Foster Care

In a statewide effort to safeguard children, photos of children in foster care who are available for adoption will no longer be publicly available. A new law adds extra privacy layers.

A federal audit found lax oversight and multiple cases of child welfare workers failing to follow state regulations on psychotropic or opioid medication.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation released a data brief Monday focusing on those older foster youth, especially as they prepare to transitioned to living on their own.

Foster kids could go missing for a number of reasons including getting picked up by a non-custodial parent, running away or even becoming a victim of human trafficking.

The company will shut down its facility in Tampa on June 30.

The law boosts payments for family and friends who take in kids and expands tuition waivers for higher education to include more young people who spent time in the system.

It will also will increase monthly payments to relatives and nonrelatives who serve as caregivers to foster children.

Family Support Services says staff shortages have posed challenges during the transition, but the agency is optimistic about improving child welfare in the community.

It's the second time in recent months that the state chose an agency from outside the Tampa Bay area to run child welfare in the region.

Sen. Lauren Book's measure would create an Office of Child Representation to provide lawyers who will represent children in certain situations.

It's still unclear who will replace Eckerd to provide child welfare services in the region and whether that company will offer jobs to affected employees.

Eckerd Connects, a contractor under the Department of Children and Families, is being investigated for housing abused, neglected children in its office spaces where several have been hurt.