TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — With backing from Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, a Senate committee next week will take up a bill that would make changes in the state’s child-welfare system, including developing a program to recruit child-protective investigators and case managers.
The bill (SPB 7012) was released Thursday and will go before the Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee on Tuesday, the first day of the annual legislative session. The recruitment program would seek to attract people who have previously held jobs in areas such as public safety.
“Case managers and child protective investigators are a critical component of the child welfare system,” committee Chairwoman Erin Grall, R-Vero Beach, said in a prepared statement. “This legislation will help Florida recruit retired law enforcement officers, emergency first responders, military servicemembers, teachers, health care practitioners, and others who have specific training and skills honed over their careers in other fields that will benefit vulnerable children in state care.”
The bill also includes developing a pilot “treatment foster care” program that would use specially trained foster families who would receive extra pay. The program would focus on children who could be subject to frequent changes in foster-care placement, with indicators such as behavioral issues or involvement with the Department of Juvenile Justice.
“We know we do not currently have enough family-like foster placements for children with high behavioral acuity,” Grall said. “The professional foster care pilot program will help us keep more children in a family-like setting with specifically trained foster care families.”
In a statement, Albritton said the child-welfare system is “something we always have to work on. There’s always room for improvement. As hard as we try, government can never replace the role of family.
The faster we can get children into loving, permanent homes, the better off those children will be in the long run.”
This story originates from News Service Florida and the original story can be found HERE.
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