Grand Jury in Barahona Case Gives Nonbinding Recommendations UPDATED

In addition to recommendations from a March 2011 three-member task force report, now a grand jury has examined DCF and released their own 20 recommendations that we list below. The 29-page pdf can be viewed here.

These recommendations can be powerfully summed up with trying to eliminate the “bias of trust.” Every state should look at these recommendations.

Hotline Recommendations

“We recommend that all Hotline Counselors (and their supervisors) receive training to improve their ability to classify cases where they deem sufficient criteria have been met for filing a report.

We recommend that all Hotline Counselors (and their supervisors) receive training sufficient for them to be able to identify allegations that amount to criminal activity.

We recommend that strict compliance be required of all Hotline Counselors (and their supervisors) in regard to the immediate reporting to local law enforcement of all cases where the conduct reported to a Hotline Counselor amounts to criminal activity.

We recommend that DCF Regional and local investigative offices be given the authority to reassess, reevaluate and reclassify all DCF response times included in any report received from  a Hotline Counselor.”

Additionally, they found that a huge gap is “the inability of the counselor to upload pertinent data while the new caller is providing information.” The ability to access data from previous calls, reports or investigations during the processing of a new call would be extremely helpful. The recommendation regarding this is as follows: “We recommend that the Florida Legislature, even in light of our limited tax dollars, adjust other budgets to find sufficient resources for these critical technological improvements to the Child Abuse Hotline Center.”

Recommendations on the Nature and Qualifications of the Child Protective Jobs

“We strongly believe that the essence of the job of a CPI is one of law enforcement more than social work. We therefore recommend that the qualifications for the position of CPI be altered accordingly and require more education and/or experience in that realm.

We recommend more training of a law enforcement nature for CPIs.

We recommend that a requirement of case background review prior to initiating a home visit pursuant to a Hotline call be instituted and in instances of extreme emergency, that a protocol be developed for providing the case background information to the CPI en route by telephone.

We recommend that each CPI have 24 hour access through a portable device to the entire case file.

We recommend that CPIs or their supervisors have the authority and responsibility to escalate a classification of a reported case of abuse received from the Hotline Call Center.

We recommend for CPIs that, in order to preclude this bias of trust, a requirement to conduct investigative steps like those listed above, must be made mandatory with appropriate punitive action for lack of compliance.”

Lead Agency vs. Contract Agency Recommendation

“Therefore, we recommend that DCF require all lead agencies to handle some full case management responsibilities in-house.” They believe that greater hands-on understanding of the work in the field as well as greater control over consistency of the work would occur.

Case Manager Recommendation
“We recommend for Case Managers that again, in order to preclude this bias of trust, a requirement to conduct investigative steps like those listed above, must be made mandatory with appropriate punitive action for lack of compliance.”

One Database System Recommendations

“We recommend that DCF develop a policy that requires strict compliance by all persons who are required to input data into one database system. This will apply to all DCF employees and all agencies involved in the Child Welfare System including all Lead Agencies and FCMAs.

We recommend that DCF develop a policy that will impose discipline or punitive measures for
those who fail to comply with the strict policy to input all necessary data in the one database
system. This will apply to all DCF employees and all agencies involved in the Child Welfare
System including all Lead Agencies and FCMAs.”

“The Case Manager Must Recognize Red Flags and Patterns”
They recommend a point person who “owns” the case. Pages 16-18 list all of the red flags that were missed. We have pasted them here to illustrate how OBVIOUS the issues were to any thinking person. One big thing that this list does not discuss is how the aunt and uncle from Texas were begging the courts for custody at the SAME TIME that these red flags were occuring. It is not like there were no other viable options for these children.

“• April 2004: Caregiver (foster parent) needs to be involved in Nubia and Victor’s lives and school progress
• December 2004: Nurse informed Case Manager that
o Nubia had missed follow-up medical appointments for a year (needs to see doctor
three times a year for Special Needs issue)
o Foster parent never goes with children to doctor, has transportation take them
o The child is not in a good placement because the foster parent does not care for the
child’s well-being
o Nurse recommended medical foster home
o Nurse expressed concern if child is adopted by this caregiver as she would have sole
responsibility to care for the child
o The children have not had their 4-year-old shots
o Doesn’t know how the children are in daycare without having had their 4-year-old
shots
• January 2005: DCF abuse report (Hotline call)
• February 2006: DCF abuse report (Hotline call)
• November 2006: Nubia has 9 excused school absences
• March 2007: DCF abuse report (Hotline call)
• April 2007: Nubia has 19 excused school absences
• April 2007: Nubia having academic difficulty due to court and psychological evaluation
• April 2007: Victor has 13 excused school absences
• May 2007: Victor has school psychological case opened
• May 2007: Guardian ad Litem objects in Court to continued placement of the children with the Barahonas (Court held hearing, found placement safe and appropriate. In addition, it is important to note that at some point during the pre-adoption period, the Guardian ad Litem was barred from the Barahona home due to inquiries made with the school. According to the DCF report, Guardian ad Litem was dismissed from the case to “smooth things over with the Barahonas.”)
• June 2007: Children psychologically evaluated at request of Guardian ad Litem attorney, brought to evaluation by caregiver
• June 2007: During psychological evaluation, both children scored for depression, Nubia moderate, Victor mild, recommendation for individual therapy for each child, thoughts of suicide were evident and Nubia stated that she thought something terrible was going to happen to her
• September 2007: Victor and Nubia have to repeat first grade
• November 2007: Nubia has 6 school absences, 3 unexcused
• November 2007: Victor has 3 school absences, 2 unexcused
• December 2007: Case Manager unable to see the children in the home, Case Manager attempted two unannounced visits to the home after learning that the phone had been disconnected, children seen at school and no concerns for their safety noted. (In the DCF report there is reference that the Case Manager documented that at one visit no one answered the door even though voices could be heard inside the home; during another home visit the Case Manager was told that Nubia was at day care, however Nubia was not found there when the Case Manager followed up that day.)
• November 2008: Nubia has 7 unexcused school absences due to lice; caregiver’s failure to provide medical documentation
• November 2008: Recommendation for updated medical examinations
• Supervisory review notes that “foster parent seems to have become less enthusiastic about providing documents timely”
• December 2008: Recommendations again that children need updated physical examinations
• January 2009: Nubia has 10 school absences year-to-date
• February 2009: Children still need updated physical examination
• March 2009: Children still need updated physical examination
• March 2009: Nubia has 13 school absences (11 excused) year-to-date
• March 2009: Decision made that if abuse reports found “no indicators” then no need to “staff” if no other concerns and if nothing else in file that indicates licensing violations then the cases do not need to go to committee
• May 2009: Adoption finalized
• Post-adoption/June 2009: DCF abuse report (Hotline call)
• Post-adoption/Summer 2009: Withdrawal from public school for homeschooling”

Foster Parent Qualification Recommendations

“We recommend that psychological evaluations be done of foster parents who seek to adopt children from Florida’s Child Welfare System.

We recommend that persons who have been approved and authorized to serve as foster parents be required to undergo a full re-licensure every two (2) years to ensure they still meet the criteria to serve as foster parents.

We recommend that foster parents who are the subject of allegations of abuse or neglect of their wards be placed on some form of probationary status that requires more frequent visits and checks on the children in their care. We further recommend that any such probationary period be no less than six (6) months.”

Mandatory Post Adoption Service Recommendations

“We recommend that DCF institute a new mandatory policy for all adoptive parents who adopt Special Needs Children. Any person who adopts a Special Needs Child will be required to receive services from the CBC Lead Agency or Full Case Management Agency that was previously assigned to that child. Post-adoptive services for Special Needs Children shall be provided for at least the first twelve (12) months after the adoption has been completed.

We recommend that prospective adoptive parents who do not agree to receive the minimum twelve (12) months of post-adoptive services for Special Needs Children be denied the opportunity to adopt such children.”

Homeschooling After Adoption from Foster Care Recommendation

Wow! Great Idea!

“Therefore, we recommend that in instances where parents, adoptive or not, opt for homeschooling, that the statutorily required written notice of intent be forwarded to DCF to determine if any reports have been made to the DCF Hotline, whether ultimately founded or unfounded, substantiated or unsubstantiated, and, if so, be the immediate subject of investigation by DCF and a period of monitoring by DCF.”

Apt Quote for Any Case of Foster or Adoptive Parent Abuse

The report states that “there was an utter failure to have the full picture and there was a persistent, insidious bias of trust. Here, these two factors combined to exponentially raise the risk of disaster. Murder was the result.”
DCF Response

“DCF released the following statement in response to the grand jury recommendations:

“We appreciate the hard work and effort that the Grand jury put into their report and recommendations. The tragic death of Nubia affected everyone in our community. As noted in the grand jury’s report, the department has already implemented 19 recommendations and has already begun working on four long-term recommendations from our independent review panel, which include the revamping of the abuse hotline, hiring more protective investigators and strengthening our relationships with community partners and law enforcement agencies. We are thoroughly reviewing the grand jury’s recommendations in order to see what supplemental actions we can incorporate to prevent a similar tragedy from occurring in the future.”

They do not say which 19 have been implemented.

Grand Jury Recommends Critical Changes To DCF
[WPBF 7/25/11 by Erin Guy]

For the rest of our coverage of the Barahona case, click here.

Update: Some of the recommendations are being crafted into new child protection laws.

“The bill (HB 803) passed unanimously Thursday. It now goes to the Senate where a similar measure (SB 2044) is awaiting a final committee hearing.

The Department of Children and Families proposed the legislation following the death of Nubia Barahona. Her decomposing body was found in her father’s truck along an interstate in South Florida a year ago.

The bills include changes in abuse hotline procedures and training and higher pay for child abuse investigators.

There’s also a requirement to fingerprint and conduct background checks on all over-18 members of households where children are placed and the creation of a central database for child abuse reports.”

Florida House passes child protection bill inspired by death of 11-year-old Nubia Barahona
[The Republic 2/16/12 by Associated Press]

See HB 803 at this link: http://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2012/803  February 6 2012 version available in this pdf

See SB2044 at this link: http://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2012/2044 February 13, 2012 version available in this pdf

REFORM Puzzle Pieces

Update 2: “David Wilkins, state secretary for the Department of Children & Families, hopes to find more foster parents like the Whites through a new foster care initiative, which includes seeking to add 1,200 new foster parents in Florida over the next year.

He kicked off the initiative Friday at the annual Florida State Foster/Adoptive Parent Association Conference at the Hilton Daytona Beach Oceanfront Resort that continues through Sunday.

“We, in essence, want a family for every child,” Wilkins said.

With an increase in children going into foster care due to several factors including abuse of prescription drugs, the state is facing crowded foster homes and too many children in group homes, according to Wilkins and his wife, Tanya, who has played an integral role in the initiative.

Statewide, about 20,000 children are in out-of-home care, which includes foster homes, group homes, relatives’ homes and other placements. For Volusia, Flagler and Putnam counties, the number is 1,055 — the highest it has been since 2004.

The local foster care agency, Community Partnership for Children, is working on identifying the causes. But some reasons, officials say, include more parents abusing prescription drugs; children staying in care longer because of a lack of affordable housing, day care and employment opportunities for their parents; and relatives, particularly grandparents, struggling to care for their grandchildren.

Tanya Wilkins said there is a “huge, huge problem here in Florida” with the state last year losing more foster parents than it recruited.

“We need many, many more foster parents and not just any kind of foster parent and it’s not about room and board any more,” Tanya Wilkins said. “We need foster parents who are going to focus on these children and do what these children need to be successful adults.”

The “Fostering Florida’s Future” initiative (www.fosteringflorida.com/), Wilkins said, not only works on recruiting and retaining foster parents and providing more training and support but also helps the children become more successful. Success means not only helping children with their grades and graduating, but “letting kids in foster care be kids” by being involved in extracurricular activities and spending time with friends.

Other parts of the initiative include:

Working more closely with foster parents through the investigative process. Adding a new three-year license for foster parents in good standing instead of going through a lengthy yearly process. [This is concerning as we have many cases in our How Could You? Archive in which older foster parents were given a free pass because of their time in the system]
Standardize and streamline the home study process.
Letting children attend proms, date nights, slumber parties with friends and learn to drive a car.
Foster parents, when they can do so safely, will work with a child’s biological family so children will remain connected.

Wilkins, who became secretary 16 months ago, said the state has “put too many rules and processes in place that are hindering some of our kids’ successes.”

He said he wants every child in the system to feel “they are being treated just like every other kid in their neighborhood and their communities.”

Wilkins is also directing more funding into treatment for prescription drug abuse.

“We don’t want to remove children. We want to give families every chance they can to be good parents,” he said.

Alan Abramowitz, executive director of the statewide Guardian Ad Litem Program, which represents foster children in court, said foster parents should be involved in making decisions about what foster children can and cannot do such as playing football or going on a date instead of sitting in a “room full of lawyers.”

Trudy Petkovich, president of the Florida State Foster/Adoptive Parent Association, said the initiatives are all positive and reinforce respect for foster parents and acknowledgement that “they are more than baby sitters and are the most important people in a child’s life while they are in care.”

Mark Jones, CEO of Community Partnership for Children, which oversees children in local foster care, said foster parents are “the heroes of the child-welfare system,” who nurture, listen and care for the children and provide “crisis management.”
1,200 new foster parents sought

[News Journal Online 6/23/12 by Deborah Circelli]

Update 3: Call Center has been revamped.

“Department of Children and Families Secretary David Wilkins said Thursday the call center no longer is plagued by outdated technology, vague rules and time-consuming processes. Now, abuse-hotline counselors efficiently gather information using questions generated by a computer system. That information is checked by command center staff who add more details such as call history and criminal background. The case then is passed down to a DCF field office where it will be assigned to an investigator in about an hour.”

“The changes to the hotline were made following recommendations from the Barahona Investigative Panel, formed to learn from the 2011 death of 10-year-old Nubia in South Florida.”

“Wilkins said the new equipment was purchased through a $7 million appropriation from the Legislature, which also allowed the hiring of 47 more center workers. The call center is permitted 223 counselors but an extra 13 wait in the wings in training to compensate for high turnover. Pay for the position starts at $31,000 a year, according to DCF spokeswoman Erin Gillespie.

Wilkins said there certainly is no shortage of work at the call center, which saw a 15 percent spike in cases after details emerged in the case involving Penn State Coach Jerry Sandusky about a year ago.”

DCF revamps child abuse call center

[Tallahasee.com 12/12/12 by Arek Sarkissian II]

Update 4: “More than 5,000 Florida child protection staffers began training Monday under a new system that emphasizes safety and consistency and was implemented after the deaths of a handful of children who had recent contact with child protective officials.

Department of Children and Families Secretary David Wilkins said the tool is not just another layer of paperwork bureaucracy. He said he was stunned when he took the reins of the agency in 2011 to learn after riding along with child investigators that basic, obvious safety questions weren’t being asked during home visits.

There were no standard procedures for investigations, so each jurisdiction ended up doing it differently.

Investigators making home visits are shifting from just judging risk to a more streamlined assessment that looks at whether the child is safe or unsafe. They are being trained in some parts of the state now, but the model won’t be implemented statewide until October.

“Will they still make mistakes, yes. It’s still not fullproof,” said Wilkins. “But if you’re afraid that an investigator is not experienced enough or knowledgeable enough to ask the right questions, then that’s exactly why you want this template.”

Critics say the tool is a hybrid based on a successful model used in 16 other states and worry that it has not been properly tested. But Wilkins said it was tested in two pilot programs.

The new training comes less than two weeks after police found 2-year-old Ezra Raphael unconscious on the dining room of his Miami home. His mother’s boyfriend, Claude Alexis, was charged with first-degree murder and child abuse after. An autopsy said the boy’s death was a homicide from injuries to his back and body. The toddler was home alone with Alexis at the time, according to a DCF report.

DCF officials said the child’s mother, Cierrah Raphael, left the boy with a caregiver in Gainesville in 2012 because she couldn’t take care of him. Raphael, a former foster child, told the investigator she had turned to prostitution to try to make ends meet. In February, DCF asked the unnamed caregiver to call the hotline if the mother ever tried to get her child back.

But DCF said the caregiver never made that call and Ezra went back to his mom, who was charged with neglect after the boy’s death.

According to the February DCF report, risk was high because the mother had lost custody of an older child and was deemed unfit. But that was mitigated because the child was with another adult. DCF closed its investigation saying there were no indicators of inadequate supervision or threatened harm and no action was taken.

“Every time we have a child die that’s the ultimate failure of the system,” said Wilkins, who said investigators didn’t ask the right questions in Ezra’s case. “That’s an obvious case where the tool could have made a difference.”

In another case, DCF fired an investigator in May after they said she forged documents about substance-abuse treatment for a mother months before her 11-month old baby died in a sweltering car.

Catalina Bruno is accused of leaving her son Bryan Osceola, along with her purse and a can of beer, in the car outside their Miami home. The boy had a 109-degree temperature when he was found. His mother was charged with aggravated manslaughter. But DCF was involved with the family six months before the boy’s death after 30-year-old Bruno was accused of driving recklessly, hit several walls before she passed out with the engine still running with the baby lying in her lap. The car reeked of alcohol, according to documents released by DCF.

The investigator was supposed to contact a drug treatment expert to evaluate the mother to determine whether Bruno’s children were safe to remain there, but DCF said the investigator falsified those records and Bryan remained in Bruno’s care.

Police are also investigating the recent deaths of two other children.

On June 10, 4-year-old Antwan Hope was found dead during an unsupervised weekend visit with his mother, who had lost custody of the boy. ChildNet, the South Florida agency that contracts with DCF, was in the process of reuniting the child with his mother. An email sent to ChildNet was not immediately returned Monday.

And in southwest Florida, authorities are investigating the death of 1-and- 1/2-year-old Fernando Barahona, who was found unresponsive in his crib in June. Two weeks before Barahona’s death, DCF was called after the boy was taken to the hospital with fractures to his skull and back. His mother and boyfriend said he was knocked over by a dog, according to DCF records.

DCF can’t legally comment on cases where abuse and neglect have not been confirmed and stressed the deaths were under investigation.

Miami Judge Jeri Beth Cohen said Raphael, Barahona and Osceola’s deaths “were all very preventable” and lamented that the agency continues to make the same mistakes. The embroiled agency made national headlines nearly a decade ago when a caseworker lied about visiting foster child Rilya Wilson for more than a year, even though she was filing reports and telling judges the girl was fine. The girl is presumed dead.

“It’s the lack of training, the lack of accountability, the lack of supervision, the lack of diligence, the inability to read red flags, to work smartly,” said Cohen. “It just goes up the chain of command and when you have every level shirking their responsibility you’re going to get tragedy.””

Fla. child welfare agency to train 5,000 in new system after child deaths

[The Republic 7/1/13 by Kelli Kennedy]