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Children in State Foster Care
Children under the protection of the State may be provided two types of assistance. These children may live either in room and board-paid foster care or protective supervision in the home of a relative or approved non-relative after removal from their home.
Why Is This Important?
Assisting abused and neglected children is a priority for the Florida Department of Children and Families. This assistance includes providing support services to children and their families and providing a safe place for children to live while their family problems are resolved.
There are thousands of children in Florida each year who are not able to stay at home for a variety of reasons. These children range in age from newborns to teenagers. They are all races and nationalities. Some are part of a sibling group that wants to stay together. Others have serious medical problems.
If there are no relatives to care for them, these children are placed with a foster family. Foster parents are special people — they open their hearts and homes to children in need of safety, love and nurturing. What sets foster parents apart is their ability to love a child like one of their own, regardless of whether the child lives with them for a month, or for a year. Foster parents have the challenge of providing an atmosphere that helps a child heal and prepare to go back home, if possible, or to help them prepare to go to a new permanent home.
How Is Florida Doing?
Whenever possible, the Florida Department of Children and Families tries to help families keep their children safely in their own homes. When this is not possible, the Department's goal is to return children to a permanent home as quickly as it is safe to do so. This effort results in fewer children who must live in foster care for long periods of time. The success of this effort is reflected in a reduction of the total number of children who live in foster homes at any one point in time. Since fiscal year 2000-2001, the number of children in foster care has dropped from 32,277, to 27, 281 on June 30, 2007.
Scorecard
What Influences Children in State Foster Care?
The need for foster care is affected by a multitude of factors such as: substance abuse, mental health, domestic violence, sexual and physical abuse, neglect, and a lack of relatives to care for children. Children exposed to these factors suffer behavioral, social, cognitive and emotional problems that can continue into adulthood.
What Is the State's Role?
The Florida Department of Children and Families is responsible for the safety and well-being of children who cannot remain in their homes safely. To meet this challenge, the department has placed priority on several key initiatives:
• Developing a community-based system of care, which is outcome and evidenced based, applying best practice and fostering local initiatives that will bring children in foster care to permanency in a timely, lasting manner.
• Increasing foster parent recruitment and retention efforts to include partnering with local civic organizations, churches and advocacy groups.
• Developing transitional and support services for young adults who are leaving foster care and moving into independent living.
• Working with teens in foster care to outline the 'Rights and Expectations for Children and Youth in Shelter or Foster Care.'
• Promoting the Healthy Marriage initiative through grant funding. Researchers have found many benefits for children and youth who are raised by parents in healthy marriages, compared to unhealthy marriages
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