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Report concludes problems persist at child agencyBy Associated Press, © St. Petersburg Times published April 26, 2003
MIAMI - A year after Florida's child welfare agency acknowledged that caseworkers lost track of foster child Rilya Wilson, a report found continuing problems with child abuse investigations, foster care and preparing foster kids for adulthood in the same district that lost track of Rilya. The report said the largest district of the Department of Children and Families is so focused on responding to emergencies that workers have little time to focus on the welfare of children in state care. "The Department of Children and Families should not be only the family fire department that rushes in with sirens blaring when there is a tragedy," child advocate Jack Levine said Friday. "The DCF should also be a prevention agency." A year ago, the department revealed that Rilya, then 5, had been missing for 15 months before agency officials took action. In another case a few months later, a caseworker filed a report saying a 2-year-old boy was fine, when he had been beaten to death before the date on the report. The new evaluation, released Thursday by DCF Secretary Jerry Regier, included a plan for revamping the district. Regier said the district, which includes Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, has to rebuild. "We have pretty much had a crisis mentality within the department, and for good reason, given the events that have taken place," Regier told the Miami Herald. The report said the DCF's "emphasis is largely on meeting deadlines, responding to requirements that are currently under scrutiny by advocates, management or the media, and responding to immediate crises." As a result, "little overall attention is given to the core issues of child well-being and improving families' abilities to care for their own children." The Miami district's interim administrator, Samara H. Kramer, said in a statement Friday that she is hopeful the report "will pave the way for improved child safety, permanency and well being." Meanwhile, Regier praised his staff for cutting the state's backlog of open child abuse investigations by more than half since September. The department also has established a missing children's investigative unit in each DCF district that works with law enforcement to locate runaways or foster kids who have been abducted by their parents, he said. l  © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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