Florida's Foster Children Entitled To Learn Their Personal Histories

Imagine you are a teenage foster child who has been in the system so long you have little or no memory of your biological parents.

You may not know your Social Security number. You may not know what really happened to your family. You may not know your medical history.

And the state - which has effectively been your parents all these years - can make it impossible for you to answer these questions.

State lawmakers will have an opportunity next spring to help foster children take control of their past, and their future, by giving them greater access to the Florida Department of Children and Families files.

Foster children are supposed to have access to their personal files, but Florida public records law creates exemptions for things like Social Security numbers and medical information. Misinterpretations of those exemptions have meant foster children have been blocked by both DCF and judges from getting crucial information.

DCF's secrecy cannot always be attributed to concern for the child. The agency still struggles with public scrutiny. And no one is likely to be more critical of DCF decisions than a foster child who finds the agency's decisions put him or her at risk.

Laws that exist to protect foster children's privacy from the general public shouldn't be used to deny them key personal information.

Under the refreshing leadership of Secretary Bob Butterworth, DCF has taken great strides toward accountability, and it is heartening to see the administration push for foster children to have greater access to their records, including those held by private providers who have state contracts to provide foster care.

Butterworth told the governor's Commission on Open Government that the current public records laws are murky and don't give foster children a clear right to their own information. The laws also often keep information from potential foster parents and scare away some who aren't comfortable bringing traumatized children into their homes when they know so little about them.

There have been instances, the panel was told, that foster children were denied access to personal material by judges and social workers who didn't think they could handle the details of their pasts.

But that kind of paternalistic attitude doesn't help a young person take charge of his or her life.

Obviously, no foster child should be plopped alone in a room with a file to confront the disturbing facts of his or her past. Counselors should prepare them for what they will learn.

The information should be handled in an age-appropriate manner. And great sensitivity needs to be paid toward the fact that these children may not only learn they were not only abused or neglected by their biological parents, but also by the system as well. DCF caseworkers should help these children process what they learn after the records have been revealed.

But ultimately, that history belongs to the child, and the state has no right to hide it.