Today, the FCF Board and Advisory Board are comprised of attorneys, subject-matter experts and other professionals who lend their time and talent to make FCF successful.

    FCF staff, board members, volunteers, and advocates devote their time to ensure that each child in care or in an at-risk situation will have a voice that is heard when decisions are made.  We use legislative and policy advocacy, executive branch education and advocacy, training and technical assistance to lawyers and Guardians Ad Litem representing children, public awareness, and filing of amicus briefs as strategies to improve child serving systems.

• An estimated 43,480 children are in the custody of DCF.
     
• Florida is last among all 50 states in high school graduation rates.
     
• As of 6/15/07, over 592 children in state custody are missing.
     
• Over 1200 foster care youth leave custody each year.  They are immediately dismissed from the care and protection of the state upon turning eighteen without learning the life skills most children learn in stable homes.
     
• More than half the children in therapeutic foster care are on psychotropic medications.  Children as young as one year old are given these mind altering drugs that have not been approved for children.
     
• Children in foster care change schools two or three times a year.  This instability leads to lower grades and an inability to participate in school activities.
     
• According to the Florida Department of Children and Families, in 2003, there were 32.3 victims of maltreatment per 1,000 children in Florida.  The same study determined that 8.8 percent of the children were re-abused within six months. 
     
• An estimated 20% of children and youth in foster care are developmentally disabled and may not be receiving proper services.

2006 Successes and Projects  (return to About FCF)

   Florida’s Children First, Inc. was founded in 2001 when Advocates from across Florida, who had been intervening on behalf of individual children, decided a more coordinated approach was needed.  We formed a not-for profit corporation dedicated to the improvement of the lives of our most valuable resource, our children.   FCF is now a group of hundreds of advocates across the state from Pensacola to Jacksonville, to Miami and Tampa and points in between.

   FCF staff, board members, volunteers, and advocates devote their time to ensure that each child in care or in an at-risk situation will have a voice that is heard when decisions are made.  We use legislative and policy advocacy, executive branch education and advocacy, training and technical assistance to lawyers and Guardians Ad Litem representing children, public awareness, and filing of amicus briefs as strategies to improve child serving systems.

   In 2006, FCF once again had successes in changing public policy and laws:  

FCF worked to ensure representation for each child in the foster care system by helping secure an $8 million dollar increase in funding for Florida’s Guardian ad Litem Program and a pilot project in Pinellas County for public defenders to represent children in the dependency system. FCF staff has trained the Pinellas attorneys and many others including FCF and GAL staff and volunteers across the state.

FCF was the primary proponent of improvements to programs to ensure that children who are aging out of the foster care system are appropriately trained with life skills, education, and workforce skills.  Additionally, FCF led the work to extend Medicaid coverage to 18 and 19 year olds aging out of the foster care system, working with Rep Bean and now Speaker Rubio to find over $2.8 million new dollars to cover this extension.  Since 2004, FCF has been publicly credited by legislative staffers and DCF officials with making the well-being of Florida’s older foster children an important issue.  In 2006, FCF was appointed to the National Governor’s Association Public Policy Academy on Transitioning Youth and designated the “content expert” on this population for the Children’s Summit held Oct 6 in Orlando and reaching 1200 people who care about children.

When we learned that the Agency for Persons with Disabilities would not serve eligible children who were in the foster care system, we stepped up. By educating Legislators, we helped change the law and increase funding allocated to require that developmentally disabled children in the child welfare system receive priority for services from the Agency for Persons with Disabilities. After some initial resistance, APD has implemented plans and procedures to address the needs of 349 children formerly on the wait list.

Children need a permanent home, either re-unification with family when safe or another permanent home. FCF worked with the Legislature’s “Permanency Project” to improve the laws to accomplish that goal. FCF also added a strong voice for additional funding of the child welfare system with an increase of $20 million for community based care and an increase in the daily rate paid to foster parents to offset expenses of keeping children in their homes. 

   FCF also continued to assist with the media’s understanding of children’s issues.  This year we provided assistance with ABCs World News acclaimed “Calling All Angels” series, USA Today’s psychotropic medications special report, and have been quoted in major market newspapers including editorial pages here in Florida. An Op Ed signed by Dick Batchelor and Gus Barreiro on “Unchaining the Children” appeared in the Orlando Sentinel.  A full page interview with the Executive Director appeared in the Nov 6 2006 Outlook Section of the Sun Sentinel. Our goal in working with the press is to assist citizens with a fair understanding of children’s issues and promote FCF’s systems change agenda.

   In 2006, FCF provided training for over more than 350 professionals and advocates, and held a seminar in Miami for 121 young people.  FCF also provided training or technical assistance for attorneys, guardians ad litem, community based care staff, and others across the state, notably in Miami, Jacksonville, Tallahassee, Panama City, Clearwater, and places in between.

   FCF embarked on two new projects in 2006:

I.       FCF organized a youth advocacy group named “Florida Youth SHINE”, which stands for Striving High for Independence aNd Empowerment.  The youth are being trained to become their own advocates, to ensure their voices are heard in the public policy debates regarding child welfare and engaged in their communities in a meaningful way.  The Eckerd Family Foundation and Annie E Casey Foundation joined with the Florida Bar Foundation to provide seed money for those efforts.  The mission is to support the youth in forming and operating their own independent not-for-profit by the end of 2007.

II.      This year FCF formalized our “Amicus Project”:   In cases where systemic improvement is possible,  FCF and its volunteer/pro bono attorneys filed amicus briefs to educate courts about the potential impact of their decisions on all of Florida's children and to highlight specific policy issues involved in the case.  Cases are referred to us by numerous organizations or attorneys and have included success in the following:

A Supreme Court decision in Agency for Persons with Disabilities v. F.G.,  the Court agreed with FCF’s position on the authority of a trial court to subpoena employees of APD to testify in juvenile dependency proceedings.

In the First DCA, the opinion in Russell. v. Agency for Persons with Disabilities cites to FCF’s brief when vindicating the right of children in foster care to receive developmental services on a crisis basis.

In the 4^th DCA, FCF filed an amicus brief in DJJ v AA, discussing the obligations of the courts to investigate facilities reasonably suspected to put children in harms way.  The 4^th DCA supported the right of the Court to appoint experts to inspect a DJJ facility and require a report to the court.

The case of Hadi v. Gievers, in the 1^st DCA, created an opportunity for FCF to develop public policy arguments supporting access to records for children and their attorneys from dependency case files. The Court upheld access to records and granted attorneys fees to the children under Chapter 119, Fl Stats.

FCF has supported the pro bono work of Board Member Alan Mishael to clarify the procedural and substantive due process rights of children in foster care who have developmental disabilities.  When the Courts ruled the law required hearings before DOAH with Administrative Law Judges rather than lay hearing officers employed by DCF,  APD filed a Petition for Exemption from existing law before the Administration Commission (Governor and Cabinet).  FCF appeared before the Administration Commission staff to protect the due process rights of children.

   In all of this work and more, FCF continues to build partnerships and coalitions, creating a constituency for the children of Florida.

FCF continued its efforts to implement its previous successful work requiring the Department of Children and Families and the local school boards to work together to improve the education of Florida’s foster children. In its latest success, the Miami Dade Public Schools and Our Kids (the Miami Dade community based care agency) in December 2006 adopted an agreement for which FCF provided technical assistance in drafting and process.  FCF also developed training for the Florida Coalition on Children, the association for CBCs across the state, on the importance of interagency agreements in complying with the law and in improving education outcomes for children and youth in care.

FCF was on the planning committee and a partner for the statewide Children’s Summit held in October which brought together over 1000 advocates from across the State. At the Summit, FCF’s Executive Director was appointed to act as a “content expert” in services for transitioning youth and subsequently named to coordinate post summit activities on this issue.  FCF also researched and drafted legislation to implement the Summit’s top priority, establishment of a Children’s Cabinet.

FCF was invited for the second year to a national “think tank” for leaders in child welfare concerned with the education rights and progress of children caught in the foster care system working on federal and state-based issues. The conference examined promising practices across the country, including the FCF initiated interagency agreements on education of foster children and youth.  The group also examined changing federal laws effecting education for the children.

FCF was invited to participate in a project by the National Disability Rights Network with national organizations and professionals to discuss their shared interest in addressing the disproportionate number of children with disabilities in contact with the juvenile justice system.  FCF participated in a work group of content experts drafting a chapter of the publication Tools for Success published in January 07, designed to help educators and administrators in addressing the needs of children with disabilities caught in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems.

FCF began collaborating with the North American Counsel on Adoptable Children on issues arising from and related to adoption of children from the foster care system.  That work continues

FCF was invited to and did participate in, drafting policy papers for the Children’s Campaign, the Children’s Summit and other groups working on abuse and neglect issues.

FCF is currently participating with the Child Welfare League of America in a special project they are doing on “crossover kids” – children who find themselves in both the DCF and DJJ systems.

FCF developed a strong working relationship with ARC Florida on issues concerning children with developmental disabilities in the child welfare system with plans to expand to the juvenile justice system.

FCF, in conjunction with the GAL Transitioning Youth Project in Miami Dade developed and delivered in conjunction with other legal services providers  a “know your rights” training for 121 young adults and wrote a FAQ package now used statewide.

FCF, listening to the Youth Shine members, has begun working with Neighborhood Lending Partners, Inc. on a micro-loan program for the transitioning youth.

FCF provides support to private attorneys acting pro bono, to children’s legal services programs funded by the Florida Bar Foundation, to the Guardian Ad Litem Program and to the Attorney Ad Litem Pilot Project in Pinellas County.

   FCF continues to build partnerships and coalitions creating a constituency for the children of Florida.