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BROOKSVILLE - An independent panel chided the Department of Children and Families for failing to heed warning signs of an abusive environment that led a 10-year-old girl to shrink to 29 pounds over four years.
The state agency released the report Tuesday, which highlights a series of systematic failures and a pattern of "torture and starvation" that nearly delivered the girl to death's doorstep.
Although DCF has acknowledged that it failed to protect the children, the 25-page report points out exactly where the state agency went wrong. It cites the failure of caseworkers to visit regularly and question the foster parents.
The four-person panel did not recommend disciplinary actions. Agency spokesman Bill Spann said DCF has implemented some of the panel's recommendations.
Foster parents Lori and Arthur Allain face criminal charges of neglect and abuse of the children. They were arrested in June, not long after the state removed the 10-year-old and her 14-year-old half-brother in May.
The Allains denied Tuesday that they abused the girl. They say the state agency didn't adequately train and prepare them to care for the special needs of the children, who were neglected by their biological mother.