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Lawsuit Challenges Foster System

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By SHERRI ACKERMAN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 26, 2008

TAMPA - A Tallahassee lawyer and child advocate has sued a Hillsborough County foster care agency and the state, accusing them of treating foster children like "hostages."
Karen Gievers filed the lawsuit last week on behalf of a 17-year-old foster boy, identified as "Jacob Peters," and at least 2,400 other children in temporary custody of Hillsborough Kids Inc.

The private agency contracts with the Florida Department of Children & Families to provide local foster care and adoption services.

The suit asks the circuit court to classify the local foster care system as unconstitutional, and to block Hillsborough Kids from taking children into its care. Attorneys also want the court to force DCF to hold the private agency accountable for not meeting performance standards.

Those standards include complying with a statewide goal set by legislators that children are either reunited with their families or adopted within 12 months. About 1,892 children have remained in Hillsborough Kids' care longer than 12 months, with the average stay hovering at 18 months, said George Sheldon, DCF's safety director.

"Clearly, we need to be doing a better job," Sheldon said, "but simply closing down the system is not likely."

Length, Quality Of Care Questioned

Of the about 2,900 children in Hillsborough Kids' care, 2,400 are in temporary custody of the agency, the lawsuit says. Seven of those have been in care for 15 years; 60 for more than 10 years; more than half of the number of children have been in care for two years and longer.

"All are held as captive hostages," wrote Gievers and co-counsel Roy Wasson of Miami. "Here, every child in the system is being held by the foster system, most not for 10 weeks or 10 months, but for years.

"This is wrong, shameful and unacceptable," the suit says. "The practice should be condemned, and these victims of abuse and neglect should be exonerated, freed and relieved of being used as the cash cow for so many who do so little for the children's needs and well-being."

No one would argue that the situation isn't a tragedy, said Don Dixon, a former DCF administrator who serves as assistant executive director of The Children's Board of Hillsborough County.

"Everybody knows if you have a choice, you don't want kids in the foster system," Dixon said. "If they have to be in the foster system, you make it for the shortest time possible."

Dixon points to the past year, in which Hillsborough Kids saw a 42 percent decrease in the number of children removed from their homes.

"That's a significant reduction," he said.

Every child deserves a permanent, loving family, said Jeff Rainey, Hillsborough Kids' chief executive officer.

"Unfortunately, we have children in our care who suffer from serious chronic illnesses and disabilities," he wrote in an e-mail Friday. "Sometimes a foster home is the best possible setting for those children because there are medical benefits available to them that might not be available in other placements."

Figures provided by Sheldon and Hillsborough Kids show the county had about 2,600 children in state care as of Thursday; 1,166 in licensed foster homes; 86 in shelters; and 1,340 in relative and nonrelative, unlicensed care.

Rainey reported 10 children who have been in care for 15 years or longer: Seven have an immune deficiency disorder and would lose their Medicaid waiver benefits if adopted; two are medically complex and caseworkers are actively searching for adoptive parents; and one is profoundly challenged and is living in a home operated by the Agency for Persons With Disabilities.

Thirty-eight children have been in state care for more than 10 years, he said. Of those, 21 are involved in adoption efforts. About 80 percent of the children in care have a guardian ad litem appointed to represent them in court proceedings, Sheldon said.

As far as using psychotropic medications, they must be prescribed by a licensed physician and court ordered, he said.

A Troubled Young Man

According to the lawsuit, Jacob, whose real name is withheld in court documents, has been in foster care since he was 4 years old, when authorities took him from his biological mother and her sex-offender boyfriend.

Jacob went to live with his biological father, but within days his dad asked the state to take the boy. In 13 years, caseworkers moved Jacob to 45 different placements and health providers have received nearly $400,000 for Jacob's care.

During that time, Jacob ran away from foster homes and group homes numerous times, acted out sexually, abused and killed animals, and tried to kill himself. The state gave him dangerous psychotropic drugs such as Prozac, Adderall and Depakote - many at the same time and some not meant for children, the lawsuit contends.

Eventually, he was labeled unstable, which scared off potential foster and adoptive parents, Gievers said.

In 11 months, Jacob turns 18 and will be free to go into the world as an adult. What then?

There are options, but most aren't good, Dixon said. A judge could adjudicate Jacob into the adult mental health system or he might wind up in jail, where he eventually could receive mental health services.

"Or he could live on his own," Dixon offered, "but it doesn't sound like he has the requisite skills to do so. Unfortunately, child welfare systems across the country tend to act like the children never existed once they turn 18."

Reporter Sherri Ackerman can be reached at (813) 259-7144 or sackerman@tampatrib.com.

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