The leader of Florida's troubled child welfare system is asking state leaders for the funding to slash caseloads for front-line staff and other proposals aimed at keeping more children safe.
Department of Children and Families Interim Secretary Esther Jacobo said she has met with Governor Rick Scott about her proposals, including one that would reduce caseloads to ten per child protective investigator – down from a current 13.3 cases.
She also wants to put two-person teams of investigators on all cases involving children under four with risk factors such as domestic violence and substance abuse in their homes.Jacobo says she told Scott she also wants to put quality assurance oversight of open cases in real time, so that child protective investigators would be able to get help making critical decisions while they're still in process.
"He wanted me to walk him through what we needed for resourcing", siad Jacobo. "And he literally in this meeting said to me that the goal is that we have to stop children from getting hurt if it were preventable by DCF."
Jacobo's proposals follow the recommendations of the non-profit Casey Family Programs, which reviewed 40 child deaths in Florida and presented their findings to the Legislature.
The reviewers found that both DCF and community-based care organizations should focus less on specific incidents of abuse and more on reducing the risk to children by providing services to stabilize their families.
House Democratic Leader Perry Thurston has criticized Scott for the children's deaths, saying his cost-cutting contributed to them.