Within Reach Of Adoption, Toddler Dies While In Foster Care

TAMPA — After about five months in foster care, and just weeks away from a new home with adoptive parents in North Carolina, little Aedyn Agminalis was rushed to the emergency room.

The 17-month-old boy arrived at St. Joseph's Hospital for Children unresponsive and with signs of head injuries, according to information given to his adoption agency by a social worker. He suffered cardiac arrest, bleeding on the brain and acute respiratory failure.
The small boy was hooked up to a life-support system but doctors could find no brain activity, according to Artha Healton, Aedyn's biological mother. The youngster died Dec. 11 after doctors turned off the machine.
His death is now the subject of a criminal investigation by the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. The Florida Department of Children and Families has assigned a critical incident team to look into the death because the boy died on the state's watch.
"The loss of this child is absolutely devastating and we're grieving with all those who loved him," DCF Secretary Mike Carroll told the Tampa Bay Times in an email.
Officials would not comment on the investigation. Aedyn was living in a foster home licensed by the service, A Door of Hope. His case was handled by Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services. Both organizations are subcontractors of Eckerd Kids, a non-profit contracted to run the county's child welfare system.
"We will be doing everything we can to support the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office investigation," said Adrienne Drew, a spokeswoman for Eckerd.
Aedyn's death has raised questions about whether the child could have been moved out of foster care and adopted sooner.

His biological parents signed papers consenting to the adoption on Nov. 18. Had all gone as planned, the boy likely would have spent Christmas with his new parents: Colleen Kochanek and her wife, Stephanie Norris.
They have been together for 17 years and married in 2006. Kochanek works as an attorney and consultant. Norris is a civil engineer. They own a home in North Carolina and are the parents of Riley, a 4-year-old girl they adopted at birth.
They wanted to move ahead as quickly as possible with a placement court hearing that would allow them to take Aedyn home. They paid extra to have FBI checks expedited.
But Eckerd case managers would not schedule the hearing because they were waiting for a report that proved the adoptive parents were not listed on a state child abuse registry.
That was a check that the couple already passed when they adopted Riley and passed again in 2015 when they decided to look for another child to adopt. But because more than a year had elapsed, they were required to repeat it.
"If they have everything else why couldn't we go forward pending receipt of that document?" Kochanek said. "This is so soul-crushing to us; he could have been in our care."
When the report finally arrived Dec. 5, Eckerd requested the court hearing, but because of Christmas it was not scheduled to take place until Jan. 10.
Jeanne Tate, an attorney representing Tampa adoption agency Heart of Adoptions, planned to ask that the hearing be moved up so Aedyn could be in his new home for Christmas. Learning that he died in foster care left her feeling sick in the stomach.
"These kind of cases definitely should be treated with more expediency; these children need to get out of foster care at the earliest possible time frame," Tate said.
Aedyn was taken into foster care in August after a child protective investigator visited his home because of a report made to the state's child abuse hotline.
Aedyn did not like wearing a diaper and would frequently take if off, said Healton, his mother. The investigator found feces on the floor and was also concerned that a hookah pipe and other dangerous objects lay within reach of the boy, Healton said.
She said the child was in no danger and that she planned to steam-clean the carpet that night.
"They made me out to be a horrible, neglectful parent when I was doing my absolute best," Healton said.
Aedyn's nutrition was another concern for the investigator. The parents could not get the child to eat solid food. They tried to compensate by adding baby food into his formula, Healton said.
The investigator told them they must have the home cleaned by the next day. According to Healton, she asked if the child could be taken into foster care that day, in part because she thought the child would get professional help adapting to solid food.
Healton and her husband, Brynn Agminalis, had already been talking about putting the child up for adoption. The couple, who moved to Florida from Kentucky in May, both work as freelance artists. Healton, 27, designs fantasy characters for websites. Agminalis, 23, works in web design and computer repair.
Healton said they were both "free spirits" and felt tied down by parenthood.
"We didn't feel like we were ready for children," Healton said. "We were struggling and stressed so badly that it was affecting our health."
Because of confidentiality laws, DCF would not comment on how Aedyn ended up in state custody.
Healton got a phone call about 1 a.m. on Dec. 8. Aedyn had been taken to the hospital. She and her husband rushed to him.
The foster mother, who they do not know, was there, too.
"She didn't speak to me or hold eye contact."
The foster mother had told officials Aedyn experienced a seizure-like activity and fell over, according to Healton.
Doctors told Healton and her husband there was evidence of bleeding in Aedyn's brain. On Dec. 9 at 9 a.m., the doctors confirmed that their child was brain dead, Healton said.
"I was unable to hold him because he was hooked up to the life support. I was able to hold his hand and touch him and tell him goodbye even though he couldn't hear me."
Contact Christopher O'Donnell at codonnell@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3446. Follow @codonnell_Times

http://www.tampabay.com/news/within-reach-of-adoption-toddler-dies-while-in-foster-care/2306646

Former DCF Worker Arrested, Accused Of Filing False Reports Of Child Abuse

Ana Rubirosa, 31, is from Boynton Beach

 

 

A former employee with the Department of Children and Families has been arrested, accused of submitting false reports of child abuse.

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In May and June 2014, Ana Rubirosa, 31, of Boynton Beach, documented that she conducted three home visits and a place of employment visit for a woman who was being investigated for child abuse.
Investigators later interviewed the family in question and they said they had never met or heard of Rubirosa.
Rubirosa initially denied making up the reports, but later admitted to submitting the phony documents and told investigators she did make an attempt to interview the family, but nobody was home.
According to the arrest report, she resigned from DCF on July 17, 2014.

http://www.wpbf.com/article/former-dcf-worker-arrested-accused-of-filing-false-reports-of-child-abuse/8484154

Lee County DCF Subcontractor Jailed For Destroying Records

FORT MYERS -
A former Department of Children and Family Services subcontractor went to jail this week for tampering with public records related to case work.

Denny Kern

Denny Kern was arrested by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement on Wednesday and charged with a a 3rd-degree felony.
NBC2 is looking into his arrest and has learned from DCF that Kern was hired by Lutheran Services in April 2013.
Lutheran Services subcontracts case management work through the Children's Network of Southwest Florida, which is funded by DCF.
The FDLE says that between March 5 and May 11, 2015, "on one or more occasions," Kern altered or destroyed public records.
Here's why that matters: The DCF investigates families and children who may be at risk and generates reports based on what it learns. The information can be used in court proceedings that could affect the custody of a child.

In a statement, DCF calls the falsification of records unacceptable.
Kern was fired by Lutheran Services in May 2015. A DCF spokesperson said 100% of his cases were then reviewed by Lutheran Services.
The Florida Office of Inspector General is also investigating the alleged crimes committed by Kern.
A DCF spokesperson said the inspector general is in the process of finalizing its report.
Kern was released from jail on Thursday.

http://www.nbc-2.com/story/33741188/lee-county-dcf-subcontractor-jailed-for-destroying-records

Foster Carer Blames Department of Children And Families For Teenagers’ Predicament

TWO children who were removed from the care of their foster mother over a “minor incident” are now living on the streets, using drugs and committing property crimes.

The foster carer, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, told the NT News that in the space of two years the two teenage girls she had cared for for 13 years had gone “completely off the rails”.
“(The older girl) has been in 15 different placements, has been in Don Dale, she abuses drugs and alcohol and has a 25-year-old boyfriend ... nobody even knows where she is,” the woman said.
“They (the Department of Children and Families) have destroyed a child who was successfully becoming a young adult and now she rings me and is begging for my forgiveness and asks me ‘why can’t I just come home?’ and I can’t let her because the other children I have at home will be influenced by her.
“She is not safe and I can’t do a damn thing about it.”
The woman said the “shattering” experience almost made her give up her 15-year career of being a volunteer foster parent.
“You didn’t keep my kids safe when you took them,” she said.
“I kept them out of this situation and you’ve allowed them to be sexually abused, allowed them to be drinking and allowed them to be homeless.”
The veteran foster carer said trouble arose during a stressful period when she was trying to merge families together – seven kids in total.
She asked the department to provide a cleaner to help her cope and allow more time to be spent with the kids but it refused.

Following the incident, the woman told DCF about it and subsequently two of the children were removed from her care.
“Instead of the department talking through what happened with us and dealing with it as a family, the flow-through consequence from what they did means they’re in no man’s land now,” she said.
The only the reason the woman kept fostering the other children was because she said “when I take on a kid, I take them on for life”.
“I believe I’ve gone through this because I have the ­capacity to help the department help these kids better than what they are doing now,” she said.
Children’s Commissioner Colleen Gwynne would not comment on the specific case but reiterated comments made earlier this week that supporting foster carers was ­paramount to reduce the NT’s reliance on residential care facilities.

http://www.themercury.com.au/news/national/foster-carer-blames-department-of-children-and-families-for-teenagers-predicament/news-story/98cb2d059a4590d213f8d7f90ad0eae3

News Laws Mean Little When DCF Fails Kids

Miami Herald Editorial Board

Last month, Marjorie Dufrene, left, appears in front of Judge Cindy Lederman in Miami. Carl Juste cjuste@miamiherald.com

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article97469932.html#storylink=cpy

Two years ago, Gov. Rick Scott signed into law an all-encompassing, highly praised overhaul of the Department of Children & Families, committed to ensuring that the troubled agency could keep children safe, secure and alive.
Angela Dufrene died anyway. Her mother said so in court. “She is dead,” Marjorie Dufrene said, a stunning admission to which she added that the toddler’s body had been thrown in a dumpster.
The law, enacted after the Miami Herald’s series “Innocents Lost” chronicled, in heartbreaking detail, the preventable deaths of almost 500 children in DCF’s care, made saving children, not family preservation, the priority.
And still Angela died.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article97469932.html#storylink=cLawmakers gave DCF a $44 million infusion to hire 270 child-protective investigators and ensure that they were well-educated and properly trained.And still Angela died.

Her tragic case makes clear that the lessons of “Innocents Lost” have been lost themselves. At least five entities, including ChildNet, which provides case management in Broward County, the attorney general’s office and the Broward Sheriff’s Office, knew about the abusive circumstances into which Angela and her twin brother were born. Ms. Dufrene was a violent and abusive parent who herself needed help. She was ill-equipped to deal appropriately with her developmentally disabled son, whom she beat with a belt so severely that he lost sight in one eye, which took surgery to restore. She beat him when he misspelled words; she punched him in the head when he spilled some juice. He was left so bloody that teachers called the state’s abuse hotline, and the child was placed in foster care.
Subsequent calls to the hotline for incidents of domestic abuse between Ms. Dufrene and her husband should have kicked off a seamless intervention on behalf of Angela and her twin brother, who were born while their older brother — and another child, a girl — still were in foster care.
By then, Ms. Dufrene was homeless and had barged in on a friend who had an apartment, refusing to leave. The friend, too, called DCF. But a committee of child-welfare administrators decided that Ms. Dufrene was capable of providing a safe environment for her twins, and she was allowed to leave the hospital after giving birth. There was no followup, no regular home inspections ordered.
The collective lack of common sense is absolutely breathtaking. Instead of considering the breadth of the family’s tortured history, finicky administrators worried that since the twins had never been abused, they could not be removed from the home.

This is putting the safety of children first? In what universe did they expect Ms. Dufrene to become the model mom? This is the lack of critical thinking and skepticism that components of the new law were supposed to address.
It’s infuriating, because we’ve been here before. In 2013, just a year before the sweeping DCF overhaul, the agency instituted something called “the Safety Methodology” to address the inefficient process, fractured work systems and huge level of investigator turnover that, in part, contributed to the death of Nubia Barahona, 10. In 2011, her partially decomposed body was found, wrapped in a plastic garbage bag, in the back of her adoptive father’s pickup truck.
But once more, several agencies banded together to do what’s best for children at risk. They failed miserably, and little Angela Dufrene died.

http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article97469932.html

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article97469932.html#storylink=cpy

Get To Root Of Crisis In Foster Care DCF's Track Record

Jonathan K. Jaberg, Largo
Get to root of crisis in foster care Aug. 12, editorial
DCF's track record

In this editorial, the Times rightfully called out the Department of Children and Families for failing to adequately place the thousands of children who are removed from parental care every year in Hillsborough County and across the state. What the editorial did not point out is that many judges assigned to handle these cases often act as little more than a rubber stamp for a failing system.

Since 2011, of the more than 4,000 cases in which children were removed from their parents in Hills­borough, only 66 were overturned and only one case this year has reversed the initial determination by the DCF to remove a child. That means that judges have determined the DCF made the right call 99.98 percent of the time. No agency is that good.

That percentage would be less alarming if we were dealing with highly trained professionals who are doing thorough risk assessments and placing children in safe, appropriate homes. The reality is that poorly trained social workers employed by the Sheriff's Office have one of the worst jobs out there. That's why they have such historically abysmal staff retention.

When explaining to people how difficult it is to be a child protective investigator, I use the analogy of the police. When the cops show up, at least someone is happy to see them, usually the person who called. Nobody is happy to see the DCF. Yet that doesn't mean we can allow these removals to go unchecked. Too often, there are services that could have been offered to prevent the need for a removal.

Courts have had a difficult time deciding what to do when the DCF falls down on the job. Does that mean you put a child at risk? Of course not, but let's ask our judges to stop assuming they made the right call every time. Our children deserve better.

Christopher Mulligan, Brooksville
The writer is a third-generation Florida lawyer who primarily handles cases involving children.
Reforms and resources

I have worked with at-risk youth and child protection systems in the Northeast. I am a Guardian ad Litem in Pinellas County and have fostered a teen.

I'm heartened that last year Florida strengthened its child protection laws by placing the interests of abused or neglected children ahead of biological parents' interests. It would have been sensible to concomitantly prepare for the influx of children who would remain out of inappropriate homes as a result. That didn't happen.

From my experience, here are the missing pieces that require funding:
• More compensation and support for foster care families, which in turn will encourage more folks to become foster parents.

• A significant increase in wraparound and in-home services. (New Jersey did this in the 1990s with impressive results).

• Compensation for family members who meet low-income guidelines who otherwise cannot afford to take in a grandchild or niece but would be willing to do so if the support were there.

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/letters/wednesdays-letters-sarcasm-isnt-a-leadership-trait/2289724

NBC2 Investigators: Foster children kept on unapproved overnight stays

NAPLES -
Foster children in Naples were kept overnight in offices and hotels more than a dozen times in 2014, according to a Department of Children and Families Inspector General's report.

Keeping children overnight in offices is against DCF policy and an employee called the event "traumatic."

The unapproved placements were overseen by Family Preservation Services (FPS), now called Pathways, which is a subcontractor of the Children's Network of Southwest Florida (CNSF).

The report from the Inspector General found that employees at FPS were required to spend the night with foster children in the offices. One employee said she did not sleep because "she was concerned that the child's known behavioral problems might surface during the night."

Another employee sent an email stating she "slept in the office on a VERY uncomfortable chair and had no funds to feed the child."

The report found that 11 children were kept in unapproved placements on 15 different occasions during 2014. The children mainly stayed at the FPS Naples office but were also housed at local hotels on three other occasions and the FPS office in Labelle once.

The children were as old as 17 and as young as ten.

CNSF declined an on-camera interview but answered questions from NBC2 via email.
When asked if more children have been kept in offices since the incident was uncovered, a spokesperson wrote, "There have been two occasions when a child stayed in the office overnight. The children were almost 16 and almost 17-year-old teens. No children have stayed in offices or hotels overnight in the past 15 months."
The employee who filed the complaint with DCF also alleged that management at CNSF directed FPS employees to "hide this (office stays) information from the public by not putting any references in [FPS] office emails."

However, the inspector general's report found "no conclusive information was obtained to implicate CNSF or FPS employees in attempting to conceal information about the overnight housing of children in offices or hotels."
In a statement, a CNSF spokesperson wrote, "The Children’s Network of SWFL staff and leadership did not instruct any employees not to discuss overnight office stays in emails."
The underlying issue of the office stays was the lack of resources and ever increasing demand, according to the report, which also stated that before 2014, the amount of children in the CNSF system increased by more than 36 percent. During the same time, 120 new foster parents were recruited, but it still wasn't enough to keep up with demand.

http://www.nbc-2.com/story/32732872/nbc2-investigators-foster-children-kept-on-unapproved-overnight-stays#.V6xA7aLE7gY