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The agency's new secretary wants an extra $474-million for new programs, additional workers and better pay.
©Associated Press
September 18, 2002
TALLAHASSEE -- Florida needs to hire more people to investigate reports of child abuse and pay them better, the new head of the state Department of Children and Families said Tuesday.
DCF Secretary Jerry Regier said he will recommend that state lawmakers next year boost his agency's $3.6-billion budget by $474-million.
"It's a large request, but we're in crisis," Regier told reporters.
Regier wants to devote more than $200-million of the increase he's seeking to child welfare programs, which now account for $860-million of the department's budget.
Criticism of the department has mounted since April, when the disappearance of a 5-year-old Miami girl under DCF supervision, Rilya Wilson, came to light. The agency also has faced questions about its handling of several other children under state care who have died since April and its inability to find missing children.
Gov. Jeb Bush appointed Regier to take over the department after Kathleen Kearney resigned last month. The new secretary has been on the job for a week and a half.
Regier's budget request goes to the governor's office, which will make its own budget recommendation in mid January. State lawmakers will make the real decisions next spring when they write the state budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
The proposal submitted by Regier includes $89-million to hire more workers to investigate child abuse and conduct background screenings, and $48-million to boost the salaries of front line workers.
"My initial assessment is that what the agency probably needs more than anything else is to stabilize the work force," Regier said, pointing to a persistent turnover rate of more than 50 percent.
The average pay for a front line child abuse worker is $30,000 now. Regier wants to increase that to $34,000.
Regier cautioned that he has only been on the job for 10 days and may revise his recommendations. He also said he will be looking for solutions that the agency can implement this year, not next summer.
Earlier Tuesday, Bush said higher salaries will help reduce employee turnover and plug cracks in the system that children can fall through.
"That will be the most dramatic immediate impact on quality," the governor said after conducting open office hours in Arcadia.
But Bush also said the agency would focus more on preventing abuse and neglect of children.
"We're being more cautious, we're checking more cases, but it puts huge strains on the system. Maybe lessons learned over the last few years will allow us to recalibrate that," Bush said. "I think you're going to find a shift to a more balanced approach."
Regier has proposed spending $70-million on prevention programs, including community grants and Healthy Families, a program that offers home visits to parents of newborns with risk factors for abuse, such as teenage parents and low-income households.
State Sen. Jim King, who will become Senate president in November, said he's glad Regier is being proactive in addressing the problems and hopes to work with him. But the Jacksonville Republican said he's expecting one of the tightest budget years in a decade.
Jack Levine, president of the Center for Florida's Children, praised the budget proposal and said Regier had passed an important test "by proposing a budget that meets the critical needs of this department."