Conservative Group Examines Florida's Child Welfare System in New Report

The Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), a conservative think tank, released a report on Tuesday studying Floridas child welfare system.

Florida transformed its foster care system from a failed, state-run bureaucracy to private, kid-focused community-based care. We told this reform story to help leaders in other states learn how Florida reversed the trend and provided the best help to more kids, Jonathan Ingram, the FGAs director of research and the author of the report, said on Tuesday. Compared to the old, state-run system, more kids in Florida today are adopted into safe and loving homes, kids spend less time languishing in foster care, morale among caseworkers and front-line staff is higher, and kids and foster parents report higher satisfaction. What Florida accomplished was truly right for kids.

Before the Right For Kids community-based care reform, Floridas foster care system was failing the states most vulnerable abused and neglected kids, Ingram added. At-risk kids forced to sleep on the floors of bureaucratic offices and a little girl went missing for more than a year without her caseworker even noticing. It was urgent that policymakers acted to reverse these tragedies.

The report praises the state for relying on nongovernment local groups which helped lead to more adoptions, foster families and higher morale for caseworkers.

This report explains how community-based care in Florida reversed the tragic outcomes the state had been seeing for years, Ingram said. What Florida accomplished for its child welfare system was revolutionary. Every kid in America deserves safety, love, stability and the hope of a brighter future, but too many states child welfare systems pull kids further away from that dream. If all states replicated Floridas success, more than 36,000 kids would find safe, forever homes. Now that the success of Floridas Right For Kids community-based care model is proven, other states should replicate this child-focused reform and begin changing the lives of more abused and neglected kids.

The report can be read here.