Protesters say agency removes children from good families and ignores those in need of protection
Protesters hold signs Friday morning outside of the Florida Department of Children and Families building in Sarasota, saying the agency has failed too many children and needs serious reform.
Published: Friday, March 25, 2016 at 3:22 p.m.
Last Modified: Friday, March 25, 2016 at 3:54 p.m.
SARASOTA - Sharing tragic stories of their own
experiences with the Department of Children and Families, a half dozen
residents today protested the agency for what they call a broken system
that harms the very children it’s supposed to protect.
Representing two groups –
Op Expose CPS and Manasota Angels of Peace – the protesters stood
outside the DCF building on 17th Street in Sarasota, holding signs and
shouting slogans like, “End cash for kids.”
They
claim the agency’s child welfare division removes too many children
from good homes for little reason while ignoring the ones in real need
of protection.
They also
said the agency should not allow anonymous complaints, because it leads
to too many false reports and places the burden of proof on potentially
innocent families.
And
they allege DCF is motivated by federal funds, specifically those from
the Title IV-E Program. The program reimburses state agencies like DCF
for expenses associated with removing children from their families and
placing them in foster care.
Florida,
however, has a waiver allowing it to spend IV-E dollars on efforts to
decrease out-of-home placements and keep families together.
"DCF is unwavering in its
mission to protect Florida’s most vulnerable," a spokeswoman wrote in an
email. "Ensuring children are in safe environments is paramount. DCF
investigates claims of child abuse or neglect via reports to the Florida
Abuse Hotline that meet the threshold for acceptance. When it is
determined by a team of professionals, including the court, that a child
is not safe at home, then removal is necessary. Florida receives a
capped allocation of Title IV-E funds from the federal government, and
under a waiver program, can use these funds not only for out of home
care, but also for front-end services in homes when children are safe to
remain with their families. Funds are not allocated per child
placement."
“We’ve heard
story after story of kids being lost in the system, literally lost,”
said Greg “Flip” Cruz, who also went through the foster care system.
“There are serious problems, and we need serious change.”
Behind
the protesters stood a poster with the faces of kids allegedly killed
by their parents despite prior complaints filed with DCF. Among them
were Chance Walsh and Janiya Thomas.
But the problem is not limited to Florida, protesters said. It is nationwide.
Maureen
Hart’s three children were taken from her by the Massachusetts DCF
after a neighbor alleged the kids begged people for food, she said. Hart
denied the allegation and showed an investigator her fully stocked
kitchen. But she admitted she spanked her kids when the investigator
asked, and she lost custody of them the same day.
The
state let two of her children stay with relatives but placed her
8-year-old son in foster care. The experience scarred him for life, she
said.
“They drugged him
and shocked him,” she said. “They told him I didn’t love him anymore. By
the time I got him back, the damage was done.”
Her son committed suicide several years later.
Angela
Willett was removed from her North Carolina family by DCF at age 12 and
placed in a series of foster families, group homes and institutions.
There, she said, she experienced repeated abuse and was told her mother
did not want her and did not care about her.
It
was a lie, she said. The incident devastated her mother, who had always
done her best to raise her daughter and did not deserve what happened,
Willett said. Now grown, Willett lives with her mother and calls her “my
best friend.”
“There are some good people in the system,” Hart said. “But the system itself is broken.”
