive than in-facility services.
Yorkville, IL – August 12, 2025 – Fox 32- Illinois lawmaker, DCFS dispute legality of intern investigators in child abuse cases An Illinois lawmaker is accusing the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) of breaking state law by allowing uncertified interns to conduct child abuse and neglect investigations, while the agency says all investigators meet legal certification requirements.
Springfield, IL – April 25, 2025 – Capitol News Illinois- Illinois community-based foster homes face insurance ‘crisis’ Insurance companies are reducing the scope of coverage for some community foster agencies in Illinois, leading to higher costs, diminished coverage and fewer options for agencies who say a continuance of the trend could lead to closures.
Cook County, IL – March 24, 2025 – WCBU- Illinois’ child welfare agency failed to produce critical reports after child deaths The state agency responsible for keeping Illinois’ most vulnerable children safe has failed to produce legally required public reports after examining what went wrong in hundreds of cases of child deaths and thousands of serious injuries, the Illinois Answers Project reports.
Chicago, IL – March 22, 2025 – ABC 7 Chicago- Illinois child welfare agency’s reporting on abuse and deaths scrutinized The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services is now under scrutiny for its lack of proper reporting on child abuse and neglect cases, according to a report from the Illinois Answers Project.
Tallahassee, FL – March 9, 2025 – WFSU- Two Florida state agencies announce new tools for combating human trafficking Two state agencies are working to identify kids vulnerable to sex trafficking before they’re victimized. The Florida Department of Children and Families and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement have announced an enhanced screening tool and new grant funding for law enforcement.
Chicago, IL – January 31, 2025 – NPR Illinois- DCFS launches new app for caseworkers and families The state of Illinois is rolling out a new app to help parents of abused and neglected children better communicate with their Department of Children and Family Services [DCFS] caseworkers and with other service providers.
Broward County, FL – January 30, 2025 – The Sun-Sentinel- Broward Sheriff’s Office will stop staffing juvenile detention center in May Blaming staff shortages and an unsafe building to work in, the Broward Sheriff’s Office will no longer send deputies to work at the state’s Department of Justice’s Juvenile Assessment Center.
Chicago, Il – November 8, 2024 – CBS News Chicago- Troubled teen who escaped DCFS caseworkers was not placed into secure facility after being found A 17-year-old with a violent history escaped from his caseworkers in Chicago last month, and it turns out the foster child in the care of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services was not placed in a secure facility recommended to the state after being brought back into custody.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Advocates Wonder About Another Lost in South Florida Child Protection Maze
Several years ago, Rilya Wilson went missing while under the care of a foster parent – and the apparent watchful eyes of Florida Department of Children and Families case workers. Now, word has emerged that Dontrell Melvin hasn’t been seen by county and regional child protective services since summer 2011.
Another child slipped through the cracks and is lost. The news raises serious questions about the Florida Department of Children and Families, its children hotline and the wisdom of recent budget cuts. To be sure, these two cases are dissimilar. Rilya was in foster care; Dontrell is more a case of investigative woes by the Broward Sheriff’s Office and Child Net’s failure to provide protective services.
Yet, the end result is the same. A child is missing – and no one knows where he or she is. Read the story here.
More to the point, in the case of little Dontrell, no one even looked for about 18 months. Now, Hallandale Beach Police are on the hunt.
Unlike Rilya’s case, where her foster mother, Geralyn Graham is being tried in Rilya’s purported death (as no body ever has been found), one can only hope for a positive outcome. UPDATE: Police on Friday reportedly found human remains in the Melvin yard.
Still, police are asking anyone who knows anything of Dontrell’s whereabouts or details to call 954-457-1400 or Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.