DCF- Archive A

Department of Children and Families- Archive A

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Regier authored earlier article condoning "the rod"
The new head of Florida's child welfare system was the sole author of an article 14 years ago that condoned "manly" discipline called for in the Bible and said women should work at home, a newspaper reported Friday.--
Jerry Regier argued for a restoration of family values based on "biblical norms" in the 1988 article, which is similar to one written a year later that Regier distanced himself from last week. 8/23/02

News Clips: updated 06/22/04

More on Regier ... 8/16/02

Some ills defy government logic
During his brief campaign for president 30 years ago, the late New York Mayor John Lindsay had a clever response when people accused his city of wasting money on welfare programs. 8/16/02

Governor admits task is numbing
For the first time since his inauguration, Gov. Jeb Bush has acknowledged that he may face a problem he cannot fix. The introduction of a new leader for Florida's beleaguered child welfare agency Thursday brought a dramatic shift in tone for Bush, who promised as a candidate four years ago to transform the Department of Children & Families. 8/16/02

Bush names new DCF chief
Oklahoman Jerry Regier hopes to restore confidence in the beleaguered agency.... 8/16/02

Outsider to lead DCF
Gov. Bush will name Jerry Regier, a social-services administrator from Oklahoma... 8/15/02

Ex-Okla. official eyed for DCF job
Jerry Regier also worked in the White House under Bush's father. The governor stays mum about his choice to lead the agency. 8/15/02

Bush expected to name DCF's new boss today
A former Oklahoma social services secretary with a reputation as a corruption-fighting conservative is the leading candidate to replace Kathleen Kearney as chief of Florida's beleaguered social services agency, sources said Wednesday... 8/15/02

Who will take over at DCF?
A day after the head of the Florida Department of Children & Families stepped down, Gov. Jeb Bush gave no indication of when he would fill the position... 8/15/02

New DCF Chief To Share Bush's Vision- TALLAHASSEE - In his search for a new child welfare chief, Gov. Jeb Bush wants someone who embraces his belief that abused and neglected children are served better by nonprofit community networks than by a massive state bureaucracy... 8/15/02

Bush searches for Kearney replacement
TALLAHASSEE — Democrats will use Gov. Jeb Bush's oversight of the state's troubled child welfare agency against him in November's election, just like four years ago when he criticized their administration of the agency, party officials said Wednesday. But some Republicans said Tuesday's resignation of Department of Children & Families Secretary Kathleen Kearney and the department's other problems will have little affect...8/15/02

Fix child-welfare system, not election
The end of Kathleen Kearney's failed regime at the Florida Department of Children and Families gives Gov. Bush a unique opportunity to transform the stricken agency. He has the responsibility to grab the chance because DCF has declined so markedly since he took office more than 3 1/2 years ago...8/15/02

WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE DCF?
TRUE REFORM IS NEEDED With the resignation of Kathleen Kearney as secretary of the Department of Children & Families, Gov. Jeb Bush and the Legislature have a chance to do something that heretofore has eluded Florida leaders, Republican and Democrat. They can create an agency that truly protects Florida's most vulnerable families and children...8/15/02

Child welfare executives received large pay raises
TALLAHASSEE — Top officials at Florida's troubled child welfare agency received pay raises of up to 10 percent in the last two years, according to a newspaper analysis of state records. Some of the Department of Children & Families' 13 district chiefs received pay increases four times as large as the raises given to an average caseworker, who makes about $30,600 a year, according to an Orlando Sentinel analysis of employee performance reviews and payroll records...8/15/02

Advocates: Missing kids not picked up
State child welfare workers who are given information on the whereabouts of runaways do not always follow through and pick up the children, guardians ad litem say...8/15/02

Child Protection Should Be Sheriffs' Job, Advocates Say
BRADENTON - The call to Florida's Child Abuse Hot Line is short on details. An anonymous caller alleges a woman staying at some rent- ... 8/15/02

Child-welfare bosses get raises, glowing reviews despite problems -- TALLAHASSEE -- Top state child-protection executives have received glowing job evaluations and pay raises of 7 percent to 10 percent in recent years despite huge case backlogs and repeated examples of abused, lost and dead children that attracted national attention, state records show.
Some of the biggest pay increases went to administrators for the Florida Department of Children & Families whose districts have the worst problems, including Orlando, Lake County and Miami, according to an Orlando Sentinel analysis of employee performance reviews and payroll records.
As salaries for most of the 13 district chiefs rose to more than $100,000 during the past two years, some DCF bosses received percentage increases four times as big as an average caseworker, who makes about $30,600 a year... 8/14/02

DCF: A TROUBLED YEAR
MARCH The Advocacy Center tells the state attorney general that despite nearly $300 million authorized by legislators, the state is violating an agreed settlement to a suit the center filed in 1998 to provide better care for tens of thousands of people with disabilities. 8/14/02

Secretary head Kearney resigns
Gov. Jeb Bush immediately accepted the resignation, effective Sept. 3, for the controversial department head
TALLAHASSEE — Embattled Department of Children & Families Secretary Kathleen Kearney resigned Tuesday, four months after the case of a missing 5-year-old girl put the department under scrutiny. Gov. Jeb Bush immediately accepted the resignation, which is effective Sept. 3. The department has been under fire since it was revealed that Rilya Wilson had disappeared while in state custody. The girl has been missing since January 2001 and no caseworker had checked on her for 15 months....8/14/02

Bush takes a political step away from department's turmoil - TALLAHASSEE - With the departure Tuesday of Kathleen Kearney from his administration, Gov. Jeb Bush took a major step toward insulating himself from the most potent threat to his popularity.- But the man who promised to fix the Department of Children & Families and now touts ''leadership'' as the theme of his reelection campaign will have to move swiftly to name a successor and find an aggressive reform plan to fully guard against a backlash on Election Day Nov. 5.- ...
The resignation of Kearney, who was perhaps Bush's most acclaimed appointee when he took office in 1999, came in the midst of growing criticism from Democrats -- and even some in the governor's own party -- that too little had been done in the wake of Rilya's disappearance to fix DCF.... 8/14/02

NBC Nightly News DCF report (RealVideo) 8/14/02

Gov. Bush eyes candidates to replace Kearney
“Unfortunately, when she morphed from one of the department’s biggest critics to its spin doctor, children in this state were more in danger than they were in the first place,” she said. “Here was a person who at least in her own jurisdiction really made the department toe the line. Then all of the sudden she’s basically making excuses...
Jerry Regier, a former Oklahoma Cabinet secretary for social services, may be a candidate for the job.....
Another possible candidate, sources said, is Greg Coler, who led the agency from 1987 to 1990 and resigned amid criticism that he awarded lucrative state contracts to friends and used his political influence for personal gain.... 8/14/02

Failures Oust DCF Head
TALLAHASSEE - The high-profile failures piled up way too fast. A little girl missing. A boy beaten to death. Their state child protection workers accused of falsifying records ... Among those often suggested as a successor to Kearney is Chris Card, director of Hillsborough Kids Inc., the nonprofit organization taking over the state's child welfare services in the Tampa area. Florida has plans to put such services under private contract statewide by 2004.-- Card is a nationally recognized leader in the privatization move, which Bush contends is the way to improve care. But Card said Tuesday the top job is ``not really on my radar screen.'' 8/14/02

Fallout from DCF scandals could haunt Gov. Bush's campaign - TALLAHASSEE · Despite Tuesday's abrupt resignation of Kathleen Kearney, the controversy swirling around Florida's child welfare agency may continue to dog Gov. Jeb Bush as he seeks re-election this fall. 8/14/02

DCF chief resigns
Kathleen Kearney suddenly resigned Tuesday as secretary of Florida's embattled Department of Children & Families.... 8/14/02

DCF chief resigns under fire
The agency's recent failures were the last straw for the beleaguered Kathleen Kearney. 8/14/02

Kearney leaves DCF amid highly visible scandals
Kathleen A. Kearney, the embattled secretary of the Department of Children & Families, resigned abruptly Tuesday, leaving Florida's social service agency largely as she found it: enmeshed in scandal and struggling to find an identity that will satisfy its many critics. 8/14/02

Children's agency director resigns
When Judge Kathleen Kearney took over Florida's mammoth welfare bureaucracy, she said she ignored the advice of other circuit judges because "I felt there was no other place for me." 8/14/02

Editorial: Missing children
What else could he say? Gov. Jeb Bush says Florida has to do better at tracking missing children. That became all too true with the April disclosure that a 5-year-old Miami girl had been lost for more than a year by the Department of Children and Families, which taxpayers count on to track and safeguard at-risk youngsters.... 8/14/02

Child beaten to death after Florida DCF closed abuse probes
RIVIERA BEACH — Florida's child welfare agency conducted three separate abuse investigations into the home of a young boy but took no action to remove the child, who was later fatally beaten. Tarquez Woodson, 4, was removed from life support on Aug. 9 and died of head and body trauma suffered at his Riviera Beach home two days earlier, police said.... 8/14/02

Riviera boy's death ruled a homicide
DCF continues to hold on to records of its involvement with the family. A medical examiner's investigator ruled Tuesday that Tarquez Woodson's death was a homicide, but state Department of Children and Families officials refused to release records of the department's involvement with the 4-year-old's troubled family.\8/14/02

Newspaper suing to force DCF to open missing children's files - FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - A newspaper that used public records to find nine children declared missing by Florida's child welfare agency has sued to force the agency to open the case files of 22 children missing under its care. 8/14/02

Bush: State may need a new approach for finding missing children
TALLAHASSEE — Florida may need to try something different to find missing foster children, Gov. Jeb Bush said Monday.-- Several children who became missing while in the custody of the Department of Children & Families were easily found by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.-- "They did find children who absconded," Bush said at an Orlando event on school safety. "That troubles me a lot. It suggests we need a new approach." 8/13/02

Get serious about child safety
The latest child-welfare tragedies have exposed, and worsened, the caseload and turnover crisis at Florida's Department of Children and Families. Overburdened and underappreciated, DCF workers can barely do their jobs, and many are deciding instead simply to leave them behind. State lawmakers responded appropriately last month by approving a shift of caseworkers to districts with the greatest needs. But that $2-million plan is no more than a temporary fix. The accelerating stream of tragedies will continue until Gov. Jeb Bush, DCF Secretary Kathleen Kearney and lawmakers put finding and funding a long-term solution at the top of the state's priority list. 8/13/02

Jeb Bush's political liability
When will the governor say 'enough' to DCF's continuing problems? 8/13/02

PROTECT OUR CHILDREN
Either lawmakers want to know why children are dying while in the care of the Department of Children & Families, or they don't. 8/13/02

State pressured to do better job of finding missing children
Politicians and child advocates called on the governor and state officials to immediately attempt to find more than 500 children who are missing from Florida's child welfare system. 8/12/02

Lost kids easily found: Sun-Sentinel turns up nine of DCF’s missing children - Florida's child-welfare system has been unable to locate more than 500 children under its care, some of them missing for a decade or more.-
But a search by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel for 24 South Florida children on the missing list turned up nine -- two in less than three hours. 8/11/02

Judge's order to DCF overturned
Circuit Judge Frank Quesada tried to move children out of detention and into treatment programs. That went too far, an appeals court says Friday. 8/10/02

Gov. Bush must show his commitment to child protection
In the 100 days since we learned of Rilya Wilson's mysterious disappearance in Miami, Florida's reputation as an unsafe place for children continues to receive nationwide attention. While leaders of the Department of Children & Families strive to improve their capability to serve abused and neglected children, the challenges loom large. 8/10/02

Exactly who is derelict at his job, Gov. Bush?
Robert Mistretta makes this chilling prediction:If you open the file of any child who has come to the attention of the Department of Children and Families, you will find something wrong, something that the investigator hasn't done, for the cold, simple reason that she or he has too much to do. And whatever that something is, it will be enough to get the worker fired.-
Mistretta supervised the last DCF worker who had the case of Alfredo Montes, the 2-year-old Polk County boy allegedly killed by an acquaintance of his mother because he had soiled his pants.--
The governor, that know-it-all, called Mistretta derelict. But when Mistretta tells his story, a sharply different picture emerges that the governor might find inconvenient but also instructive. 7/18/02

State also failing to protect adults - Problem is not being intrusive enough. - What do a 73-year-old Lake Clarke Shores man and a 5-year-old Miami foster child have in common? Both are victims of Florida's Department of Children and Families -- or, as some are calling it, the Department of Colossal Foul-ups.
Both were egregious cases that sparked publicity and increased calls to the state abuse hot line. Both are expected to change how DCF operates. Five-year-old Rilya Wilson disappeared from a DCF foster home in January 2001 and remains missing. Clarence Lewis died in November 2001 despite neighbors' calls to DCF's Adult Services division in August. 8/4/02

Driving records at DCF not fully checked
A procedural ''blind spot'' at the state Department of Children & Families means that hundreds of child-welfare workers have never undergone a full check of their driving records, even though many of them routinely transport children in their cars, The Herald has learned. 8/4/02

Let social worker tell her story in court
Mirla Pronga, if you're listening, here's a chance to do something for all the battered, unwanted and forsaken children of Florida: Go to trial, get on the witness stand and talk about what it's really like to work for the Department of Children & Families. 8/4/02

Judge denies sanctions for DCF over releasing family records - A family court judge has refused to impose sanctions on the state's child welfare agency for releasing family history records of a slain toddler. 8/2/02

Yet another DCF fiasco - The Department of Children & Families' latest incident illustrates its problems.--
How many fiascoes will it take at the state Department of Children & Families before Gov. Jeb Bush concedes that problems at that agency run a lot deeper than a few bad employees? The source of many of the agency's problems rests with its leaders. 7/31/02

DCF visited Panhandle child three days before her death
PENSACOLA — A Department of Children & Families counselor visited a Crestview toddler three days before the child was found dead from blunt force trauma, an agency official said Tuesday. It was a routine visit that gave no indication that 19-month-old Kayla Regine Mays or her four siblings, including a twin brother, had been harmed or were in danger, said Betty Hooper, spokeswoman for the department's district headquarters in Pensacola. 7/31/02

Yet another DCF fiasco
The Department of Children & Families' latest incident illustrates its problems. 7/30/02

Fired DCF worker had past run-ins
More than a year before former Department of Children & Families caseworker Mirla Pronga was fired ''for behavior that endangered a child,'' agency officials were told by a Miami lawyer that Pronga had been abusive to a teenage foster child, according to a children's advocate. 7/28/02

`This Is A Hard Job To Do,' According To DCF Worker
TAMPA - It's a long drive to the day's first case in Gibsonton, giving child abuse investigator Michael Mahoney a chance to talk about the tough times in his 2 1/2 years with the Department of Children and Families. ... 7/28/02

Breaking point
Officials say the temporary transfer of state Department of Children & Families workers to the Orlando and Miami areas means more cases for already overworked DCF investigators in North Central Florida - where five children under agency care have died in the past seven years. 7/28/02

Workers say most cases not clear-cut
The atmosphere in the small Department of Children & Families' office became tense as protective investigator Laura McCormick, who was ready to go home after having put in hours of overtime, checked her voice mail and found a message from a school counselor reporting a student afraid to go home. 7/28/02

Chief of Florida's child protection agency comes under fire
TALLAHASSEE — Kathleen Kearney brought a lot of hope to the Florida Department of Children & Families when she was appointed secretary in 1999. The department had been troubled for as long as anyone could remember, and Kearney — a former prosecutor and judge and a "walking encyclopedia of child protection law" — was one of the state's strongest child welfare advocates and a vocal critic of the department. 7/26/02

DCF inaction blamed in neglected man's death
WEST PALM BEACH -- An internal investigation into the death of an elderly man found unconscious with rats eating at him has led to the resignation of a supervisor and a shakeup in the embattled state Department of Children and Families. 7/27/02

DCF: Gross negligence in man’s death
An internal DCF inquiry into the death of a Lake Clarke Shores man prompts another shake-up. 7/26/02

Sheriff, DCF Investigating Infant Death At Day Care - BRANDON - The death of a 7-week-old boy at what officials are calling an unlicensed in-home day care center has sparked an investigation into the home and left a family mourning its infant son. 7/25/02

Accountability at DCF doesn't go high enough
Management failure breaking down system. 7/23/02

Guest editorial: It's time we treat, not incarcerate, mental illness
Mental illness is a stigma insurance companies need to face now, if for no other reason than for its cost- effectiveness. 7/22/02

Florida counselor fired by DCF for not arranging child visits
A longtime state foster-care counselor was fired after she admitted leaving an 8-year-old boy with an Indiana relative for four years without making sure child welfare workers visited him. Louise Taggart was fired July 8 by the Department of Children & Families. She is appealing her firing through a state grievance process, according to her union representative 7/22/02

Florida's kids still wait for a good guy to stand up
I wrote the other day that Gov. Jeb Bush hadn't done much for the Department of Children and Families. ... "The chief issue is -- and has always been -- the same," they wrote. "Florida's child welfare system is overburdened, overwhelmed, understaffed and underfunded. It always has been. And it always will be until the citizens of Florida and their elected representatives, give deserved priority to Florida's dependent children and families." 7/21/02

DCF computer system behind schedule, over budget - TALLAHASSEE -- A state computer system (dubbed HomeSafeNet) that will track abused and neglected children is years behind schedule in part because of federal requirements, high turnover of project managers, and trouble finding anyone to develop the system, a preliminary state audit concludes.--
The part of the system that already is operating is not as effective as it should be, in part because of a lack of computer skills and resistance by workers who are supposed to use it, the audit said.--
The Legislature has criticized the Florida Department of Children & Families for the expected cost of the project -- $230 million, compared with an initial estimate of $32 million -- and 11 years to implement it fully. 7/21/02

Fired DCF worker's job history reflects flaws
The counselor has a long history of paperwork problems, although some say the workload is impossible. 7/21/02

Child welfare chief says he's concerned about Florida kids
MOBILE, Ala. — One child placed into custody in Alabama was unaccounted for by Florida officials, and another received intensive treatment in a psychiatric ward without their knowledge. Alabama Department of Human Resources Commissioner Bill Fuller said in a news release Wednesday that 11 children placed in Alabama in foster homes or up for adoption were located at Florida's request. 7/19/02

Group OK's plan for DCF aid
Republican state lawmakers lashed out in frustration Thursday at the highly publicized failures of the Department of Children & Families, nearly scuttling a $2 million emergency plan to help Miami-Dade and four Central Florida counties cope with a backlog of child abuse investigations. 7/19/02

Lawmakers approve fund shift to decrease DCF backlog
TALLAHASSEE — A panel of state lawmakers approved shifting $2 million into child-abuse investigations Thursday in an effort to whittle down the backlog of cases. The money, which is coming from another area of the Department of Children & Families budget, would be used primarily in the state's southern and central portions. 7/19/02

Caseworkers to shift into backlogged DCF districts
Employees from all over the state will be loaned to Miami-Dade and Orange counties to help stem the crisis there. 7/19/02

Many DCF Job Vacancies Have Strings Attached 7/19/02

Politicians demand overhaul for DCF - TALLAHASSEE - Even as Gov. Jeb Bush defends the work being done at the state's child welfare agency, a mounting chorus of both Republican and Democratic politicians are calling for sweeping changes at the Department of Children & Families. 7/19/02

AG candidate offers reform plan for DCF
Gov. Jeb Bush and the head of the Department of Children & Families got some support Thursday from an unlikely source - one of the Democrats running for the state's top legal job. 7/19/02

Vacancies at Florida's child-welfare agency swell to 750 amid scandals - LAKELAND -- Vacancies in the state's child welfare agency have increased by 50 percent in the last two months, as the department has been scrutinized for the death of one child and the disappearance of another. 7/18/02

State weighs spending for Dade
The backlog of unresolved child-abuse investigations in Miami-Dade and four Central Florida counties has become so severe that a legislative panel is expected to approve today spending $2 million for investigative ''SWAT teams'' to cope with the problem. 7/18/02

What's not to believe?
The Department of Children & Families has worn out its excuses. 7/16/02

Alfredo was failed by many
In his two short years on earth, Alfredo Montez was failed by just about every adult he knew. He was failed by his 21-year-old mother, who allegedly abused drugs and whose last act of motherhood was dropping her toddler off with a convicted child abuser. Alfredo was failed by the Auburndale couple now in Utah custody for beating him to death for the fatal sin of soiling his pants. And, if the state's accounts are true, he was most definitely failed by the Department of Children and Families caseworker who falsified key reports to cover up her own investigative inadequacies. 7/16/02

Head of DCF criticized for agency mismanagement in abuse death
TAMPA — The abuse death of a 2-year-old boy has put Florida's child welfare system under the microscope again for its mismanagement of cases and has some calling for the removal of the state's top child welfare official. State Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami, said she will ask Gov. Jeb Bush on Wednesday to seat a grand jury to investigate the Department of Children & Families, including its handling of the case of Alfredo Montes, who police say was killed July 1 by a baby sitter for soiling his pants. 7/16/02

2nd DCF Supervisor Fired
WINTER HAVEN - As authorities announced Monday that a second supervisor who monitored the welfare of 2-year-old Alfredo Montes was fired, Robert Mistretta, the first supervisor ousted, said he is a political scapegoat. ...7/16/02

Fired pair: DCF scapegoating
Two supervisors in the Alfredo Montes case say they're being fired because of pressure from higher up.7/16/02

Innocents lost: Florida's bungling leaves children in peril
There are probably some Jessicas in the group of 1,841 children. A few Tylers. A Brittany or two. There are rebellious, angry teenagers. Wide-eyed toddlers. Maybe even a few sets of twins. And one little girl named Rilya. 7/15/02

Get the priorities straight
Palm Beach Post Editorial
It remains indefensible to deny children awaiting adoption a chance at a stable and loving home because the parents are homosexual. 7/14/02

Abuse calls concerning slain toddler began 2 years ago
LAKELAND — The first call to the abuse hot line came Aug. 28, 2000. The caller said 2½-year-old Rheyna and 10-month-old Alfredo Montez didn't have enough to eat and that their mother, Jeanna Lynn Swallows, constantly had parties and did drugs. The investigator assigned to the case at the time, Shannon Kersey, wrote that she was unable to locate the family. 7/14/02

Caseworker faked visit to slain child
In the latest DCF debacle, an investigator becomes the first person charged with falsifying records under a new law.7/13/02

DCF's 'take-the-kids-and-run' policy is at the heart of the problem
If you live in Florida, you don't have to be an administrator at the Department of Children & Families to feel the sting of disapproval from the rest of the nation these days. 7/13/02

Florida Bar: Children's legal needs unmet
Florida lacks standards and guidelines on how children in state custody should be legally represented, a study by the Florida Bar has concluded.7/10/02

Who's watching guardians?
An audit finds the county isn't monitoring guardians for the elderly and infirm. 7/10/02

Ongoing Herald coverage of the case of Rilya Wilson
Rilya Wilson is a 5-year-old girl who has been mising since state child-welfare workers lost track of her 16 months ago. 7/10/02

Trusting DCF - DCF's failure to visit out-of-staters raises a new set of questions. 7/10/02

Privatized DCF closer to reality - District 3 of the Department of Children & Families may be one step closer to privatizing the agency, as mandated by the Florida Legislature in 1998.--
DCF officials in District 3, which covers 11 counties in North Central Florida, including Alachua County, received one application before the deadline last week. They hope to decide by July 17 whether to hire Community Based Care of Mid-Florida. Four other companies requested information but didn't apply. 7/10/02

Judge 'upset' with DCF over Massachusetts case - A 14-year-old Florida girl taken from her parents and later placed in a residential psychiatric center in Massachusetts hasn't seen a state caseworker in more than a year, according to testimony Monday in Broward County court. 7/9/02

DISARRAY IMPERILS DCF
No agency can operate effectively when the basic information that it needs to do its job is missing or is in disarray. Such is the case with the Department of Children & Families, which is hamstrung by poor record-keeping -- among other things. 7/8/02

DCF's missing file
Agency has flawed record - and records. 7/7/02

State failed to visit 1,841 children in June
TALLAHASSEE — Florida's child welfare agency failed to visit 1,841 children in state custody in June, nearly twice the number of children that did not receive visits in May. With three extra days in July to finish the June contracts, child protection workers for the Department of Children & Families saw 96 percent of the 44,599 children in state care, according to figures released by the agency Friday. 7/6/02

Broward DCF chief sends stern message against criticism - Broward County’s top social service director warned the executive of a private agency in April to stop bad-mouthing the state’s foster care system or her funding would be cut.... Officials at DCF have long been accused of using heavy-handed tactics to control people who express views contrary to the department’s interests. ...“How do we fix things if we can’t talk about it?” said David Bazerman, a Legal Aid Service attorney who represents children in Broward County dependency court proceedings. Bazerman is a frequent DCF detractor. “This is the Emperor’s New Clothes. We all have to walk around and say everything’s fine.” 7/3/02

DCF struggles to make visits-- By late last week, DCF caseworkers should have seen at least 90 percent of the 45,000 children living with foster parents or relatives under state supervision.-- But in some parts of the state, as many as 45 percent of the children still had not been visited, according to an e-mail obtained by the Sun-Sentinel. It was sent from Larry Pintacuda, assistant secretary for operations, to local DCF administrators Friday.7/2/02

Review of foster care files finds blank signed forms
TALLAHASSEE — Abysmal record-keeping threatens the health and safety of children in foster care, the Statewide Advocacy Council has concluded after reviewing more than a thousand files. Virtually all the Department of Children & Families case files reviewed during a yearlong investigation were disorganized and incomplete. 7/1/02

Shoddy records called threat to kids
A yearlong investigation by a group charged by the governor with overseeing the Department of Children & Families has concluded that abysmal record keeping constitutes a ``threat to the health, safety and welfare of the children placed in foster care.''7/1/02

Foster care dilemma staggers DCF
Numbers indicate enough foster care homes, but many reject kids with behavior problems.6/30/02

Report: 6 in care of DCF were seeing men - Allegations that six Palm Beach County girls partied with adult men at a Residence Inn by Marriott has prompted the state's child welfare agency to halt the placement of children in hotels and also to halt their supervision by a private nursing company.--
The Department of Children & Families began paying Maxim Healthcare Services Inc. to baby-sit the youngsters in local motels and hotels about six weeks ago as a short-term fix. 6/27/02

County says no to deal with DCF-- KISSIMMEE -- Children who have already been victimized by their parents and guardians need not be victims of the state's stinginess, Osceola County commissioners decided this week when they refused to sign a deal with a state agency that has custody of them.-
Commissioners instead want to join forces with Orange County to demand more money from the state Department of Children & Families, which now pays both counties $55 a day for the care of each child under state custody.-- That amount doesn't cover the cost of care. Osceola, for example, spends $121 each day on each child. 6/26/02

State won't allow foster children to be kept in hotels anymore-- Allegations that six Palm Beach County girls partied with adult men at a Residence Inn by Marriott has prompted the state's child welfare agency to halt the placement of children in hotels and also to halt their supervision by a private nursing company.6/25/02

Bush says grand jury not needed to investigate missing children
MIAMI — Gov. Jeb Bush has refused a request to create a statewide grand jury to investigate the 1,237 children under state care who can't be located. The Department of Children and Families has classified most of these children as either runaways, out-of-state or taken from their home by a family or relative. None of them were visited in May. 6/24/02

Child welfare dilemma
Child protective investigators should have more options for children in troubled homes than having to choose between child safety and family preservation. 6/24/02

Fund Mental Health Service
State health and social service officials shouldn't have to rob Peter to pay Paul to maintain children's mental health services. Unfortunately, that's what must happen to offset a multimillion-dollar mistake. 6/24/02

Abuse reports soar in months after Rilya-- A 33 percent surge in abuse reports, plummeting worker morale and a flurry of firings and resignations have pummeled Florida’s already unstable child welfare system in the two months since the state discovered a 5-year-old girl in its care had been missing for more than a year. 6/23/02

Records: 22 dead in DCF care since 2001
The children who died -- 16 in 2001, six more this year -- had been noted in previous reports on abuse or neglect.6/15/02

Records show 16 children died under DCF care in 2001
FORT LAUDERDALE — Sixteen children died of abuse or neglect in 2001 while under the care of the Department of Children & Families, according to child welfare agency records. An additional six children have died this year, the agency records show. The records were released at the request of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel after the June 8 beating death of 21-month-old Briyonna Jean-Noel of Miami.6/15/02

Besieged DCF fires workers - A high-ranking administrator with the Department of Children & Families Miami-Dade office said Saturday she was one of at least six DCF employees fired or asked to resign last week.--
She called the firings "a bloodbath" conducted by officials desperate to make the agency appear proactive since the disappearance of 5-year-old Rilya Wilson of Miami.6/15/02

DCF's front-line workers find solace in mission despite criticism
MELBOURNE — Rae Weir leaned forward, rested her arms on her knees and stared intently at the 15-year-old boy. "Has anyone — an adult — ever touched you on your privates and made you uncomfortable in any way?" Weir asked gently. The boy, sitting two feet away in a cramped office at the Department of Children & Families, looked down. "No, ma'am." After interviewing the teen for about 20 minutes, Weir didn't suspect any abuse. It was the kind of judgment call she makes every day as she juggles dozens of cases as a child protective investigator.6/15/02

Arrests of DCF workers revealed
Agency officials are shocked by the past arrests, and said all workers are screened.6/15/02

Critics: DCF workers set up to fail
Caseloads for child-abuse investigators in Central Florida are among state's heaviest.6/15/02

DCF denial - Despite what the DCF head says, there still are missing kids.--
Department of Children & Families Secretary Kathleen Kearney lives in denial, and that doesn't bode well for Florida's abused and neglected children.6/15/02

Support, Fund Guardians
Gov. Jeb Bush wants to find ways to improve the state's Guardian Ad Litem program. Changes to the court's child advocacy service are essential to help children in foster care, but any real fix must start with the Florida Department of Children & Families.6/15/02

Duo posing as DCF workers attempt to abduct child
MIAMI — A man and a woman impersonating Department of Children & Families workers appeared at a woman's home and demanded that she hand over her 4-year-old daughter, police said Thursday. It was the second such abduction attempt reported in the last month. Maria Chavez told police she answered a knock on her door Tuesday evening to find a man and a woman flashing identification cards and a letter containing personal information about the child, her father and the DCF worker assigned to the family's case.6/14/02

DCF denial -- Despite what the DCF head says, there still are missing kids. 6/14/02

DCF head reminds offices to shred files before disposal-- LEESBURG, Fla. - The Department of Children & Families has reminded all of its employees to destroy confidential files before discarding them, following incidents where documents on abused children were disposed without being shredded.6/14/02

DCF workers to be fired for falsifying records
ORLANDO — A Florida Department of Children & Families supervisor and a counselor were fired and the agency plans to dismiss two other counselors for falsifying records and failing to track down a family, agency officials said Wednesday. A fourth DCF counselor has resigned, said Robert Morin, administrator of DCF's District 7, which covers east central Florida.6/13

Lawmaker urges DCF senior services probe - WPB - A state lawmaker called Wednesday for an investigation into the practices of the Department of Children and Families' division that provides services for vulnerable senior citizens in the county.6/13

Governor names working group to review foster care system
TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Jeb Bush named members of a group Tuesday to work on coordinating officials in the child welfare system with the people who represent kids in the state's foster care system. The Department of Children & Families, which has been under fire in recent weeks since the disappearance of a young girl under its supervision, oversees the foster care program in Florida.6/12/02

DCF chief discards calls to resign -- TALLAHASSEE -- Kathleen Kearney, the embattled head of the Florida Department of Children & Families, adamantly denied Tuesday that hundreds of children under state care are missing and said she has no plans to resign.
Despite records showing the agency has not seen nearly 1,000 abused and neglected children, Kearney insisted that most are runaways or in other states. Only one child under the Florida agency's watch remains truly missing, she said.6/12

27 DCF runaways 13 or younger
The state's child welfare system lists children as young as 11 to 13 years old as runaways.6/12

Find The Lost Children And Tighten Up Procedures - I magine what would happen if a bank discovered in a routine audit that 2 percent of its money was missing. Suppose a car dealer found at the end of the month that 60 of 3,000 cars on the lot had disappeared. Or what if a hospital couldn't find 12 out of 600 patients admitted by a particular group of doctors?--
Would there be a collective shrugging of shoulders saying the whole system of banking, motor vehicles or health care is so huge that the situation is hopeless, or that missing products are an acceptable cost of doing business, or that workers deserve accolades for knowing where to find 98 percent of the inventory?6/12

Mother of toddler who died in day-care van sues agency
DAYTONA BEACH — The mother of a toddler who died after being forgotten inside a day-care van last summer has sued the organization that accredited the day-care center. Tekela Harris of Port Orange sued the Florida League of Christian Schools on Monday, seeking at least $15,000. That agency set policies and procedures for the Abundant Life Academy of Learning.6/12

Child advocate rips DCF chief
For the third time in as many years, the leader of a national child welfare advocacy group has accused the Department of Children & Families of fueling a ''foster care panic'' by removing too many children from troubled homes.6/11

Critics: Foster care overused
Some children's advocates say that any reforms should start with the goal of keeping families intact and making foster care obsolete.6/11

Speaking Out: DCF puts numbers over safety of elder/disabled victims
When any human endeavor, particularly one as complicated as investigating adult abuse, has a perfect level of compliance, one can be assured that the measure itself is faulty, or the data is questionable.6/10/02

Lack of DCF beds strands man, 21, in jail
The state says there is no space at the three hospitals for mentally ill criminal defendants. Last month 147 patients were held in jail. 6/9/02

DCF missed deadline, still has not seen nearly 1,000 children
TALLAHASSEE — The state Department of Children & Families has not been able to contact nearly 1,000 children under state care, missing another deadline. In late April, Gov. Jeb Bush ordered the agency to make contact with each of the 46,403 children under some type of supervision. The order came after the highly publicized disappearance of 5-year-old Rilya Wilson, who wasn't noticed missing by DCF for 15 months. 6/9/02

DCF says it failed to find 536 runaways and abductees
The Department of Children & Families reported Friday that none of the 536 children it said last week were runaways or abducted had been found.6/8/02

DCF completes checkup on children
Of 46,403 children in their care, caseworkers found all but seven, who were either traveling or refusing contact.6/8/02

Confidential foster children files found in Tavares trash
TAVARES — A woman found hundreds of pages of confidential paperwork on foster children in a trash bin behind a Department of Children & Families office in central Florida. Two garbage bags and a cardboard box were filled with documents containing current residences of hundreds of Lake County foster children, case numbers for abused children, sheriff's reports on alleged abuses, court dates of child testimony and schedules for family and sibling visitation.6/8/02

Secret DCF files sold at auction - The state Department of Children and Families faced new accusations of negligence Thursday after a local television reporter bought boxes of confidential DCF files at an auction of government property.--
"I bought 50 boxes for five bucks," said Mike Deeson, a longtime reporter for WTSP-Ch. 10, the Tampa Bay area's CBS affiliate. "I found thousands of pages -- case files, abuse reports, pay stubs from parents, psychiatric evaluations."-
Channel 10 is not broadcasting the specific contents of the files. Instead, Deeson bought the files to question whether DCF was negligent in allowing confidential documents to be sold at an auction.5/31/02

Governor endorses low-cost solutions to child-welfare problems
MIAMI — Gov. Jeb Bush endorsed a low-cost approach Tuesday to solving some of the problems cited by a panel examining the case of a 5-year-old child in state care whose disappearance went unnoticed for 15 months. Bush promised to comply with the panel's report and work with lawmakers on costlier issues that will take more time. "We know that we can do better and we have work to do," he said. "We have made significant progress in a very difficult, challenging, complicated area of public policy."5/29/02

Panel protected Jeb, not Florida's children
Old recommendations, but no new action. 5/29/02

Bush won't promise more DCF money
Jeb Bush says he'll enact other recommendations of a special panel, including keeping the chief.5/29/02

Governor vows to reform DCF
He backs some ideas proposed by the panel he formed in light of the Rilya Wilson case, but rejects its call for a special session.5/29/02

Lawsuit against DCF claims sex abuse (5/30/02 © Miami Herald)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/3361405.htm

State agency often houses foster children in Broward office building (5/30/02 © Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel)

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-leeping30may30.story?coll

Agency had taken son from mother (5/30/02 © Ft. Myers News-Press)

http://www.news-press.com/news/today/020530jami.html

Can Solving DCF's Problems Be So Simple? (5/30/02 © Tampa Tribune)

http://tampatrib.com/Baylife/columns/MGA74GKPT1D.html

DCF debacle --how much longer? (5/30/02 © Orlando Sentinel)

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/orl-edpmyword30053002m

DCF: Numbers Tell the Story (5/30/02 © Lakeland Ledger)

http://www.theledger.com/top_stories/30ed1.htm

http://www.news-press.com/opinion/020530dcf.html

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/nation/3361068.htm

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/3361640.htm

Review: DCF riddled with flaws
The governor's committee says the state agency needs to overhaul how it tracks children in its care.5/26/02

Panel blames child's DCF workers, caretakers for deception
The disappearance of a 5-year-old girl went unnoticed for 15 months because two low-level state workers and her caretakers deceived the state's child-welfare system, a review panel concluded Sunday. A committee named by Gov. Jeb Bush accused the workers and the sisters caring for Rilya Wilson of malfeasance for submitting paperwork falsely indicating she was in their care and being visited regularly.5/26

Panel says DCF needs money
To fix the ailing child-welfare system, the Legislature needs to provide more money for existing and new programs, said the governor's special panel investigating the causes behind the disappearance of 5-year-old Rilya Wilson. 5/26

Lawmaker criticizes Gov. Bush for lack of diversity on panel - MIAMI — A black state lawmaker criticized Gov. Jeb Bush on Friday for not diversifying a blue-ribbon panel appointed to investigate 5-year-old Rilya Wilson's disappearance.
State Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami, sent Bush a letter asking him to push back the Tuesday deadline for the panel looking into Florida's child welfare system to complete its investigation and to appoint black members to the panel. Its four members are white.
Wilson said she was appalled and insulted by Bush's "insensitivity" and said the entire black, Haitian and Hispanic community was systematically excluded from the process.
"These people are capable individuals, but the panel must be diverse," said Wilson, who is not related to the girl 5/25/02

Vacant DCF positions boost caseloads - Scrambling to defend Florida’s beleaguered child welfare system, state officials have boasted that they’ve added more than 1,000 new caseworkers, increasing the work force by 63 percent under Gov. Jeb Bush.- But as many as a third of the 2,733 caseworker positions statewide are vacant or filled by employees in training, records show.-- That has left workers in some parts of the state responsible for up to 46 children at a time — almost four times the nationally recommended number. 5/24

Do the math
The lives of Florida's children at risk are in the hands of people who are overworked, underpaid and not always adequately trained. When it comes to child welfare, Florida gets what it pays for. 5/23/02

DCF responds to attempted abduction by expanding hot line
TALLAHASSEE — The state Department of Children & Families has expanded its hot line after an attempted abduction by two people in Miami claiming to be DCF workers. The hot line will now help people identify DCF child protection workers by telling callers if a name provided to them is indeed that of a DCF worker in their region.5/22

Newspaper: State case workers have faked records in past
ST. PETERSBURG — Department of Children and Families caseworkers who fake records and fail to check on children are not new concerns for the agency, where documents show it has been a well-known problem for years, a newspaper reported Monday. In a review of agency records by the St. Petersburg Times, documents from the agency and other sources show child welfare workers have been cited at least 14 times since 1999 for falsifying records in their work. 5/21

Faking records not new at DCF
Neither is the agency's failure to check on children in its care. These issues take on new meaning in light of Rilya Wilson's case.5/20

DCF chief had big influence on role of investigative panel - Tallahassee · In what may raise doubts about the task force examining problems at the Department of Children & Families, records show that its top administrator had a big influence on who would be appointed to the panel and what questions they should ask.-
On the evening before Gov. Jeb Bush announced the formation of the panel, DCF chief Kathleen Kearney wrote Bush's chief of staff with a recommendation that was closely followed as to who should be named to the group and what they should do.5/18

Do not rush to hand kids at risk to private system, critics urge Bush - Florida's child advocates are calling on Gov. Jeb Bush to slow down or halt the privatization of the state's child-protection services after the disappearance of a 5-year-old Miami girl while in foster care.
The state's privatization experiment is the largest of its kind in the country. And no one knows for sure whether kids will be any safer.
By the end of 2004, all state Department of Children & Families' child-protection, adoption and foster-care services -- the same ones that failed to notice that Miami's Rilya Wilson had been missing for 15 months -- will be contracted out to a patchwork of nonprofit agencies all over Florida. 5/16/02

DCF's reports routinely faked, witnesses said
A DCF official says the depositions from current and ex-DCF workers were old and inaccurate.5/16/02

DCF worker depositions show bleak picture of department
WEST PALM BEACH — Several current and former employees in Florida's child welfare system have testified that counselors routinely falsified reports of visits to foster children, attorneys suing the state said Wednesday. Meanwhile, Gov. Jeb Bush signed a bill that makes it a felony for child welfare workers to falsify documents and a judge appearing before a panel formed following the disappearance of 5-year-old Rilya Wilson criticized the performance of caseworkers.5/16/02

Florida Gov. Bush signs bill making falsifying state records a felony
TALLAHASSEE — Florida Gov. Jeb Bush signed a bill Wednesday making it a felony for state workers to falsify records related to children, the elderly or disabled in state care. The measure, passed last week in a special legislative session, comes in the wake of accusations that a child welfare caseworker falsely claimed to be keeping up with a little girl who vanished in Miami.5/16/02

Bush, DCF and kids lost in mushy numbers
The governor's caseload figures are misleading.5/16/02

Child-welfare workers say state agency plagued by deceit - Some current and former state child-welfare workers say their colleagues lied about visiting foster homes, covered up mistakes and worked amid a culture that rewards overburdened employees for leaving children in dangerous situations.5/16/02

Lawmaker criticizes appointments to panel
TALLAHASSEE — A black state lawmaker asked Gov. Jeb Bush to push back the deadline for a special panel looking into Florida's child welfare system and to appoint black members to the panel. "It is my belief that without the proper racial and cultural diversity, the ... panel will be unable to make meaningful recommendations that will holistically address the needs of the population of children within the DCF," Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami, wrote Bush.

Retiring comptroller shows the way to inspire loyalty is to reciprocate it
TALLAHASSEE -- Jeb Bush has spent a lot of money on children's services and his fact-finding commission will likely encourage him to spend more. But I doubt that money alone, or any organizational flaw, fully explains why the agency that was supposed to protect kids still couldn't even keep track of them.5/12

Tough ex-judge now defends DCF
Kathleen Kearney, head of the beleaguered social services agency, says she will not resign despite pressure over a missing child.

DCF chief feeling the heat
As a judge, Kathleen Kearney criticized Florida's child protection. Now she's on the defensive.

Child Advocates See Many Floridas
WASHINGTON - Florida's system for safeguarding children - the same system that lost track of 5-year-old Rilya Wilson 16 months ago - is among the nation's most expensive, overburdened and neglectful, child welfare experts and advocates say.

DCF POLICIES NOT WORKING
In the bureaucratic panic to find little Rilya Wilson, the real issues behind her disappearance have gotten lost: Are the Department of Children & Families' child-protection policies the right ones? Is the DCF putting its resources in the right places? Is the leadership right for the agency?

Reviews haven't halted child care crises
Florida's troubled child welfare agency has been amply studied; no fewer than 11 special panels have been convened in 15 years. Legislators, too, have periodically taken aim at the agency. They've bulked it up and slimmed it down, centralized and decentralized through four governorships -- two Republican, two Democrat.

Missing girl's caretaker unfairly portrayed, lawyer says
MIAMI — Police were politically motivated when they publicly announced that the caregivers of missing Rilya Wilson failed a polygraph test, a lawyer for the women said Saturday. Miami-Dade County Police Director Carlos Alvarez said Friday that Geralyn Graham and her sister, Pamela Graham, both gave deceptive responses in a polygraph test administered last week, though he would not disclose the questions.

Missing: How could a little girl go missing for 15 months, and no one notice?
MIAMI — When Rilya Wilson was born on Sept. 29, 1996, the name she got was an acronym made up by her mother and some friends. R-I-L-Y-A: "Remember I love you always." And yet by the time her disappearance was discovered last month, she was under state supervision and had had three "mothers" in as many years. Somehow, the people charged with watching over Rilya failed her, and she was gone, leaving this shaken city to ponder how fragile and tenuous children's lives can be.

Judge declares agency in contempt for false information
Four days after she accused officials of the Department of Children & Families of ''hiding'' details of the disappearance of 5-year-old Rilya Wilson, Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman held the troubled agency in contempt of court for giving false information about other foster children in another case.

DCF accused of neglecting the elderly
A man found at home covered by roaches typifies the neglect, an advocacy group says.

DCF's computer savior has bad tracking record -- TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Jeb Bush is touting a new computer system being developed to track abused and neglected children as the savior of the much-criticized state agency entrusted to care for them.--
But after nearly a decade of trying, the multimillion-dollar HomeSafeNet computer system, which might have helped the state detect that 5-year-old Rilya Wilson of Miami was missing, is $200 million over budget, years behind schedule and far from finished.--
What's worse, a recent state audit found that converting current records to the new computer system has caused "gaps in data" that's needed to track children in the meantime.

Governor's DCF figures don't tell whole story-- TALLAHASSEE - In the debate over the disappearance of Rilya Wilson, Gov. Jeb Bush has said repeatedly that Florida's vulnerable children are better off now that his administration has cut the workloads of the state's front-line protection workers.-- Bush told reporters this week that the average number of children assigned to each worker is 21, down from ''hundreds'' before he took office.-- But the governor made no distinction between foster-care workers, who supervise children like Rilya once they are in state custody, and the ''protective investigators,'' who examine the thousands of suspected abuse cases called into Florida's hot line each year.

Dredging up the truth
Gov. Bush and his critics should rise above political calculations and focus on a full and fair investigation of the state's child-protection system.

DCF can't say why abuse cases backlogged
A department official told a House oversight committee that an old filing system is part of the reason.

House committee examining problems of child welfare system
TALLAHASSEE — The chairwoman of a House committee set up to examine problems at the Department of Children & Families said the state is sitting on a "bombshell" after hearing about the agency's problems Thursday. The committee, formed about four weeks before it was revealed that the department had lost 5-year-old Rilya Wilson, heard from department officials and a state auditor about an enormous backlog of child abuse investigations, a substantial increase in hot line calls and an antiquated filing system that makes it more difficult to track abuse cases. "I'm trying to get to why and how did we get to this point," said committee Chairwoman Sandy Murman, R-Tampa. "We're sitting on another potential bombshell."

Child Care Agency's Failures `Systemic'-- TALLAHASSEE - A state watchdog agency has been sounding the alarm for years over what it describes as ``systemic problems'' within Florida's child welfare system.-- A key analyst with the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability told state lawmakers Thursday that the safety and well-being of needy Floridians of all ages is at risk.

DCF tells mom son drowned at foster home
Bonnie Turner answered the phone Wednesday and learned her little boy was dead.5/9/02

DCF: Data `Not Available'
TAMPA - Want to know how many children were found to be abused or neglected in Florida during the last half of 2001? Or how many cases state workers were averaging then? ...5/9/02

Judge berates child agency
Days after she learned a caseworker had ''misled'' her for more than a year about the safety of a child who disappeared while in the state's care, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman issued a stern command Monday to the Department of Children & Families: ``Nothing else will be hidden from this court.''

Unprotected children
The disappearance of a 5-year-old girl from state care is not an aberration, and casts a pall over an already-reeling child-protection agency.

Welfare agency failed on many levels, panel told
Leaders of Florida's child welfare agency criticized for losing track of 5-year-old Rilya Wilson acknowledged Wednesday -- in the first meeting of a panel investigating what went wrong -- that the department mishandled the case on levels well beyond the child's caseworker and supervisor. (for more articles on this see news clips from May 2002)

Quotas alleged for child-abuse caseworkers
Caseworkers employed by a private company hired to reduce the state's backlog of child abuse and neglect cases were given quotas for closing reports and rewarded for ''extraordinary'' performance, according to an internal memo obtained by The Herald.

Head of probe into Lakeside overbilling fired by DCF
A high-ranking supervisor at the Department of Children & Families who was conducting a financial probe into billing practices at Orange County's community mental-health center was fired this week for what department officials called poor job performance.

Child abuse contractor faces state investigation
State officials are investigating an allegation of falsified reports involving a Pinellas Park company that investigates child abuse cases.

Backlog of child abuse claims probed
Florida child welfare administrators are investigating claims that a private company hired to reduce a backlog of child-abuse reports cleared some cases without even looking into them.

Deal with homeless
Mentally ill and addicted people require more than police and jail cells.

Editorial: Private foster-care plan mirrors DCF problems
The 1998 Legislature, tired of controversies involving the state's social-services agency, voted to privatize Florida's foster-care and adoption services. This month, a critical report on the first privatization program should be required reading in Palm Beach County.

State criticizes private program for foster kids
The company that handles Pinellas and Pasco has poor case files because of overworked staffers, the DCF says.

Kids die as DCF sticks to 'formula for disaster'
By Bill Cooper, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
The criticism had a familiar ring: State child abuse investigators failed to do their jobs -- despite multiple warning signs -- and a child is dead. The response from...

Editorial: Another dead child, another DCF failure
The Palm Beach Post
The Florida Department of Children and Families has one of Palm Beach County's toughest jobs: keeping children safe in homes that are far from the Ozzie-and-Harriet variety. Still, it is their job...

New Florida laws haven't halted rise in abuse of children - Deaths and abuse of Florida's most vulnerable children have continued to increase despite new state laws intended to improve their protection

Start Improving Agency Services
Making noticeable improvements in Florida's foster-care system would be a far more impressive feat for the state's social services agency than holding off a bunch of determined trial lawyers in federal court.

Federal judge rejects suit against state child-welfare agencyIn a blow to child advocates, a judge has tossed out the most significant claims of a lawsuit designed to force sweeping changes in Florida's foster-care system.

Florida's shame - Floridians should be shamed by the disclosure this week that four out of every five child abuse deaths that occurred in this state over the past two years could have been prevented.

Foster-care system doomed to failure You've read this column before. It has been written, in various forms, three, four, five, six, seven times. Maybe more. Writing about the failures of the Florida Department of Children & Families foster care program in Broward County is like being a theater critic, stuck with reviewing the same awful play, over and over and over.

Private agencies chase unpaid child support
They knock on doors, talk to neighbors and threaten to sue. But critics oppose hiring agencies because of their fees.

Rate of abused foster care kids skyrockets in Florida
JACKSONVILLE - Florida's rate of abuse in foster care - about one in every 11 children - is three times the state goal and 15 times higher than the national standard, a newspaper reported Sunday.

Agencies present spending plans
DCF plans to cut 1,178 positions
A day after state analysts projected a $265 million budget deficit for Florida and expressed uncertainty over the impact of Tuesday's terrorism on Florida's economy, state officials Friday trotted out their budget wish lists.9/15

Agency Mocks Transparency
The Florida Department of Children & Families is making a mockery of the Sunshine Law and the whole concept of open and transparent government. In so doing, it mocks the promises made by DCF Secretary Kathleen Kearney to bring greater openness and accountability to the agency.8/13

Foster-care probe by U.S. requested - In the wake of a Jacksonville foster child's death, attorneys suing the state on behalf of Florida's foster children called Friday for a federal investigation into crowded homes and abuse by foster parents...

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