FOSTER CARE EDUCATION OVERHAUL HEADS TO SEN FLOOR
By MARGIE MENZEL
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, Dec. 7, 2011….. A bill that would revamp how kids in Florida’s foster care system are educated won unanimous support from the Senate Children and Families committee on Wednesday and now heads to the Senate floor.
The bill (SB 434), by Senate Democratic Leader Nan Rich of Weston, would tighten oversight of funding for young people aging out of state care and provide them with "education advocates" to ensure that the money is well-spent.
Rich said her bill is intended to address problems plaguing middle and high school children in Florida’s independent living programs. Although the state already pays college tuition for foster youth, they have much lower rates of college attendance and graduation – and increased rates of homelessness, reliance on public assistance, mental health problems and involvement with the criminal justice system.
Proponents of the bill say it will increase the likelihood those kids will finish a quality education by reducing transfers from school to school and keeping foster youth from falling off the child welfare system’s radar.
"The stereotype is that we are future dropouts, future criminals and the future homeless," Jesse Wilson of Jacksonville, statewide chair of the advocacy group Florida Youth SHINE, told the committee. "So what you’re doing here is improving the backbone that we have, the supports that we have to be the future senators and the future representatives."
An earlier version of the idea, which Rich sponsored in the 2011 session, passed the Senate 40-0 but died as a budget amendment on the final day of the legislative session earlier this year. The House companion was sponsored by Rep. Rich Glorioso, R-Plant City, and faced four committees in 2011 – as it will again in 2012.
The measure was prompted in part by a Florida Auditor General’s report, published last April, which included instances of poor oversight of the independent living services by the Department of Children and Families and the 20 lead community based care agencies that contract with DCF to provide those services.
The report found that $641,913 in federal funds was paid to ineligible youth and that the department and the CBCs were unable to document the appropriateness of the award amounts.
It also found a lack of documentation of the required number of visitations by providers or proof that assessments and case plans for youth aged 13 to 17 had been completed.
"We were trying to react to the auditing report in an effort to make sure that those things were corrected," said Rich.
The bill brings Florida in line with guidelines established in the 2008 federal "Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act." That means more federal dollars for the state’s independent living services will increase over time, rendering Rich’s bill revenue-neutral.
"I hope it doesn’t die on the House side again," said Judith Karim, CEO of Child and Family Connections, the lead community based care agency in Palm Beach. "The current program isn’t sustainable."
Karim said what killed the bill last year was the belief that the program’s benefits should end at age 21. The measure continues some services – for education, housing and transition to employment – until age 23.
Karim said the bill would bolster cooperation between the public school and child welfare systems.
The bill goes next to the full Senate floor, where a vote is expected in the first weeks of the 2012 legislative session.
