Startling Find In Jacksonville's DCF Child Death Investigations

I-TEAM examined 227 death investigations from 8-year span

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Nearly half of the 227 cases of child deaths in Duval County investigated by the Florida Department of Children and Families between 2009 and 2016 involved families already known to DCF investigators, an I-TEAM analysis of data found.

Those in charge of local child protection organizations were unaware the number was that high until shown the analysis by News4Jax.  The startling discovery by the I-TEAM has led to questions about staff experience and oversight within Florida’s child welfare system.

I-TEAM: Startling find in Jacksonville's DCF child death investigations

A privatized system

Florida privatized its child welfare system under then-Gov. Jeb Bush. The Department of Children and Families contracts with different lead agencies -- mostly nonprofits -- in different parts of the state, broken down by judicial circuits. The goal of that process is to have smaller organizations handle child welfare, in each individual community.

Family Support Services of North Florida is the lead agency for child welfare in Duval and Nassau Counties.

In Jacksonville, Family Support Services contracts with four other nonprofits to handle case management for children in troubled homes. Those organizations -- Children's Home Society, Daniel, Jewish Family and Community Services and Neighbor to Family -- also do other work beyond case management.

Lee Kaywork has been the CEO of FSS for eight years. The nonprofit annually oversees the cases of about 1,500-2,000 children who are victims of abuse, neglect or abandonment, largely due to domestic violence, substance abuse or mental health issues.  But the I-TEAM learned that Family Support Services doesn’t actually oversee any individual case involving abuse or neglect.

“I think we’re one of the best in the state,” Kaywork said when asked how child welfare in Jacksonville compares with communities across the state.

Kaywork told the I-TEAM he was confident that his case managers here have enough experience to make critical decisions about the children’s future.

“I'm confident once the child is in care, the safety of the child is being taken care of,” Kaywork said.

Taking a closer look at investigations

The harsh reality uncovered by the I-TEAM is that sometimes those families known to DCF and Family Support Services still end up having children die

Statistics on the DCF’s website show that 48 percent of child deaths the agency investigated in Duval County over the last five years were in families known to the agency. That percentage was higher than the percentages in jurisdictions with large cities, including Orlando, Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.

Child Deaths in Large Florida Counties

County	Total Child Deaths	Percentage of deaths in families known to DCF
Duval	227	48.46%
Orange	222	47.75%
Miami-Dade	278	42.09%
Broward	272	40.44%
Palm Beach	200	35.00%
Hillsborough	279	32.26%

Data compiled from DCF statistics, 2009-2016

“I don’t know that for a fact, but I’ll believe you for the moment,” Kaywork responded when asked about the comparison. “I don't know the detail behind the number.” Kaywork added, “I think that, in most cases, those are going to be investigations that never reached us at Family Support Services.”

The I-TEAM discovered that not to be the case.

In 2015, DCF began deploying a new oversight team -- the Critical Incident Rapid Response Team -- to investigate child fatalities in families that are already known to the state system.  One goal of the team was to figure out how to make improvements. A review of reports from the team’s first year found that Duval County had six CIRRT investigations – more than any other county in the state.

A review of the case of a 6-month-old girl found her death to be sleep-related, but investigators still found issues within the case. One finding cited “high turnover and lack of available staff.”  One child protective investigator also stated he felt he “lacked experience to handle complex cases.” 

The report also found “safety plans were not sufficient” to manage dangers.

In another case investigated by the CIRRT, a 3-month-old girl died after co-sleeping with her mother. The family had been investigated by DCF prior to the girl’s death. 

In this case, the report found “investigations lacked a thorough assessment of the family situation,” and that the “region’s workforce was inexperienced at all staffing levels.” The report went on to say that 57 percent of child protective investigators had less than one year of experience, and 80 percent having less than two years of experience.

In three of the six cases from 2015, Family Support Services was involved. FSS delegated out the case management of the families to some of the nonprofits under them.

“That’s an alarming number. I’m not going to make short sight of it,” Kaywork said when pressed. “That is an alarming number.”

The I-TEAM asked Kaywork how often Family Support Services examines its actions to see if a mistake was made in a child’s case.

“I don’t go to sleep at night without thinking of the children we are serving,” Kaywork said. “That’s our job.”

Kaywork acknowledged the system is not perfect.

“It’s a child welfare system. We are at the tail end of a lot of woes of our society,” Kaywork said.

In recent years another societal issue -- opioid addiction -- has had an effect on the child welfare system. 

Kaywork said the bulk of child removals from custody now are tied to opiate use, accounting for the case of 75 to 80 percent of the children taken from their homes. That’s up from 40 percent in the past.

Family Support Services, a fully accredited organization, has been the local lead agency for foster care, adoption, and family services since 2001. Kaywork explained their state-mandated goal is to reunify families, but the I-TEAM found that happens in less than half of their cases.

In 2013 and 2014, more children were adopted out than reunified. In 2015 and 2016 there were fewer adoptions, but still only 35 percent of families were reunified.

Kaywork said it’s a delicate and difficult balance.

“There is nothing more traumatic to a child than being removed from their parent,” Kaywork explained.  “Nothing. They will never recover from it.”

Thursday afternoon DCF responded to the I-TEAM analysis with a statement:

Child safety is the first priority of the Florida Department of Children and Families and our staff and partners are entrusted with a sacred mission to protect the vulnerable and aide family recovery and resiliency. Every case of suspected abuse or neglect called into the Florida Abuse Hotline is carefully evaluated based on statutory criteria to be accepted for investigation. Every child death, regardless of family situation or the community, is a devastating tragedy. DCF takes every child fatality very seriously and is absolutely committed to reducing preventable child deaths."

http://www.news4jax.com/news/investigations/48-of-duval-countys-child-deaths-investigated-by-dcf-from-known-cases 

Inside Florida’s Department of Children and Families (DCF)

By Andrew Stine | Published November 20, 2014

The Department of Children and Families (DCF) is an agency in Florida with multi functions. Under Florida Statute the Department of Children and Family provides that its local offices, like the West Palm Beach DCF Office, shall provide services relating to: (1) adult protection; (2) child care regulation; (3) child welfare; (4) domestic violence; (5) economic self-sufficiency; (6) homelessness; (7) mental health; (8) refugees; (9) substance abuse.  While DCF might sound like a nice cutesy agency looking out for the citizens of Florida, think again.

The Department of Children and Families has a horrible track record in their placement of children with foster families, government agencies and orphanages throughout their history. This placement of children occurs after DCF plucks them from good, decent Families throughout Palm Beach County, and places them outside their home. With all medical providers like Doctors, Nurses, and clinics throughout Palm Beach County, Florida well aware of the Department’s horrible placement tract record, why would these medical providers even report and suspected abuse to DCF? The answer lies in the Florida Legislatures and more importantly in the purse strings of the Florida Tax Payer!
Under Florida Statute 39.201 there are lists of named professions that must report to DCF:

 Physician, osteopathic physician, medical examiner, chiropractic physician, nurse, or hospital personnel engaged in the admission, examination, care, or treatment of persons; mental health professionals and practitioners who rely solely on spiritual means for healing; school teachers or other school officials or personnel; Social workers, day care center workers, or other professional child care providers, foster care, residential, or institutional worker; law enforcement officer and Judges shall all report to DCF any child that the reporter has reasonable cause to suspect is abused, abandoned, or neglected by a parent, legal custodian, caregiver, or other person in this State.
The Florida Legislatures have passed laws that require Doctor’s and their staff to report activity of their own patients to the Florida Government, law enforcement officers and DCF.

 As an example of how far the DCF mandatory reporting requirements have reached, into the lives of West Palm Beach women, who are pregnant and about to deliver their new born babies is startling. Moms and moms to be, you may want to closely guard your personal information about any recreational alcohol or drug use from your OB/GYN doctor and their staff, while receiving prenatal care and during delivery of your child.  The guarding of your personal information about recreational use of substances from your physician, nurses and other clinic staff, while pregnant, will allow you to take “home” your bouncing bundle of joy in a manner without DCF intervention. This is because if you tell your doctor or clinic staff at the OB/GYN facility that you drink alcohol, smoke marijuana or use any form of drugs prescribed or not, your OB/GYN Doctor will report this information of use to the Palm Beach DCF hotline. What occurs next is the reporter is required to provide their information and mom’s information, including where and when the child is delivered, to DCF. Now the investigation is started!

Upon delivery of your new baby, mom will be greeted at her hospital room by a government agent named DCF. The DCF worker will begin the personal investigative process of being very nice to the new mom to gain her trust so that mom will provide her information as to why the government agent should be involved in the new family. The government agent from DCF will offer services to mom like drug rehabilitation, alcohol treatment, and other services to the mom. With DCF asking questions of the new mom, the DCF agent is provided information about the mom’s recreational use of substances from the source itself-mom. Because the DCF worker has been provided information straight from mom’s mouth, the new baby will likely be tested through a blood examination for recreational substances too. What occurs next is completely up the headless agency named DCF.
If the new baby tests positive for any substances, then mom will be forced into a very odd predicament. The choices facing mom will be to have the child remain in the hospital and not return home with her or have mom begin a serious of obstacles, namely enter into a case plan, to possibly get her child back. Under Florida Law, the child may only be kept in the hospital and not allowed to leave the hospital with its mother if there is a court order in place “enjoining” or stopping the mother from taking the child home. Otherwise all the threats from DCF that mom cannot take home her baby are idle.
The Florida legislatures have made it mandatory for doctors to tell on their patients through government regulated laws or regulations.  But are this regulator laws ethical, because of the doctor patient relationship and confidentiality? For that answer you must contact your local AMA. But in my opinion, the reason why doctors will continue to breach doctor patient confidentiality, especially knowing the dire circumstances its causes the new mother and their baby, is because of the mighty dollar attached to the mandatory regulating laws.

South Florida Doctors rely more heavily on Medicaid patients than anywhere else in America. Without those Medicaid dollars rolling into Palm Beach County OB/GYN clinics, many doctors would not be able to exist let alone flourish. So, what is attached to the Doctors mandatory reporting, Medicaid dollars! If a Doctor does not report what he or she believes is reasonable cause to suspect abused and it is later discovered that the Doctor withheld this information or did not report it for whatever reason, the Medicaid dollars that fund the Doctor’s lifestyle may be taken away through sanctions or worse. Moms you can bet on one thing, the OB/GYN will sooner let DCF come between you and your baby, before allowing anyone to come in-between the OB/GYN’s pocket and Medicaid Dollars.
If you or a loved one needs help with a Department of Children and Family matter, contact West Palm Beach Attorney Andrew D. Stine. Andrew D. Stine has been defending families against DCF for more than a decade. Compassionate, understanding, and willing to go to trial can be useful for you and your family in a DCF time of need.
http://www.andrewdstine.com/blog/2014/11/inside-floridas-department-of-children-and-families-dcf/

Man Testifies DCF Failed To Warn Him About Abusive Past Of Child He Took Into Home

By Jane Musgrave
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
WEST PALM BEACH —

In the weeks before 10-year-old Jerald came to live with a Wellington couple, he had been repeatedly raped by a 19-year-old in a house where state officials sent him after they rescued him from his neglectful mother.


Testifying for the first time Tuesday in a multi-million-dollar lawsuit against the Florida Department of Children & Families and another child welfare agency, the man who welcomed the filthy, malnourished neighborhood kid into his home said he and his wife weren’t told about those assaults nor the years of torture the boy had endured.
“Were you told by anyone that based on his history there was a likelihood that an animal or a child would be in danger around him?” attorney Stephan LeClainche asked his client, reading from reports the father said were kept secret from him. “Did you know that when rated on the issue of whether he posed a risk of violence to others he scored 4 out of 5?”
The father shook his head.
Instead, not knowing about the physical and sexual abuse heaped on Jerald beginning when he was 18 months old, the man moved the boy into his son’s bedroom. As many psychologists predicted, Jerald became a predator, ultimately sexually assaulting the couple’s then 9-year-old son, leaving the youngster with emotional scars that refuse to heal 10 years later, the father claims.
“He wouldn’t have been allowed to play with (Junior) period,” he testified of what he would have done had he known about Jerald’s tumultuous background.

The parade of horribles that Jerald experienced have been a focal part of the trial that began last week. Worried that the jury may punish them for not doing more to help Jerald, attorneys representing DCF and Camelot Community Care asked Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Meenu Sasser to tell the eight jurors that they can’t hold the two agencies responsible for any services they failed to provide Jerald, who is now in state prison on larceny convictions.
“Jerald is not a party to this case,” Sasser told the jury. Instead jurors are being asked to decide whether DCF and Camelot caseworkers failed to warn Junior’s mother and father about Jerald’s background and, if so, how much money Junior deserves for the emotional wounds the now 19-year-old youth suffered as a result. Another agency, Boys & Girls Town, also known as Father Flanagan’s, reached a confidential settlement with the family.
The Palm Beach Post is not reporting the full names of the parents, Junior or Jerald due to the nature of the allegations. It is the paper’s policy not to identify victims of sexual assault.
While Jerald isn’t a part to the case, his horrific young life is center stage.
According to testimony during the trial, although state law requires child welfare workers to immediately report allegations of abuse, a DCF caseworker didn’t do so when she learned that 19-year-old Reggie Cruz had sexually assaulted Jerald during the month they lived under the same roof. In fact, LeClainche said, because Cruz’s mother and Jerald’s mother were friends, the abuse had been going on for years.
“They moved (Jerald) into the home of his abuser,” he said.
But, the father testified, DCF caseworker Suzie Parchment didn’t tell him or his wife about the assaults. Eventually, Jerald did.
About a month after Jerald came to live with them in September 2002, he made sexual overtures to a 4-year-old girl who was visiting. Horrified, the mother confronted Jerald and the story spilled out. She called authorities. Cruz was eventually convicted of sexual battery on a juvenile and sent to prison for 18 months.
Days after the mother learned of the assault, Parchment sent a letter to DCF higher-ups, saying she had removed Jerald from the Cruz home after learning of rape allegations.
Parchment, the father testified, never told him or his wife why she had removed Jerald from the Cruz home. And, he said, it wasn’t the only information that was withheld even though he repeatedly asked them for background information.
He said he and his wife, who died in 2006 after a nearly two-year battle with cancer, weren’t told that Jerald had been diagnosed as suicidal when he was 3 and found wandering in traffic. They weren’t told he had tried to slit his sleeping father’s throat with a knife or that he told a teacher he planned to bring a gun to school and kill her and himself. They didn’t know he had been diagnosed as both suicidal and homicidal or that he heard voices.

He testified that had he known of even some of Jerald’s demons, he would have realized the outbursts he dismissed as harmless were troubling warning signs and his son was in danger. For instance, he said, he wasn’t alarmed when Jerald threatened his son with a butter knife because he had no idea the boy had tried to kill his father.
“Of course it would have taken on more significance,” he said. “But if I had known (about his past) he would have never been there in the first place.”
His testimony is to continue.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/crime-law/man-testifies-dcf-failed-to-warn-him-about-abusive/nbJp6/