Kathleen Kearney has resigned as secretary of the Department of Children and Families, but the problems that have made themselves so painfully obvious these last few months -- the ones underlying the awful failures that proved to be her undoing -- are still there. Kearney's departure solves nothing unless Gov. Jeb Bush chooses a strong successor and works quickly with lawmakers to give that person the resources he or she will need to address the agency's systemic flaws.

A strong and compassionate children's advocate, Kearney may have contributed to DCF's problems through her management, but she did not cause them. To the contrary, those problems -- overloaded caseworkers, inadequate funding, not enough prevention -- have a long and thoroughly tragic history in Florida.

The guessing game is on, and everyone is wondering who will succeed Kearney in what has to be the toughest -- and in some ways, most thankless -- job in state government. But the better question may be:

Will it really make any difference?

Bush has an opportunity -- and responsibility -- to reassure Floridians that the answer to that plaintive cry is yes. He needs to demonstrate, with specific words and plans, that the new DCF head will have more support, tools and financial backing than Kearney ever enjoyed. After the long string of child tragedies and embarrassments Floridians have had to endure, Bush's appointment should be the first -- not last -- move the governor makes to restore confidence in the troubled agency.

That confidence took another big hit earlier this week when Florida learned that reporters were able to do what DCF swore it could not: find runaway foster children. By using mostly public records (and that most antiquated of tools, the telephone), the South Florida Sun-Sentinel found nine children long on the state's missing list -- two in less than three hours. Four brothers, missing since January, turned up within a mile from DCF's offices. Another boy, missing for eight years, was tracked to the Dominican Republic through three simple phone calls.

Unfortunately, Bush responded to the news with the same tentativeness that has characterized his actions of late.

"That troubles me a lot," Bush said Monday. "It does suggest that we need a new approach."

Suggest? Like all the others before them, the latest revelations cry out for a new approach -- and a new level of state commitment -- in locating missing foster children and ensuring their well-being once they are found. It is enough of an outrage that DCF "loses" so many of its kids in the first place. It's inexcusable when those children remain lost, considering how little it might take to find them.

A multitude of people cry out for caseworkers' attentions, and DCF cannot keep foster kids under constant lock and key. But these are children who have been taken from their biological parents and, as such, are the legal and moral responsibility of the state. Bush and Florida's lawmakers need to stop giving lip service to child protection and start developing and funding a plan that actually provides it.

To his credit, Bush showed leadership early on by convening a blue-ribbon panel and ordering visits to all foster children. But he has increasingly used the panel's report as a shield, not a sword. Bush has made clear what he won't do -- i.e., call a special session; support the convening of a grand jury; commit to reforms that cost money -- and been awkwardly silent on what he will do. Bush needs to articulate a better strategy for protecting all foster children, knowing that the problems inside the system are tied to those that push runaways out of it: too few caseworkers with too many kids and too little time for each; too few places for foster kids to go; and too much abuse once they get there or return there.

As late as Tuesday, Bush was alternating between defending Kearney and conceding that "we can do a lot better than we have been." Thanks to Kearney's resignation, he no longer has to worry about circling the wagons around his embattled DCF chief. But Bush and Florida's lawmakers still face the task of convincing Floridians that when they express alarm over the state of child welfare, they are doing more than merely blowing smoke.

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