Gay couple's custody of sisters unresolved
Caseworkers are criticized for not working hard enough to adopt out two children whose foster parents are gay men.
By CURTIS KRUEGER
Published July 17, 2004
LARGO - Foster care caseworkers did a poor job of seeking parents willing to adopt two sisters before the state gave long-term custody to two gay men, several people testified Friday.
"I was definitely shocked and disappointed," after reviewing the sparse documentation of efforts to find adoptive families for the girls, said Kelly Rossi, a staff advocate with the guardian ad litem office.
A complaint from a prospective adoptive family to the governor's office sparked the state to take a new look at the case, officials said Friday.
Now the question before Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Irene Sullivan is whether the state should try again to find adoptive parents for the two girls - a step that could pull them out of the home where they have lived for more than a year, where all sides agree they are flourishing.
The girls already have been told they are living in their "forever home," noted Rossi, whose job is to advocate in the girls' best interest. She said she worried about the effects of changing that arrangement now.
"I just don't think you do that to children," she said.
Curtis Watson, 40, is a licensed foster parent who lives in Seminole with his life partner, who is in his 40s and did not wish to be identified. They are raising the two girls, ages 5 and 6, as their daughters. Watson also is the foster parent for four other children.
Florida law bans gay or lesbian people from adopting children, but it does not prevent a gay person from serving as a foster parent.
Earlier this year, Sullivan approved a different arrangement for Watson and his partner, which caseworkers had strongly supported. On March 18 a court order granted the men "long-term, non-relative custody" of the two girls, whose own mother and father lost their parental rights because of abuse or neglect allegations.
This step effectively made Watson and his partner parents of the girls, although it is not as final as adoption.
But after agreeing to this arrangement initially, the state Department of Children and Families now says it erred. Assistant Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Dane DiSano said caseworkers did not work vigorously enough to find an adoptive home for the girls and a third sister who is in another home before they agreed to split them up.
Many who testified Friday agreed that caseworkers failed to fully follow all procedures.
Christa Williams-Bruning, a DCF program supervisor, said children so young - ages 3, 4 and 5, in the records she reviewed - can generally be adopted. She said it was unusual for caseworkers to give up on adoption for children that age. And, she said, caseworkers are to work hard to keep siblings together.
Jennifer Scott, a former case manager for Family Continuity Programs, the agency that was supposed to seek adoptive homes, said workers repeatedly discussed the need for a psychological evaluation to determine how it would affect the sisters to be separated for the long-term. But caseworkers ultimately agreed to keep the three girls in two separate homes without doing such an evaluation.
Debra Winfrey of Brandon testified she saw the feature "Wednesday's Child" on WTSP-Ch. 10, which told of the three girls up for adoption, and she and her husband decided they wanted to adopt them. They completed the required training in two months, and tried repeatedly to get Family Continuity to complete a study of their home. When the agency failed to do the study, the Winfreys paid for one themselves. They faxed the study to Family Continuity, which lost it.
Later, the Winfreys were told they weren't suitable adoptive parents for the girls - although she said they have clean criminal records, a good income, a four-bedroom house, and experience raising other children.
When they learned that caseworkers planned to split the girls and put two in a non-adoptive home, they complained to the governor's office. That was what led DCF to review the case and ultimately attempt to reopen it.
Mrs. Winfrey said that at the time of her complaint to the governor, she did not know the couple raising the sisters were gay. But asked Friday if she thought that was appropriate, she said, "No, I do not."
Family Continuity announced in March it was ending its contract with DCF to oversee foster care and adoption in Pinellas and Pasco counties amid many complaints about its inefficiency.
The third and youngest sister is in the home of a foster mother who would like to adopt her. But that adoption has been delayed while this court case continues. The case will resume with another hearing Aug. 23.
Another issue discussed Friday was why the three sisters had been split up, when state rules generally require caseworkers to look for a home that will keep a family together. Testimony indicated that the older girls may have been aggressive toward the younger one, once holding her underwater in a swimming pool.
Watson's partner did not wish to be identified because he fears reprisals for being gay. Respecting that wish, attorneys agreed Friday to refer to the two men in court simply as "legal custodians." Watson has previously allowed himself to be interviewed on the record about the case.
About 30 members of Chapel on the Hill, the church where Watson, his partner and the children attend, crowded into the courtroom in the morning to offer support.