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Foster Care Losses Prompt Changes

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By ANNA SCOTT and TODD RUGER / Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: October 11, 2007

JACKSONVILLE - The group charged with cleaning up the state's foster care system after one child went missing and another was found dead released its first recommendations for change Wednesday.

Ideas ranged from collecting DNA samples from foster children to allow better tracking to ensuring all adults living in a foster home have background checks to following up on previous requirements from the Department of Children & Families that foster care children be seen on a monthly basis.

The 13-member Task Force on Child Protection is the third task force to form in the past five years to address problems in the state's foster care system.

Better success is expected with this group because the task force will work throughout the next year to be sure suggestions are implemented.

"We've been so inept as a system at implementing anything," said Glen Casel, a task force member and the executive director of a foster care program in Seminole. "We declare things a lot. We need to learn how to make a lasting change."

The task force formed after Courtney Clark, a 2-year-old Pinellas County girl, went missing for nine months while in the care of the Sarasota Family YMCA, which is under contract with the state to run foster programs in five counties, including Sarasota.

Shortly after the Clark incident, 18-month-old Kenia Valencia of Bradenton suffocated under a stove while, according to authorities, her mother was passed out from drugs.

The mother, Maribel Chavez, had been reunited with her daughters by the Sarasota YMCA just a few weeks earlier, despite a pending criminal child neglect charge.

Both cases showed communication and oversight problems between DCF and its private foster care agencies and law enforcement, which the task force aims to fix.

For example, authorities were notified that Clark's mother had planned to snatch her, but the law does not allow a foster child to be declared missing if taken by a parent. One of the task force's recommendations is to change that law.

Within a month, the task force will release a report on the Sarasota YMCA, which over the years has struggled with low rankings compared with other foster care providers.

It will approve a final report of recommendations on Nov. 2.

YMCA Chief Executive Officer Carl Weinrich said the task force seems to be doing a good, objective job of looking at problems exposed in the Clark case.

"I think they're trying to keep in mind it's not about making 1,800 more rules for the caseworker, you know?" Weinrich said.

The Clark case exposed flaws in the system that can be fixed, Weinrich said, citing the idea that if a parent makes off with their child, no law has been broken.

"I think everybody involved learned from that," Weinrich said. "I just hope they do some legislation to fix it."

DCF spokesman Al Zimmerman said that after the Clark case, the state searched its records and found dozens of children throughout the state who had not been seen for more than a month.

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