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Finding foster kids

Three years ago, when the disappearance of Miami foster child Rilya Wilson brought Florida national scorn, state leaders sent out the cavalry to find Florida's missing foster children. A multiagency "strike force" went to work and ultimately located nearly three of every four missing children, mostly runaways, in just a few months' time.

Back then, 393 foster kids were missing from state care. Today, that number is 540. Floridians can be forgiven for wondering: So where's the cavalry now?

That question becomes more urgent with each new tragedy, and recent weeks have seen too many. Earlier this fall, child-welfare officials in Miami-Dade were on the hot seat for not doing more to locate a 17-year-old foster runaway, who showed up days later at a local emergency room, where she lapsed into a diabetic coma. A state inspector general criticized previous delays in finding the girl's younger sister, who is still missing from foster care.

Those who think the problem is limited to South Florida should think again. The district that encompasses the state's northeast counties has just about as many episodes of missing foster children as Miami-Dade, according to the most current data. While the majority of the missing are young teens who have fled their foster homes, dozens are younger children taken out of the state illegally or otherwise believed to be in danger. Closer to home, the six-county Suncoast Region, which includes Hillsborough and Pinellas, can boast 17 unresolved cases involving the abduction or endangerment of local foster children.

"When the Department of Children and Families was looking for Rilya under the national spotlight, DCF utilized every resource possible. Now that the media is not paying attention to this issue, they are back to business as usual," Andrea L. Moore, director of the statewide advocacy group Florida's Children First, told the Times.

DCF may no longer be providing frontline casework under Florida's new community-based child-welfare system. But it still has the responsibility to ensure the safety of children in state care. Ironically, finding many missing children may not prove all that difficult, since most foster-care runaways stay in the same county and only a handful get as far as the state line. As the 2002 strike force discovered, many children run away because of poor conditions or abusive treatment in their foster placements. Most run to someone - anyone - they feel cares about them.

Florida needs not only a cavalry to track foster kids once they are gone but also a renewed commitment to tackle the problems that drive them to flee in the first place.

[Last modified November 5, 2005, 01:22:18]