More Than 600 New Foster Homes Licensed
State child welfare officials have recruited more than 600 news foster homes. The increase comes after lawmakers passed a measure in 2013 aimed at improving the quality of people recruited to become...
View ArticleLawmakers Tweak Extended Foster Care Law
Lawmakers are working on changes to a two-year-old law that extended foster care in Florida from ages 18 to 21 and sought to give kids more time to prepare for independence. Hailed as groundbreaking...
View Article13% Of FL Foster Kids In Group Homes
A new study shows that 13 percent of Florida's 18,000 foster youth are living in group homes instead of with a family. A national report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation revealed 57,000 of the 400,000...
View ArticleAdvocates: Newly Signed Guardianship Bills Will Go Long Way For Elderly,...
Governor Rick Scott recently signed bills aimed at changing Florida’s guardianship laws. One relates to helping the exploited elderly and another aims to help developmentally disabled kids aging out of...
View ArticleSenate Bill Would Overhaul Foster-Care Placements
A bill aimed at reducing instability for foster children has started to move forward in the Florida Senate and would require the child-welfare system to match kids with their best placement options ---...
View ArticleRate Of Kids Coming Into Foster Care Rising — But Is It Too Much?
More children are coming into Florida's foster-care system after a sweeping child-welfare reform law went into effect 19 months ago, but officials say the state is trying to focus on what's best for...
View ArticleClaims Bill Further Compensating Surviving Child Abuse Victim Starts Moving...
A bill further compensating a surviving child of an abusive adoptive home is starting to move in the Florida Senate.
View ArticleAfter Two Suicides In 60 Days, Lawyer Says Florida's Privatization Of Foster...
A preliminary hearing was held Thursday in the case of Naika Venant, the 14-year-old girl who broadcast her suicide on Facebook Live from her Miami Gardens foster home earlier this year . It was the...
View ArticleOpioid Crisis Puts Strain On Foster Care In Sarasota, Manatee
Manatee and Sarasota Counties have seen overdose deaths from drugs like heroin, fentanyl and carfentanil spike in the past few years. At the same time, the number of children being removed from their...
View ArticleFoster Parents Help Family Torn Apart By Addiction Reunite
As Health News Florida reported last week , the opioid crisis in Manatee and Sarasota Counties is putting a strain on their foster care system. But the situation isn't entirely bleak. Now we'll hear...
View ArticleFlorida Matters: Foster Care In The Suncoast Region
There's been a spike in the number of kids being removed from their homes in the Tampa Bay Area over the past few years. And foster care agencies are struggling to keep up with the influx. Click here...
View ArticleNumber Of American Children In Foster Care Increases For 4th Consecutive Year
A new government report says the number of children in the U.S. foster care system has increased for the fourth year in a row, due largely to an uptick in substance abuse by parents. The report ,...
View ArticleBills Proposed to Help Young Victims of Opioid Crisis
The Florida Legislature didn’t waste a moment during its first week when it came to addressing the opioid addiction crisis that is exploding across the state.
View ArticleSeries Of Child Welfare Bills Continue Moving In Florida Legislature
A number of child welfare bills are continuing to move in the Florida Legislature.
View ArticleUSF Researchers Find Link Between Opioid Prescriptions, Parental Neglect
The opioid epidemic has become so severe it’s considered a national public health emergency, and a recent report suggests it could be linked to a higher rate of children in foster homes.
View ArticleBeyond Opioids: How A Family Came Together To Stay Together
For most of her childhood, growing up in southeastern Pennsylvania, Kelly Zimmerman felt alone and anxious. She despaired when her mother was depressed or working late shifts; when her parents fought...
View ArticleFew Safeguards For Foster Kids On Psych Drugs
Thousands of children in foster care may be getting powerful psychiatric drugs prescribed to them without basic safeguards, according to a federal watchdog's investigation that finds a failure to care...
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