Privatization in Florida

["Julie Steen, MSW" <jsteen@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

In the 1998 Florida Legislative Session, a law was passed to move foster care and related services to community-based agencies through contracts statewide. A separate bill was passed that would move protective investigation to the Sheriff's Office in a few select counties. The role of the State Department of Children and Families Child Protective Services will probably become one of contract management and monitoring.

You can find the Florida Statute from the 1998 Session at the following address.
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/citizen/documents/statutes/1998/ch0039/SEC3065_.HTM#0039.3065

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/citizen/documents/statutes/1998/ch0409/SEC1671_.HTM#0409.1671

If the above links do not work, go to http://www.leg.state.fl.us/citizen/documents/statutes/1998/index.html , and click on Chapter 39 and Chapter 409.

In 1999, the Florida Legislature added some text to the statutes. The language that was added focused on financial aspects of privatization and limited liability for community-based agencies that take foster care contracts. The bill that passed can be found at the following address.

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/session/1999/Senate/bills/billinfo/html/SB0660.html
Go to Bill Text and click on sb0660er (er stands for enrolled, which means it is the version that passed both the House and the Senate.)


In the months that came before this legislation was passed, there was a dramatic increase in child abuse fatalities in cases that were handled by the Florida Department of Children and Families. The Florida Legislature was frustrated by this increase and thought that private agencies might perform better than the public department.

When reading material from Florida regarding this issue, it might be helpful for you to also know that the common language used in Florida for this project is not privatization, but community-based care.

There are also evaluations and reports regarding this project that can be found at the following link.

http://www.state.fl.us/cf_web/news/mspt/index.html
Scroll to the end of this screen. All of the community-based care materials can be found in the last section listed.

Hope this is helpful for those researching this issue.