Florida SB1666

“A debate is brewing about a Senate proposal that could lead to some children in state care being placed in group homes instead of with foster families.

The proposal involves lawmakers’ efforts to reform the child-welfare system, including keeping siblings together after their parents have lost custody. The group-home language is in a Senate child-welfare measure (SB 1666), which was scheduled to be heard Thursday in a committee but got postponed.

The measure says, “Reasonable efforts shall include short-term placement in a group home with the ability to accommodate sibling groups if such a placement is available.”

But critics said that one sentence could lead to unforeseen consequences.

“The weight of the evidence is that group care is very hard on young children — even high-quality group care,” said Neil Boris, a child psychologist and professor at the University of Central Florida.

He also said that by the nature of the child-welfare system, “short-term placements” in a group home usually end up longer than expected.

And Carole Shauffer of the San Francisco-based Youth Law Center, who has fought against the use of group-home placements in Florida, predicted the bill language would cause them to proliferate.

Both Shauffer and Boris pointed to a 2005 study of Romanian orphans led by Charles Zeanah and Charles A. Nelson. The study found that when toddlers were placed with foster families, they were much more likely to form attachments with their caregivers than children who had been institutionalized.[Romanian orphans?]

According to the Department of Children and Families, group-home rates in Florida ranged from a low of $23.50 per day to a high of $543.42 per day for the 2012-13 fiscal year.

In contrast, the monthly rates paid to foster parents as of Jan. 1 are $429 for children ages 5 and younger, $440 for children ages 6 to 12, and $515 for teenagers ages 13 to 21.

Katz said the higher rates for the group homes are due to the services they provide.”
Senate group home proposal spurs debate
[Tallahassee 4/11/14 by Margie Menzel]

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