FL Chief Regier admits to *needless* foster care Florida DCF

[Fern5827]

Subject: Re: DCF Chief Regier admits kids taken *needlessly* Florida
From: Greegor@hotmail.com (Greg Hanson)
Date: 3/6/2004 8:39 PM Eastern Standard Time
Message-id: <35120b16.0403061739.a8fd93e@posting.google.com>

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/co...paper/editions
/today/news_0494d5134388f10f000a.html

Children taken from parents 'needlessly,' DCF chief says

By Kathleen Chapman, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 6, 2004

The state's top child welfare official says Florida is too quick to
take children from troubled families, and his department is moving to
change that.

When faced with tough decisions on whether parents might harm their
children, investigators removed the child instead of helping the
family, Department of Children and Families Secretary Jerry Regier
said.

His goal is to reduce the number of children in foster homes by taking
only those children believed to be in imminent danger. "I think that
too many children in our system have been, and continue to be, removed
needlessly," he said.

When Regier took over the troubled state agency in September 2002, he
pledged to reduce the number of children in foster care 25 percent by
June. He isn't likely to meet that target. But for the first time in
recent years, the number of children in Florida foster care has inched
down -- from 34,432 in July 2002 to 31,237 in January.

On March 15, Palm Beach County will start an $800,000 pilot project in
Riviera Beach, allowing some parents to keep their children if they
enter a voluntary diversion program.

With the push from Regier, the number of children living apart from
their parents in Palm Beach County has dropped from 1,920 in July 2002
to 1,630. In the Treasure Coast, it fell from 1,072 to 889.

Child advocates say the philosophy represents a major change in how
DCF does business. They have reservations but say the plan is a
sensible response to the failures of the past.

In 1998, when DCF failed to prevent the murder of 6-year-old Kayla
McKean by her father, the legislature responded by making it easier
for caseworkers to remove children. For years, decisions were guided
by fear, Regier said.

"Staff have told me it was made clear to them, if any mistakes in
judgment would be made, they were the ones who were going to pay."

In response to the pressure, caseworkers took every child with any
chance of risk. But many now say that practice overwhelmed staff with
so many trivial cases, they had no time to focus on endangered
children. And more children died.

Richard Wexler, a national advocate for the reduction of children in
foster care, said Florida's response will succeed only if it is done
in the right way. If he is going to keep children home, Regier must
increase money spent on services to help vulnerable families.

Gov. Jeb Bush asked for $58 million for the Healthy Families child
abuse prevention program this year, a $4 million increase. That's not
enough for widespread reform -- "a tiny, token increase," Wexler
called it.

Still, he said it is clear Florida is taking too many children from
their parents. In the 2002 federal fiscal year, the state removed 33.1
children for every 1,000 children in poverty, compared with 25.7
nationwide.

John Walsh, a supervising attorney with The Foster Children's Project
with Legal Aid, is tentatively optimistic. He said he trusts local
leaders but fears the push to get kids out of foster care is in part
driven by the governor's desire to make foster-care services private.

Private agencies won't take on the state contracts if there are too
many kids and not enough money. Reducing the number of kids in foster
care is one way to cut costs and make contracts more attractive to
private agencies, Walsh said.

Robert Barker, who heads the private agency taking over from DCF, said
reducing the number of kids in care is good for children and state
budgets. Barker said his not-for-profit agency spends 60 percent of
its budget to pay for kids taken from their parents. It would be
better for families, he said, if that same money could be spent to
help more families stay together.






DESCRIPTORS; DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES, FLORIDA, CPS, FOSTER CARE,
ADOPTION, KINSHIP CARE, CHILD PROTECTIVE, ASFA, CAPTA, CHILD ABUSE, NEGLECT