Too many foster kids reabused, report says

Too many foster kids reabused, report says
By CURTIS KRUEGER, Times Staff Writer
Published January 28, 2004
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A new state report slams Florida's child welfare programs for failing
to properly protect children and train caseworkers, even though the
system already is undergoing a massive redesign.
The report, which says too many children who have been abused are
"reabused" while in foster care, provides more evidence that Gov. Jeb
Bush's plan to privatize the child welfare system is proving more
challenging than originally hoped.
According to the analytic arm of the Florida Legislature, the number
of children reported as reabused while in foster care or other forms
of state supervision was 7.3 percent in the second quarter of 2002 and
rose to 9.7 percent by the end of that year. In the first quarter of
2003 it was 9.1 percent.
All of those figures exceed the state's goal of 7 percent and the
federal government's standard of 6.1 percent for reabuse.
The report, prepared by the Office of Program Policy Analysis and
Government Accountability, also says that DCF has failed to clearly
define the roles of two different types of caseworkers: investigators
who pursue abuse claims and decide whether children must be removed
from their homes; and others who work with parents on plans for
regaining custody of their children. It says the two kinds of workers
- often employed by different agencies - sometimes fail to work
closely together and help families avoid having their children
removed.
As an example, the statewide report cites the Pinellas-Pasco area,
where foster care services are coordinated by Family Continuity
Programs, which works under a DCF contract.
"The number of children removed from their homes rose 39 percent while
the number of investigations rose 10 percent between July 2000 and
June 2002," the report states. Putting all these children into foster
care burdens the system and "shifts dollars away from services
designed to maintain children in their homes."
April Putzulu, spokeswoman for Family Continuity, noted that her
agency had recently hired many new caseworkers and decreased caseloads
substantially. "We hope to greatly lower our removal rate. We're
already seeing changes in that area," she said.
Beth Englander, DCF's director of child welfare and community-based
care, acknowledged the report does "identify a number of areas that we
need to pay particular attention to." But she said the agency in April
implemented a series of improvement plans throughout the state that
should provide better monitoring and more attention to high-quality
standards for caseworkers and their supervisors.
The policy analysis office's report also criticized the state for its
training centers, which it said do not provide new caseworkers with
real-world, hands-on training.
Bush and the Florida Legislature have embraced the idea of taking
child welfare work away from state employees and into the hands of
smaller agencies, generally nonprofits and in some cases, sheriff's
departments.
This means the state Department of Children and Families is becoming
an agency that buys services and keeps watch on those who provide
them. But the quality controls have proved haphazard and must be
improved with a new system that is now under development, the report
states.
"State oversight of a privatized system is critical," it says.
http://www.sptimes.com/2004/01/28/St...er_kids_.shtml