State grapples with its child protective services

THE ISSUE: DCF reacts to rash of fatal child abuse cases.
March 21, 2011

Here we go again. Another series of press conferences by Florida's top child-welfare administrators left to explain the horrific deaths of young children, deaths that might have been prevented if the people and programs responsible for protecting abused children hadn't missed the obvious signs.

Granted, Florida Department of Children & Families Secretary David E. Wilkins and his staff are in a tough spot. The deaths of 10-year-old Nubia Barahona of Miami Dade County and, to a lesser degree, 10-year-old Jermaine McNeil, and his sister, 6-year-old Ju'Tyra Allen, in Palm Beach County, have put a harsh spotlight on the state's abilities to uncover child abuse and to provide rehabilitative services once that discovery is made.

Unfortunately, the department's reaction — staff dismissals, the promise of improvements and particularly the remorse — sounds all too familiar, and unsatisfyingly frustrating. Worse still is the reality that DCF has little leverage over the network of community-based care organizations that conduct the lion's share of Florida's child welfare services.

Ideally, Florida's child protective and child welfare system is supposed to work like this: FULL STORY

Ideally, the agencies would apply the Federal Law-

42 U.S.C. § 671 (a) (15) Reasonable Efforts
http://familyrights.us/42usc/671.html#15

and
42 U.S.C. § 671 (a) (19) Relative Placement
http://familyrights.us/42usc/671.html#19