DCF's reports routinely faked, witnesses said

A DCF official says the depositions from current and ex-DCF workers were old and inaccurate.

©Associated Press
May 16, 2002

Several current and former employees in Florida's child welfare system have testified that counselors routinely falsified reports of visits to foster children, attorneys suing the state said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Gov. Jeb Bush signed a bill that makes it a felony for state workers to falsify such records, and a judge appearing before an investigative panel formed following the disappearance of 5-year-old Rilya Wilson criticized the performance of caseworkers.

In West Palm Beach, attorneys released portions of depositions from Palm Beach County workers who detailed problems ranging from failure to visit children to removing children from their homes and placing them in abusive foster homes.

"I have heard of foster care counselors . . . who have reported that they have seen 100 percent of their children, and that's not true," Sandra Owen, a former Department of Children and Families programs director, said in a deposition taken last September.

"I think it's more endemic to the system than just simple dishonesty," said Owen, who left DCF to run a West Palm Beach organization that provides shelter for children in state custody.

George Rahaim, a psychologist who provides services to the department, said the agency is structured in a way that "life is easier for the worker who leaves the child at risk in the home."

Other depositions detailed a survey the department conducted that showed required monthly visits were made to only 8 percent of Palm Beach children in state custody. The survey showed that 21 percent of the children in the district were placed in abusive or negligent foster homes.

DCF district administrator David May said the data were old and not very accurate.

He said the figures were based on a sample of 20 to 30 children and were compiled more than two years ago, before he took over.

"We need credibility, and all of this, particularly dredging up old depositions that were based on still older data, doesn't help with that," May said.

Lawyers Theodore Babbitt and Bob Montgomery sued the state and Bush in June 2000, hoping the federal government would step in and oversee the DCF. A federal judge recently threw out the suit, saying the court had no jurisdiction. The attorneys are appealing the decision.

"It's not an individual problem -- it's not one caseworker who is falsifying records -- it's a system that is not working," Babbitt said.

Law on falsifying records

The bill Bush signed in Tallahassee was introduced during a special session this month in response to Rilya's case. The Miami girl was missing for 15 months before DCF knew she was gone. Her caseworker allegedly filed false reports about monthly visits with the child.

The new law makes it a third-degree felony for state workers to falsify records related to children, the elderly or disabled in state care, punishable by up to five years in prison.

If the person under state supervision is seriously hurt or dies because of the fraud, it would be a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

"To falsify records, which is a part of the case of Rilya Wilson, won't happen again without penalties," Bush said.

But the governor expressed confidence in the agency and its workers, saying the alleged falsification was likely isolated.

"There are thousands of really, really good public servants that work in the Department of Children and Families," said Bush.

System under pressure

The DCF caseworker system came under attack Wednesday in Miami at a hearing of the governor's blue-ribbon panel examining the state's performance in Rilya's disappearance.

"There is no safety net because of lack of supervision," said Circuit Judge Jeri Cohen, who hears DCF cases in Miami every day. Rilya's case, with 15 months of missing monthly visits, is a prime example, "and we knew that," she said.

"You can't do this without money. You have to dedicate more resources," Cohen said. But she said she is pessimistic that the Legislature will address the problems soon because things in Tallahassee "sit on shelves."

Caseworkers are generally overloaded, poorly trained and don't have the resources to do their jobs, she said.

"There are some very good ones out there," she said. "But many of them don't have the background, education, cultural sensitivity to do what needs to be done."

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