Posted on Sun, May. 12, 2002
Despite repeated reviews, child welfare crises persist
BY AMY DRISCOLL AND CAROL MARBIN MILLER
[email protected]
Florida's troubled child welfare agency has been amply studied; no fewer than 11 special panels have been convened in 15 years.
Legislators, too, have periodically taken aim at the agency. They've bulked it up and slimmed it down, centralized and decentralized through four governorships -- two Republican, two Democrat.
Even the agency's name has gone on the chopping block. In 1996, the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services became the Department of Children & Families.
But all of the rearranging and reorganization has come down to this: The current chief of the agency is facing the same accusation as her predecessors -- a fundamental failure to protect Florida's children.
''The reason I believe there is this recurrent compulsion to study our child welfare system and change the laws that apply to it and rename it is because, at the core, we've got ourselves a deep and a dark secret,'' said Jack Levine, president of the Center for Florida's Children. ''Florida has never really wanted to deal with its social-service problems, especially those involving poor families and poor children. We have a legacy of neglect in this state.''
Rilya Wilson, age 5, is the department's latest gut-wrenching failure. Assigned to foster care, she was missing for 15 months before the state noticed. Miami-Dade County police are investigating the case as a homicide, after officials said the child's caseworker falsified reports to a juvenile judge regarding Rilya's well-being.
.....
But the reviews of study panels are mixed at best. Charles Mahan, dean of the University of South Florida's College of Public Health, has served on two blue-ribbon panels in the past decade. He expects little to come of Bush's most recent panel, headed by Miami-Dade County child advocate David Lawrence Jr., a former Herald publisher.
''If I was going to be appointed to another panel, I would ask for a guarantee up front that they would actually act on all of our recommendations and spend the money that should be spent,'' Mahan said. ''Otherwise, really, why waste your time?''
For full story http://www.miami.com/mld/miami/news/3245828.htm
Florida Child Welfare Crisis
A
Andrea
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Posted on Sun, May. 12, 2002
Despite repeated reviews, child welfare crises persist
BY AMY DRISCOLL AND CAROL MARBIN MILLER
[email protected]
Florida's troubled child welfare agency has been amply studied; no fewer than 11 special panels have been convened in 15 years.
Legislators, too, have periodically taken aim at the agency. They've bulked it up and slimmed it down, centralized and decentralized through four governorships -- two Republican, two Democrat.
Even the agency's name has gone on the chopping block. In 1996, the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services became the Department of Children & Families.
But all of the rearranging and reorganization has come down to this: The current chief of the agency is facing the same accusation as her predecessors -- a fundamental failure to protect Florida's children.
''The reason I believe there is this recurrent compulsion to study our child welfare system and change the laws that apply to it and rename it is because, at the core, we've got ourselves a deep and a dark secret,'' said Jack Levine, president of the Center for Florida's Children. ''Florida has never really wanted to deal with its social-service problems, especially those involving poor families and poor children. We have a legacy of neglect in this state.''
Rilya Wilson, age 5, is the department's latest gut-wrenching failure. Assigned to foster care, she was missing for 15 months before the state noticed. Miami-Dade County police are investigating the case as a homicide, after officials said the child's caseworker falsified reports to a juvenile judge regarding Rilya's well-being.
.....
But the reviews of study panels are mixed at best. Charles Mahan, dean of the University of South Florida's College of Public Health, has served on two blue-ribbon panels in the past decade. He expects little to come of Bush's most recent panel, headed by Miami-Dade County child advocate David Lawrence Jr., a former Herald publisher.
''If I was going to be appointed to another panel, I would ask for a guarantee up front that they would actually act on all of our recommendations and spend the money that should be spent,'' Mahan said. ''Otherwise, really, why waste your time?''
For full story http://www.miami.com/mld/miami/news/3245828.htm
Despite repeated reviews, child welfare crises persist
BY AMY DRISCOLL AND CAROL MARBIN MILLER
[email protected]
Florida's troubled child welfare agency has been amply studied; no fewer than 11 special panels have been convened in 15 years.
Legislators, too, have periodically taken aim at the agency. They've bulked it up and slimmed it down, centralized and decentralized through four governorships -- two Republican, two Democrat.
Even the agency's name has gone on the chopping block. In 1996, the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services became the Department of Children & Families.
But all of the rearranging and reorganization has come down to this: The current chief of the agency is facing the same accusation as her predecessors -- a fundamental failure to protect Florida's children.
''The reason I believe there is this recurrent compulsion to study our child welfare system and change the laws that apply to it and rename it is because, at the core, we've got ourselves a deep and a dark secret,'' said Jack Levine, president of the Center for Florida's Children. ''Florida has never really wanted to deal with its social-service problems, especially those involving poor families and poor children. We have a legacy of neglect in this state.''
Rilya Wilson, age 5, is the department's latest gut-wrenching failure. Assigned to foster care, she was missing for 15 months before the state noticed. Miami-Dade County police are investigating the case as a homicide, after officials said the child's caseworker falsified reports to a juvenile judge regarding Rilya's well-being.
.....
But the reviews of study panels are mixed at best. Charles Mahan, dean of the University of South Florida's College of Public Health, has served on two blue-ribbon panels in the past decade. He expects little to come of Bush's most recent panel, headed by Miami-Dade County child advocate David Lawrence Jr., a former Herald publisher.
''If I was going to be appointed to another panel, I would ask for a guarantee up front that they would actually act on all of our recommendations and spend the money that should be spent,'' Mahan said. ''Otherwise, really, why waste your time?''
For full story http://www.miami.com/mld/miami/news/3245828.htm
