State lawmakersplan to propose legislation aimed at reining in the Florida Department of Children and Families. The move comes in the wake of a scathing grand jury report, released Aug. 31 in Ocala, that criticizes the agency's record of protecting children and the elderly in the region made up of Marion, Lake, Sumter, Citrus and Hernando counties.
The 10-page grand jury report includes a long list of recommendations that the panel offered to help cure what it sees as an agency that is "failing catastrophically" in its duty to protect children and the elderly.
One of the lawmakers preparing the legislation is state Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Pensacola. He says that for too long, DCF has been permitted to operate "cloaked in the guise of confidentiality."
Given a peek beneath that cloak, the grand jury in the state's 5th Judicial Circuit discovered what the senator described as "a damning litany of failures" that included the wrongful termination of parental rights, grossly incompetent case work, cruel treatment of children, unqualified clinical personnel and the wasteful and improper use of funds, Gaetz said in a news release.
At a Sept. 4 news conference held in the Santa Rosa County Courthouse in conjunction with a child custody hearing in a case that has captured public interest, Gaetz, accompanied by Miami-area Sen. Jason Pizzo, outlined a plan to introduce a bill or bills intended to rein in DCF.
"We have been listening to law enforcement, medical authorities, to professional caregivers, to religious leaders and parents," Gaetz said.
He said the legislation is still being drafted, but outlined 10 provisions he was confident will appear in the final document.
How Gaetz legislation would impact DCF
The Gaetz proposal,as laid out at the press conference, would limit the scope of DCF power as related to the termination of parental rights, its freedom to solicit contractors to perform agency duties, and its control over dependency cases.
The legislation would seek to streamline statewide the training of investigators and case workers.
"A family's rights should not depend on what county they live in," Gaetz said. "The professionalism of state employees, case review, documentation transparency and accountability should be the same."
Likewise, Gaetz said, therapists, counselors, medical providers and others who treat or provide services to children will be required to hold qualification certification.
"Agencies or contractors that fail to verify credentials or allow unqualified individuals to provide services should suffer fines and contract cancellation," he said.
Gaetz said provisions he wants to add will carry forward groundbreaking work done under a bill passed last year to createPatterson's Law, legislation that assists parents whose children have been removed from their home to obtain access to medical exams and opinions.
"That was a step forward," Gaetz said of Patterson's Law. "It was a step taken last year that if it had not been, we certainly would be rolling it into this bill. It is good legislation, but doesn't solve all the problems the grand jury articulated."
Under the Gaetz plan parents will be granted due process without fear of reprisal in cases where the termination of parental rights is at stake. Due process would allow a parent the right to present evidence, dispute inaccurate information and challenge agency actions.
Holding DCF accountable through civil and criminal courts
It would eliminate sovereign immunity, a provision that allows DCF contractors and providers to operate free of the threat of civil suits and criminal prosecutions.
"There should be enforceable legal consequences when misconduct, negligence, false information or system failures harm children and families," Gaetz said.
While allowing the agency to continue its practice of contracting for services, Gaetz's bill, if made law, would bar handing off along with a contract "the state's responsibility and accountability it owes to Florida families."
"Contracts should be based on performance, and contractor performance should be overseen competently by DCF, and DCF should be closely overseen by the Legislature," Gaetz told an assembled group of about 50 people that included elected officials, media members, children and victim advocates and those who say they bore witness to being caught up in the DCF bureaucracy.
Gaetz said his bill or bills, he has not yet determined how his legislative package will look in final form, would also call for legal consequences for DCF personnel, contractors, providers and others who falsify or alter documents or provide false information to the courts.
Under Gaetz's proposal, high-level DCF personnel would also shoulder greater responsibility for the care of children and agency finances would be scrutinized more closely.
"The decision by DCF to ask the court to terminate parental rights should not be made by a low-level bureaucrat," Gaetz said. "A termination of parental rights decision should be reviewed and approved by the secretary of DCF, who is appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate."
Pirro, a lawyer and former prosecutor, said state statute holds the weight of a judge's decision to terminate the rights of a parent under only that of handing down a death sentence.
Gaetz's call for greater financial scrutiny follows, he said, a forensic audit that discovered "a lead agency contracted by DCF" had been doling out excessive executive compensation while deploying improper procurement policies.
"The law should clearly prevent these improper and wasteful practices," Gaetz said. "Child welfare funds should be spent for child welfare."
Closing the distance between foster homes and parents
The press conference was held even as a hearing in the case of Joy Zuraff was being heard. Pizzo, the senator and attorney from Miami, had signed on to represent Zuraff, who had been battling for two years to regain custody of her child.
The child, who was returned home June 10, was removed by DCF to a foster home in Jacksonville, which Pizzo said created a terrible situation for a single mom trying to see her child.
"It's a system set up to fail, forcing a mother to drive six hours each way just to visit her child," he said. "Shame on all of us," he added, laying blame at the feet of the Florida Legislature for not providing better oversight of DCF.
"We've uncovered a lot of problems, and a lot of those are our fault," he said.
Under the Gaetz bill, which he will co-sponsor with Pirro and Senators Jennifer Bradley and Erin Grall, steps will be taken to ensure children can no longer be relocated so far from home as Zuraff's daughter was.
"Children should never be unnecessarily removed, hospitalized or separated from their families by hundreds of miles because DCF cannot or will not locate a safe, appropriate, foster placement," Gaetz said. "The practice of DCF removing a child from the local judicial circuit creates a huge barrier to unification with her family."
Gaetz warned those in attendance that moving the legislation he has proposed through the Florida Legislature could prove difficult as it is likely to encounter fierce resistance from entities that profit from DCF operating the way it has for years.
"A fellow legislator once likened taking on DCF to a trip into the Okefenokee Swamp. Many have entered and many are lost," he said. "There are few happy endings."
Kids Central is the lead child welfare agency in the five counties covered in the grand jury report. When asked by the Ocala Star-Banner for comment on the report, the agency noted that it "does not administer Adult Protective Services, Child Protective Investigations, or the Florida Abuse Hotline. Therefore, we cannot comment on cases or recommendations from the grand jury specific to those systems."
"From our perspective," Kids Central went on to say in a statement, "priorities should emphasize a robust and effective system designed to prevent child maltreatment and provision of funding necessary to retain a well-trained and supported workforce, effective supervisory oversight, and continuous quality improvement. Finally, we support the thoughtful consideration of reforms that strengthen child safety and accountability."
Tom McLaughlin has been covering Northwest Florida since 1998. Stories focus on government accountability, growth and development, environmental issues, Triumph Gulf Coast and offshore drilling.
Jim Ross and Austin L. Miller contributed to this story
This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: Florida lawmakers plan legislation after scathing grand jury report
