Perspective: Change child welfare cautiously

The move to privatize Florida's child-welfare system is generating unexpected optimism in Tampa Bay and elsewhere. Early results from Pinellas and Pasco counties are encouraging, and Hillsborough's plan, reflecting a broad and cohesive effort, has renewed a sense of hope that had long since flagged. But no one should underestimate the challenges that lie ahead. For all the promises of privatization, its long-term prognosis remains far from certain.

Until now, the transition has proceeded during a time of flush money, allowing Florida's budget-writers to commit an increasing level of resources as communities have taken on additional duties and families. But the economic downturn puts that graduated funding pattern in jeopardy. It becomes more critical than ever that communities be given the full benefit of other funding streams, especially the federal dollars that the state has thus far hoarded for itself. Even in the best of times, transition in Pinellas and Pasco has taken longer than anticipated. State leaders should expect and accommodate further delays as poorer communities are included.

This is no time for hasty change, especially one of this magnitude. No other state in the nation has attempted child-welfare devolution on such a massive scale. The 1998 legislation that set privatization in motion, a top priority of then-gubernatorial candidate Jeb Bush, put community agencies -- not the state -- in charge of family preservation, foster care and adoptive services for abused children, and called for statewide privatization by January of 2003. That sweeping law made Pinellas and Pasco unwitting and, at first, unenthusiastic pilots for the bold social experiment.

The local transition has not been easy. But now that the two counties are fully phased in, privatization is starting to show promise. Family Continuity, the lead agency for Pinellas and Pasco, is making real progress recruiting foster parents, reducing the time families stay in the system and cutting the number of times children are bounced from home to home. Supporters say the program's success may soon mirror that of the Sarasota consortium, an early privatization site that has consistently demonstrated better results for abused children and their families than the state was able to achieve when it was in charge.

There's good reason to expect similarly encouraging results for Hillsborough once it fully takes over, probably by next summer. Hillsborough Kids, the umbrella community group slated to take charge, has invested enormous time and energy into preparations. Though the system it plans to lead has had its problems -- unmanageable caseloads and overcrowded foster homes among them -- the depth and breadth of local planning puts success within reach. That's especially true now that Chris Card, the social worker who led Sarasota's transformation, has been named head of the Hillsborough effort.

It is still early in the statewide move, and state leaders need to be cautious. Pinellas and Hillsborough are not necessarily representative of the rest of the state, and their experience may not be so easily replicated in poorer communities or those with less cohesive child networks. The state will have to figure out how to keep its Department of Children and Families a strong player in those more challenged counties, while giving prepared communities the independence and resources they need to do this huge job right.

Already, several communities have complained that Children and Families has shortchanged them on administrative expenses. Communities should not have to grovel each year -- or dip into monies set aside for delivery of services -- to fund the more mundane but essential infrastructure they need. Lawmakers can help ease that recurring tension by allowing communities to keep more of the federal-incentive dollars they earn when they produce good results. With few exceptions, 100 percent of those dollars now go back into the state's coffers, not into the hands of the communities whose hard work made them appear.

Even early nay-sayers are heartened by the promise of privatization. Done right, community-based care could well end up enhancing the safety of children and services for families as it expands local ownership in the problem of abuse. But problems remain, and Florida's leaders should slow down long enough to see that they are addressed the right way. Bush has pushed through many reforms in his term, but none with so many children's lives resting on its success.

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