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DCF foster-care crisis team at work in Pinellas
By CURTIS KRUEGER, Times Staff Writer
Published November 14, 2007
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[Cherie Diez | Times]
DCF administrator Alan Abramowitz is in town leading a team trying to help the struggling Pinellas foster-care system.
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LARGO - They call Alan Abramowitz the "firefighter." He's the guy they call when a local foster-care system flares out of control. Abramowitz is starting his second week in Pinellas County, where a recent state review concluded caseworkers feel they are "running in crisis mode." Abramowitz has plenty of ideas about how to whip the foster care system into shape. And for him, one of the best ways to help a foster child is to prevent her from ever becoming one. Who he is: Abramowitz, 45, came to the state Department of Children and Families not as a caseworker, but as an attorney. The FSU law school grad worked as a prosecutor, public defender and assistant general counsel for the state Department of Juvenile Justice. After seeing the turmoil affecting the child welfare system after the 1998 death of a girl named Kayla McKean, he said, "you start thinking how can I become involved and make things better?" He started worked for the DCF in 2000 as the general counsel for a central Florida region. He is currently the DCF's top guy in Brevard and Seminole counties, and acting administrator in Palm Beach County. What he's doing here: His team is designed to give extra support to local workers and ease their feelings of crisis. He brought in experienced case managers to act as coaches for Pinellas' relatively inexperienced staff and to help license more foster homes, which are in short supply. His take on the Sarasota Family YMCA: The DCF announced last week it will seek another agency to run foster care work in Pinellas and Pasco counties on the heels of a report critical of the agency's performance. Abramowitz said he's impressed that Sarasota YMCA officials who supervise foster care in Pinellas and Pasco are doing all they can to work with the team and strengthen the system even though they're on their way out. His philosophy: Parents, even those struggling with drugs, poverty or neglect, still probably provide the best home for their children, except in severe cases. Caseworkers should think carefully before removing them. He cites a recent MIT study that found that children taken out of neglectful homes and put into foster care are more likely to get pregnant as teenagers and suffer other problems than children who stay with their families in homes that are just as neglectful. What's next: Abramowitz's team will remain in Pinellas for at least a month. At least one local nonprofit, Eckerd Youth Alternatives, is considering applying to take over the $49-million foster care contract by July 1. The YMCA's subcontractors, who actually employ the case managers, are expected to stay on a year after that. Curtis Krueger can be reached at ckrueger@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8232.
[Last modified November 14, 2007, 00:36:27]
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by November
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03/02/08 08:16 PM
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The real problem is chapter 39 of the Florida Statutes, it gives them any reason and all rights to take these kids and farm them away like cattle.
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by Retiring from fostering soon
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12/10/07 09:49 PM
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I have been a foster parent under both the old DCF run system and the new private system. The old DCF system was much better and had fewer layers. Also had fewer high paid executives. The CBC's should refund tax $'s when they make a huge profit.
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by Beware...
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11/15/07 10:39 PM
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Beware of Abramowitz - google BAKLID v. DCF east coast. He did not look at this child's best interest before removing him from his only family for two years to send to dist. relative. Baklids set precedence for many foster parents. Be Careful. :-)
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by foster parent
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11/14/07 02:25 PM
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How amusing to us the words DCF and crisis in the same sentence since they have condoned most of the activities of SCC for the past years. Its a shame good people from SCC, even though they are very few, will be eliminated and airheaded CMs will not
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by Mika
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11/14/07 01:04 PM
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Calls to the DCF Hotline should be for actual abuse, neglect and maltreatment of children. Not for neighbor squabbles and domestic revenge.
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by sharon
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11/14/07 12:41 PM
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Here's a thought, how about giving community based care back to the state of Florida? They could rename it HRS. HRS still holds the record for missing children, and deaths of children in care.
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by sherry
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11/14/07 08:04 AM
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Case managers do not remove children from their homes. Employees of the Pinellas County Sheriff's Department remove children from their homes
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Fifty years ago, they were screwed-up kids sent to the Florida School for Boys to be straightened out. But now they are screwed-up men, scarred by the whippings they endured. Read the story and see a video and portrait gallery.
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