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/ch0
039/SEC3065_.HTM#0039.3065

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/citizen/docum
ents/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/billi
nfo/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.