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Just about everyone has a beef with the new federal report blasting Florida's child-protection system. Department of Children and Families officials say the feds relied on dated information, while some child advocates complain their sample size was too small. But even the grousers admit there's no getting around the report's bottom line: Florida's system for protecting and housing abused children is not good enough. Not by a long shot.
The first-ever report, released recently by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, tries to measure how states are faring in seven areas relating to child protection and foster care. Florida scored abysmally, failing in six of the seven. The only consolation - and it's not much - is that Florida is far from alone. Of the 32 states examined thus far, nearly half flunked on all seven measures.
The federal reviewers found Florida's performance woefully inadequate at virtually every point along the foster-care continuum. DCF workers do not respond to child-abuse complaints or interview at-risk children quickly enough; are too lax in monitoring parents suspected of abuse; do not have a sufficient number of safe foster homes, especially for older children; and do not address the educational and mental-health needs of children once they are brought into state care. While the report did document some areas of strength - among them the state's efforts to place children with relatives or in their communities - it reads as a sobering indictment of a system that too often fails to protect its most vulnerable children.
Critics are right that the study could have been more comprehensive. Researchers examined only 50 cases in three Florida counties - one of those three being the fully privatized Sarasota, hardly a representative county. Had more areas of the state been included, no doubt Florida's score would have been even worse. By relying on cases now more than two years old, the review also could not capture the effect, if any, of more recent changes aimed at improving the system.
Still, for all its flaws, the report should not be ignored. Federal authorities have given Florida until April 2005 to show progress. If it cannot do so by then, the state could lose millions of dollars in federal foster-care money. If that happens, Florida's children - as always - will be the ones to pay the price.