The Florida Senate’s Committee on Children and Families has filed a sweeping measure aimed at shoring up the child welfare system.
It would recruit case managers, combat child sex trafficking and create a professional foster care pilot program.
The bill (SPB 7012) would require the Department of Children & Families to collect more data about where children in state care are placed, to keep them away from commercial sexual exploitation.
It would also require DCF to develop a recruitment program for case managers and child protective investigators, reaching out to retired first responders, law enforcement officers, teachers and others with special skills.
And it would establish a four-year foster care pilot program for children with complex mental health needs, placing them with specifically trained foster families.
Senate President Ben Albritton says the child welfare system will never replace the role of family, so it’s necessary to get children into permanent, loving homes as fast as possible.
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