Search
Donate

Year After Barahona Tragedy, DCF Says It’s Better Equipped to Spot Troubled Families

Tuesday marks the year anniversary of the Barahona case

By Willard Shepard
|  Tuesday, Feb 14, 2012  |  Updated 2:48 AM EST

On Tuesday, Jorge and Carmen Barahona may find out if they will be in the same courtroom when they face murder charges.

A Miami-Dade judge will determine soon if they should be tried separately. South Florida was shocked when the Barahonas’ alleged crimes came to light a year ago, and since then the state has overhauled their child protective services to spot abuse faster after it was criticized for not detecting the situation in the home.

According to Victor Barahona’s caretaker, he said several times that he thought he was going to die.

A year ago Tuesday, he was found with severe chemical burns in a pickup truck along Interstate 95. His sister’s body was in a plastic bag in the truck.

“To take you back for a year when Barahona happened, our turnover must have been around 40 percent,” said current DCF South Florida director Esther Jacobo.

Jacobo told NBC Miami that much has changed over the last year since the Barahona tragedy was uncovered. Jacobo said child protective investigators are seeing their caseloads drop significantly. Twenty new investigators are on the road responding to calls for help.

Investigator Julio Garcia and his counterparts now carry about 15 cases, down from 50 last year.

“I can access risk and safety in a better quality than I did before,” Garcia said.

“Our investigators all want to do what’s right for kids, and we have to make sure we give them the tools to do that,” Jacobo said.

Pat Smith, an official at Our Kids, the organization that oversees foster care, said technology is giving each case worker the ability to track medical care, to take a picture of a child with a time and date stamp and a location too.

“Whether they are missing school, they collect all that information during a home visit,” said Smith.

But one child advocate said changes really haven’t made much of a difference.

“We’re not able to see the kids of results you want to see. The quality assurance monitoring by the department has revealed huge systemic problems in the our kids system of care,” said Howard Talenfeld, Florida’s Children First president.

DCF and Our Kids insist they are better equipped to spot troubled families like the Barahonas from happening again.

 

Share this article:

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
WhatsApp

Related Posts

Stay In Touch

Sign up for our Newsletter
Board PhotosHeadshots (6)

Alexia Nechayev

FYS Events & Meeting Chair
(Palm Beach/Miami)

Alexia Nechayev, from Miami, Florida, is a dedicated advocate for youth with lived experience in foster care and with homelessness. After being placed in foster care as a teenager, Alexia experienced firsthand the stigma surrounding the system, as well as the challenges of navigating a system that didn’t provide support for her to advocate for herself. This experience motivated her to create change, ensuring that other youth in care have the tools and resources she lacked.

She graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from Florida International University, and upon graduation worked as a Hope Navigator with the Department of Children and Families which allowed her to assist clients through individualized care plans, further deepening her commitment to improving the lives of marginalized youth. Alexia is now applying to law schools with the goal of advancing her advocacy work through a legal career. As the Events and Meetings Chair for Florida Youth SHINE (FYS), she creates opportunities for foster and homeless youth to collaborate and push for meaningful change. She is also an active member of the Policy and Initiative Team for Florida Youth SHINE, where she helps create and shape policies that directly impact youth in foster care. One of her proudest accomplishments is helping to develop the Foster Care Bill of Rights, a law that she feels would have made a difference during her own time in care.

In addition to her work with FYS, Alexia serves on the Board of Directors for the parent organization of FYS, Florida’s Children First. In this role, she contributes to strategic decision-making while advocating for the rights and welfare of children statewide.

Every year, she travels to the state capitol to advocate for bills she and her peers have helped shape, including key pieces of legislation that benefit foster and homeless youth. However her advocacy extends beyond her state, as she represents Florida Youth SHINE at national conferences such as the National Leaders 4 Change Conference.

Through her internship with the National Foster Youth Institute, Alexia continues to refine her advocacy skills, preparing for a future where she can contribute meaningfully to both policymaking and the legal system. Guided by the belief that “the blue sky is always there,” she remains committed to ensuring that every youth in foster care has the power and support to advocate for themselves.

Skip to content