A series of bills about the foster care system is moving through the Florida Legislature. Rebekka Behr is focused on the Foster Youth Bill of Rights, which she says will take “all the rights that are already in law and (place) them into one document so that it makes it easier for youth to understand what their rights are […]

The Department of Children and Families wants children out of foster care in 12 months or less. Some families may take longer to fix. TAMPA — Parents are often at their lowest ebb when they turn to Norman Palumbo. Chad Poppell, secretary of the Florida Department of Children and Families, has ordered the state’s attorneys […]

TALLAHASSEE Miami-Dade and Monroe counties could lose about $11.5 million in funding for their child welfare system in the next few years, under changes that are being weighed by the state Department of Children and Families. But a potential plan to keep the existing funding in place could involve sending some of the state’s most […]

Hillsborough Commission Chairman Les Miller also opposes the controversial plan. He wants the county to house children at the Lake Magdalene group home. Two beds can be seen in a girl’s cottage at the Lake Magdalene group home in Tampa. The campus is owned by Hillsborough County and used to house children considered at risk […]

A report by a Hillsborough juvenile justice advisory board calls for a new law so judges can order treatment for foster teens who refuse placements. TAMPA — The Hillsborough boy was bounced between more than 20 group and foster homes in less than three years before he finally said “no” to another placement. His troubled […]

The Chronicle of Social Change is highlighting each of the policy recommendations made this summer by the participants of the Foster Youth Internship Program (FYI), a group of 12 former foster youths who have completed congressional internships. The program is overseen each summer by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute. Each of the FYI participants crafted a policy […]

In February of 2018, the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) was hit with a federal class-action lawsuit alleging that private providers in the southern part of the state were failing to supply enough foster homes, leading to frequent shuffling of kids from one motel to the next, or into cramped group settings. Last week DCF […]

Province could look to Florida or Connecticut for ideas on how to help former kids in care. By Katie Hyslop Today | TheTyee.ca Katie Hyslop is a reporter for The Tyee. Reach her here. This story was produced as part of Spotlight: Child Welfare, a collaborative journalism project that aims to deepen reporting on B.C.’s child-welfare system. The B.C. government should […]

  A Winter Haven man who was adopted from foster care as a child is doing something remarkable. He’s working on a postgraduate degree entirely on the state of Florida’s dime, and it’s all thanks to having been adopted. Victor Sims’s parents, Violet and Ronald, could not have children of their own, so they looked […]

By: Liliana Hernandez and Angelique Day More first-generation, low-income students and students of color, including youth in foster care, are enrolling in college than ever before. However, youth in foster care continue to enroll, complete credits and graduate at lower rates than their low-income peers. Nationally, 5% of youth aging out of foster care surveyed […]

There is much work to be done before the promise of full legal rights for dependent children is realized. By Amy Harfeld Recent disturbing headlines focusing on the trauma and injustice of separating children from their parents at the border ushered unexpected but welcome public scrutiny of the obvious injustice of these vulnerable families facing […]

For the first time, states can now claim federal matching funds through Title IV-E of the Social Security Act to help pay the costs of attorneys representing certain children and their parents in child welfare legal proceedings.[1] Before this change, federal matching funds were available to help pay for attorneys representing child welfare agencies, but […]

By Christopher O’Donnell and Nathaniel Lash Published Dec. 27, 2018   Justice McGuill was barely 12 when she walked into the house in Hudson, her little hands gripping tightly to a duffel bag containing her only possessions. It was her fifth foster home in a year. This one felt like a real home. Even better, it was her first […]

As a former youth in foster care, I have experienced firsthand the care of children in our state and how our childcare systems prepare youth for the transition from foster care to adulthood. While Florida has made great changes, a report recently released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation shows our outcomes are about the […]

Florida has made great strides when it comes to improving the system of care for children in our state, but a new report shows there is still a long way to go. Recently, the Annie E. Casey Foundation released “Fostering Youth Transitions,” a first-of-its-kind report with the most comprehensive data ever collected across all 50 […]

On any given night, 7,000 young people in Florida are homeless. For many, the barriers standing between them and a stable, productive adulthood include legal issues such as a poor credit report, a tangled criminal record or having no basic identification. The American Bar Association believes that homelessness among children constitutes a civil-rights issue. We have […]

My name is Chelsea. My childhood was spent in what many people might consider a stereotypical “broken home” with domestic violence and substance abuse as a familiar part of the equation. While my mother tried to help me and my sister, there was only so much she could do, so I found myself placed into foster […]

Share Baker McKenzie has partnered with The Walt Disney Company and nonprofit child advocacy organization Florida’s Children First in a joint pro bono effort to create the Florida Homeless Youth Handbook, an online and print resource for youth experiencing homelessness, or transitioning to adulthood without parental support. Florida will be the sixth state in the US to […]

Human-trafficking victims, their advocates call on Disney to take public stand on proposed law Sex trafficking survivors spoke tearfully of betrayal by Florida lawmakers Friday as bills that would have allowed the hotel industry to be sued for willfully ignoring the problem came to a puzzling halt this week, and victim advocates called on Disney […]

Lawyer-lobbyist Nicole “Nikki” Fried, who specializes in medical marijuana issues, says she might run for Governor this year after coming to the conclusion the current field of Democratic candidates “need(s) a heart transplant.” “Florida Democrats are tired of losing and are looking for a new voice: Someone different, someone who isn’t afraid to speak the truth and […]

It was sweltering in the bedroom of the Largo mobile home the day a child welfare case manager visited in July. Yet she left 8-month-old William Hendrickson IV there with no air-conditioning and in the care of an erratic father who had been refusing to take his medication, a newly released state investigation found. There […]

If Florida’s overburdened child welfare system has an epicenter, it’s Hillsborough County. An average of 3,600 children were in foster care in the county during 2016, the most in Florida. Hillsborough also has among the highest number of child abuse investigations and removal rates. Yet the county’s lead child welfare agency is short-changed almost $6 […]

The first people the state dispatches to the homes of potentially abused and neglected children in Palm Beach County are overworked and in some cases cutting corners, data show. A dozen former and current Florida Department of Children and Families child-protective investigators in Palm Beach County tell The Post and its news partner WPTV NewsChannel 5 that an inundation […]

Maisha Joefield thought she was getting by pretty well as a young single mother in Brooklyn, splurging on her daughter, Deja, even though money was tight. When Deja was a baby, she bought her Luvs instead of generic diapers when she could. When her daughter got a little older, Ms. Joefield outfitted the bedroom in […]

For many teens still reeling from being taken into foster care, a cellphone is a lifeline, child advocates say. It’s their one connection to the world they left behind, a link to friends, romantic interests and reassuring emojis. Yet many group foster homes confiscate or heavily restrict access to cellphones. In some cases, it is […]

To the kids who stay with her, Kathryn Melendez is “Mom” or “Miss Kathryn.” Some of her teenage girls even call her “Bae,” slang shorthand for “before anyone else.” The endearment is hard won. Since she began fostering in Florida in 2004, more than 200 children have arrived on Melendez’s doorstep, most of them scared, […]

Hundreds of reports about potential child abuse may have been overlooked for months because of a Florida Department of Children and Families computer glitch. About 1,500 tips to the Florida Abuse Hotline ­— the state’s front line for child protection — were not sent electronically to law enforcement agencies between February and April because of […]

The agency that runs child welfare in Hillsborough County is closing a troubled out-of-hours teen center. Eckerd Kids announced Wednesday that it will terminate its contract with subcontractor Camelot Community Care to run the Ybor Heights center, which is used to temporarily house and supervise children entering the foster care system until they are placed […]

The plight of foster children forced to sleep on air mattresses in offices last summer led to outrage and the state ordering additional oversight of Eckerd Kids, the agency that runs child welfare in Hillsborough County. But even as social workers were preparing the make-do accommodation, records show that between 10 and 21 foster beds […]

The critical decision to remove a child from a home because of abuse or neglect is based on the work of child welfare investigators. But about 80 percent of Florida’s investigators have less than two years’ experience. And more than half are juggling heavy caseloads. Fixing those problems is one focus of a new attempt […]

One parent losing a job, being admitted to a hospital or struggling with addiction can be difficult for any family. For a single parent, however, it can also mean losing children to the foster care system. Supporters of a proposed law hope to change that. The Temporary Care of a Child Act aims to create […]

A foster mother has been arrested in the death of a 17-month-old boy who suffered apparent head injuries just weeks before he was likely to be adopted. Latamara Stackhouse Flythe was arrested on a charge of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in the death of Aedyn Agminalis, who died Dec. 11 after he was […]

Patricia Hunter has opened her home to children for more than 20 years. As a foster mom, she’s dealt with bed wetters and fussy eaters, kids who need endless hugs and others who don’t want to be held. Until last week, she hadn’t experienced having one of her children delivered to the wrong home. Hunter, […]

Florida child welfare workers too often remove children from their families without first providing counseling that could have kept them in the home, a recent federal study found. And once in the state’s care, some children don’t get physical therapy and other specialized services they need and are entitled to, the report stated. Florida Department […]

TAMPA — A federal agency has given the Florida Department of Children and Families 90 days to come up with a plan to improve its care of foster kids after a study found the state is underperforming in critical areas. The “Children and Family Services Review” analyzed the DCF’s handling of 80 foster care cases […]

As journalists, we are taught to be objective. Our instincts tell us not to cross that line between our professional and personal lives. Fair and balanced, without all the conflicted connotations that now brings. Bob Opsahl failed miserably at that. He tried to keep his emotions tucked away, all in one tidy box. No feelings. […]

How kids wind up in the foster care system is pretty much the same across Florida. Investigators look into allegations of parents who are angry, absent, in trouble or just unable to do the job of parenting. They look into reports of children who are not being cared for, neglected, hurt or worse. But according […]

When Angela Dufrene and her twin brother were born on April 25, 2014, their mother’s troubled history was no secret to the state. Marjorie Dufrene was under the supervision of Florida’s child welfare agency following a child-abuse arrest and six separate investigations, including an episode in which she “accidentally” hit one child in the face […]

The U.S. Department of Education today released a new toolkit to inspire and support current and former foster youth pursuing college and career opportunities. The Foster Care Transition Toolkit includes tips and resources intended to help foster youth access and navigate social, emotional, educational and skills barriers as they transition into adulthood. Currently, there are […]

It’s not the worst story we’ve heard about how abused or neglected children taken from their homes are treated once they’re in the system. Sadly, it’s not even close. But kids sleeping on air mattresses in offices because there are no foster beds — because there’s nowhere else for them to go — is not […]

A 7-month-old baby girl in the care of the state died this week after she slept next to a 10-year-old child on a couch. Her name was Miracle. Miracle Collins was taken into care in February when her mother was arrested in her east Tampa home after a report of domestic violence, a Tampa Police […]

Air mattresses placed on office floors served as make-do sleeping quarters for dozens of Hillsborough County foster children, a crisis that the contractor responsible for taking care of the children repeatedly failed to report to the state. The Clearwater nonprofit Eckerd Kids had 43 children sleep in offices and other unlicensed locations in the past […]

We’ve got a lot of names to take in today’s Friday Files — including a well-known quarterback, a lesser-known Pokemon and a whole slew of politicians. But first, some props to Gov. Rick Scott‘s Department of Children and Families. Earlier this year, DCF was poised to do take some ugly — and dangerous — actions […]

Homeless youth and youth in foster care are often unprepared for the transition to adulthood. Given the economic benefits of college, GAO was asked to examine the college experiences of these vulnerable youth. GAO examined (1) college enrollment and completion for foster and homeless youth, (2) the extent to which challenges these youth face affect […]

The revelation that 17 foster children had to sleep on air mattresses in offices highlights the ongoing struggle in Hillsborough County to protect kids who live on the brink of crisis. Eckerd Kids, the state contractor, said the temporary arrangement was necessary because it had no beds available, and it is working to ensure no […]

This report highlights the research on the disparities that exist between LGBTQ foster youth and their non-LGBTQ peers, as well as the compounding effects these factors have in relation to other intersecting factors including race, ethnicity, culture and language. It also discusses successful policy strategies and state examples of efforts that are addressing system and practice obstacles. Out of the Shadows: […]

Historically, foster youth in Florida who turn 18 have celebrated their milestone birthday with a push out the door and well wishes shortly after they blow out their candles. They could opt for a monthly stipend of around $1,200 if they chose to continue their education full time, but the support of a home and […]

TAMPA — Because of L. David Shear, hundreds of children in foster care have found permanent homes, says the president of Bay Area Legal Services. Shear, who died Tuesday at age 79 after an illness, was a prominent Tampa lawyer who served as president of the Florida Bar in 1979 and 1980, and was also […]

Recently, FYS Tallahassee members Taylor, Whitney, and Sandina and FYS board members Chelsea and Dan, were interviewed by Dr. Liz Holifield of 411 Teen. They spoke about how FYS advocates and how important it is for youth to advocate. Great job FYS! Listen to the show here.

This law (SB 386) drops the automatic expunction age from 24 to 21. It also allows some young adults to seek expunction of their juvenile records prior to age 21 – if they haven’t committed a crime within the last 5 years. Additionally, it removes the 12-month limitation on seeking expunction of juvenile diversion records. […]