Tampabay: Agency fostered abuse of kids, lawsuit alleges

A state-funded agency sent children into abusive foster homes, falsified records, failed to report new cases of abuse and allowed foster parents to swap children, according to a lawsuit filed this week.

And when workers at another agency complained, their employer fired them, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit alleges that the Family Continuity Program, which handles foster care and other programs in Pinellas and Pasco counties, violated some of the most basic rules for ensuring the safety of abused and neglected children.

That's an explosive charge, because the Family Continuity Program works under contract for the Department of Children and Families, the state agency that this year came under a firestorm of criticism for many similar problems.

"It's just appalling what was going on in the system," said Sherry Crader, one of the two plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

Department of Children and Families spokeswoman Shawnna Donovan said, "We are aware of the allegations, and the allegations are currently being investigated by the inspector general's office."

The Family Continuity Program is not the agency being sued, but is nonetheless mentioned in the lawsuit. When asked about the specific allegations, Jeff Richard, the program's executive director, said, "I'm not aware of anything like that happening."

The lawsuit says the Family Continuity Program:

-- In some cases falsified records to make it appear that workers had visited foster children to check on their well-being.

-- Had a "systematic and intentional" failure to report new cases of abuse against the children it supervised.

-- Allowed foster children "to remain in abusive homes."

-- In one case, permitted two sets of foster families to swap children without court approval.

The lawsuit was filed against Family Resources, a counseling agency in Pinellas. The plaintiffs are two former Family Resources employees: Crader, who was a counselor, and Linda Darin, the former clinical supervisor.

The Family Continuity Program hired Family Resources to provide counseling to families and children under the state's supervision because of abuse or neglect.

In an interview, Crader and Darin said they were among a group of about five Family Resources employees who repeatedly complained to their supervisors about Family Continuity Program's actions over a period of months. Most of their complaints concerned employees in the program's Palm Harbor office.

But the complaints never seemed to go anywhere, Crader and Darin said. So this summer, they and other employees decided to take their concerns to the top, and met with Family Resources president and chief executive officer Jane Harper. Shortly afterward, Crader, Darin and counselor Robin Stewart, who is not a plaintiff in this lawsuit, were fired, the lawsuit says.

Both Crader and Darin had received positive performance reviews from Family Resources, the suit said. A manager told Crader "she was in fact doing good work and her termination was necessitated because FCP did not trust her," according to the lawsuit. Darin was given a similar reason.

The lawsuit claims Crader and Darin were fired in retaliation for their complaints about wrongdoing, which is prohibited under Florida law. The plaintiffs' attorney, Mike Alden, said Family Resources apparently did not aggressively pursue the complaints because it wanted to keep its state-financed contract through the Family Continuity Program.

"We emphatically deny these allegations. I've been here a long time, and these allegations are completely contrary to anything that we're about," Harper said. "We will vigorously defend ourselves."

However, she said she could not discuss personnel matters, and declined to say why Crader and Darin were fired.

Family Resources is one of several agencies that work under contract with the Family Continuity Program, which now handles most of the state-funded child welfare work in Pinellas and Pasco. Richard, the program's executive director, said these agencies know to share information about anything improper. He also said counselors should know that if they discover new cases of abuse, they are required to report it to the state.

The Family Continuity Program and Family Resources are handling work that once was performed largely by state workers in DCF. The Florida Legislature and Gov. Jeb Bush have championed the idea of giving contracts to local agencies to do much of the social service work once handled by the state.

Proponents say this approach, called privatization or "community-based care," strengthens programs by giving local agencies more control. Crader and Darin say it's not working out that way.

-- Curtis Krueger can be reached at krueger@sptimes.com or by calling (727) 893-8232.

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