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With DCF Chief Out, Advocates Hope for Positive Change From Esther Jacobo

The abrupt resignation of David Wilkins, who as Secretary of the Florida Department of Children and Families was Florida’s top child welfare and social services administrator, leaves advocates for the state’s foster and at-risk children hoping better times are coming.

He left amid “an escalating scandal over the recent deaths of four small children who had a history of involvement with child-abuse investigators,” the Miami Herald wrote.

Wilkins left to “pursue opportunities in the private sector.” In his place, DCF named as interim secretary Esther Jacobo. She was the top Miami administrator and a veteran of the work of former DCF secretaries Bob Butterworth and George Sheldon.

Advocates hope Ms. Jacobo will be able to lead the agency as her former bosses once did – with the transparency, common sense and sense of urgency – and which was sorely lacking under Mr. Wilkins.

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