DCF, private agency at $1 million impasse (Jeb privatizing child welfare)

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Fri, Jun. 04, 2004




CHILD WELFARE


DCF, private agency at $1 million impasse

At loggerheads over funding, Our Kids Inc., which was selected to manage Miami's foster care program, is threatening to break off negotiations.

BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER

[e-mail]


Four months before state child-welfare authorities are scheduled to hand off the management of foster care services in Miami-Dade County to a private agency, the directors of Our Kids Inc. are threatening to break off negotiations over a $1 million impasse.

The $1 million that separates Our Kids from the Department of Children & Families is about 1 percent of the community-based care agency's yearly budget, said Beth A. Barrett, a consultant for the group. The money consists mainly of one-time-only start-up costs.

At a meeting Thursday of Miami's Community-Based Care Alliance, a group helping to shepherd the county's transition from DCF to private management, members blasted state officials, saying the safety of children could be jeopardized.
(snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/states/florida/counties/broward_county/8833348.htm
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[iconoclastic cat]

1. Hey, kids---get ready for some faith-based neglect!

Woo-hoo!

[notadmblnd]

2. didn't we have private orphanages once before in this country?

Weren't they used to place children as indentured servants to farmers and the like? Wasn't it bad then?

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. At least we won't have to wait for these children to become adults

to tell their stories. Awareness of child abuse & molestation is one thing for which we can thank the Catholic Church. Amen.

[denverbill]

9. Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses? n/t

[salin]

4. Was this the private company working for the Florida DCF

who put a couple of foster care teens up in a hotel in Florida - where the kids were unsupervised and ended up involved with alcohol and men? Can't remember the story but it barked of NONsupervision.

[soup]

8. I Really need to figure out how to connect 2 computers

so I can access info stored on the 'back-up' without having to disconnect this one, and set up the other one.

Your question jogged memories and piqued my curiosity, but the saved files must be on the other comp.

Found a few articles like this one and transcripts on the incident you mentioned, but no name other than 'private company' and jeb saying the contract had been suspended based on what happened.

Maybe someone else will remember the name of the company that was supposed to be supervising those six girls.

I doubt very much if it's the same company. Then again, it is jeb's Florida we're talking about here.

edit to fix link.

[Divernan]

5. The Bush Way - mismanage(understaff & underfund) state agencies

until they are riddled with scandal. Then claim you're going to fix the problem and save the taxpayers money by privatising. Query:
when you have to subtract a layer of profit (because "non-profit" simplly means there are no stockholders and all the money goes to the owners and highest level management) from the taxpayer funded services, how can you maintain let alone improve the previous level of care? In nursing home situations, the privatisers cut expenses by reducing the quality and amount of food; and by hiring people who can't get jobs at MacDonalds.
For example, if you slap a plate with pizza on it in front of someone too far gone to feed themselves, and you haven't hired enough attendants to feed residents one-on-one; you can get by with ONE untouched piece of pizza, not two or three; and nobody asks for seconds. None of those "Oliver" moments: "Can I have some more, sir?" This has been the situation in Pennsylvania for a long time, and meanwhile top management at these places go to week long "training" sessions in the Carribbean.

I seriously doubt that Jeb required accompanying legislation to limit the caseload of workers at the private agency - god knows he didn't do it for the state workers.

[noonwitch]

6. Reducing caseloads is the key to having quality services

I work in this field in a different state. When I was hired in in the late 80s, we had 60 cases each. There was no way possible to do the job-I couldn't see all my kids once a month, I basically handled emergencies and court hearings.
Now, we are required to have 20 or less. I can do a lot more for my clients this way, and avoid the emergencies.
There is always some privatization, the job in a large city like Miami is too big for one agency. Some private agencies are very good, especially those that specialized in disabled children or kids with serious behavior problems. Most of their workers make less than the state workers, who are usually unionized (we're UAW), but they generally have lower caseloads.

[cap]

7. key words: most workers make less then state workers

busting a federal union... that's what this is about.

Not much about really improving things for kids.

The above poster is right -- return to indentured servants. My mom and her siblings grew up in foster care during the Great Depression and that's what they were. Mom went to work at age 12 because the lady was not getting enough money for her. Her brothers worked as unpaid labor in the husband's construction business.