Cindy Lederman is mad, and she's not gonna take it anymore. After years of watching the Department of Children and Families fail to prepare aging foster children for life on their own, the Miami juvenile judge last week took the unprecedented step of appointing a panel of citizen experts to investigate DCF's deficient performance.
"This court believes, after handling hundreds of cases for many years, that the (DCF) is not in compliance with either the state or federal laws relating to emancipation services for children aging out of foster care," wrote a frustrated Lederman.
Lederman has every reason to be fed up. By law, DCF is supposed to prepare foster teens for adulthood by offering life-skills training before they age out of the system. It also is supposed to provide a stipend to help toward rent once they are old enough. But as child advocates have long warned, many foster children are kicked out at the required age of 18 with no home and no help. They are left to fend for themselves on Florida's streets, where a higher percentage turn to crime - or become victims of it.
"Those of us who work in the child welfare world have seen our children on this tragic path too many times," Lederman said.
Leaders across Florida should want to hear what the panel says when it issues its report in late September. Lawmakers last spring tried to strengthen the "Road to Independence" program but appropriated no new money. It's no wonder that many foster teens are being failed by the system - and failing to become productive adults.
When will the state realize that neglecting aging foster children is as financially unwise as it is morally unacceptable? Perhaps not until more people like Lederman say, "Enough."
