Wex Wimpy
August 20th 03, 05:57 PM
DCF flunks 6 of 7 child-welfare gauges
By Diane Hirth
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER
While Florida's Department of Children & Families claims gains in
protecting children since Secretary Jerry Regier came on board a year
ago, children's advocates point to a new federal report that flunks
Florida on six of seven child-safety benchmarks as evidence the state
still neglects its most vulnerable.
DCF, under fire for incidences of children who die or go missing while
in state custody, says the backlog of child-protective investigations
open for more than 60 days has been reduced 90 percent (from 30,038 in
December 2002 to 2,957 in June 2003) and more than 60 percent of
investigations are closed within 60 days as of April 2003 compared
with 40 percent a year earlier.
Fewer children are in foster care since October 2002, with the number
in licensed care down 6.5 percent and in relatives' care down 5
percent, according to DCF.
However, Jack Levine, president of Voices for Florida's Children, said
the federal report indicates "Florida in specific is a place that has
not adhered to a level of safety and security that our families and
children need not only to succeed, but to survive."
Attorney Karen Gievers, with a class-action suit challenging Florida's
foster-care system on the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, said, "The
governor and the Legislature are more interested in building prison
beds to park them in when something goes wrong, but have no interest
in the way the state is treating (foster children)."
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/democrat/news/local/6564128.htm
By Diane Hirth
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER
While Florida's Department of Children & Families claims gains in
protecting children since Secretary Jerry Regier came on board a year
ago, children's advocates point to a new federal report that flunks
Florida on six of seven child-safety benchmarks as evidence the state
still neglects its most vulnerable.
DCF, under fire for incidences of children who die or go missing while
in state custody, says the backlog of child-protective investigations
open for more than 60 days has been reduced 90 percent (from 30,038 in
December 2002 to 2,957 in June 2003) and more than 60 percent of
investigations are closed within 60 days as of April 2003 compared
with 40 percent a year earlier.
Fewer children are in foster care since October 2002, with the number
in licensed care down 6.5 percent and in relatives' care down 5
percent, according to DCF.
However, Jack Levine, president of Voices for Florida's Children, said
the federal report indicates "Florida in specific is a place that has
not adhered to a level of safety and security that our families and
children need not only to succeed, but to survive."
Attorney Karen Gievers, with a class-action suit challenging Florida's
foster-care system on the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, said, "The
governor and the Legislature are more interested in building prison
beds to park them in when something goes wrong, but have no interest
in the way the state is treating (foster children)."
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/democrat/news/local/6564128.htm