Foster Care

"I see there is a brokenness to the system," West Broward County Senator Barbara Sharief told the head of the Florida Department of Children and Families about the state's foster care system. She voted for the DCF head but asked her to commit to making changes at the senate hearing.

Roughly one-third of youth leaving foster care experience homelessness.

They're backing two bills: One to allow visits between siblings when one is in foster care and another to extend housing vouchers statewide

In addition, outgoing DCF Secretary Shevaun Harris introduced the use of enhanced screening tools to assist in recognizing the potential for youth trafficking.

The proposal would result in recruiting case managers, combatting child sex trafficking, and creating a professional foster care pilot program.

In a statewide effort to safeguard children, photos of children in foster care who are available for adoption will no longer be publicly available. A new law adds extra privacy layers.

A federal audit found lax oversight and multiple cases of child welfare workers failing to follow state regulations on psychotropic or opioid medication.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation released a data brief Monday focusing on those older foster youth, especially as they prepare to transitioned to living on their own.

Foster kids could go missing for a number of reasons including getting picked up by a non-custodial parent, running away or even becoming a victim of human trafficking.

The company will shut down its facility in Tampa on June 30.

The law boosts payments for family and friends who take in kids and expands tuition waivers for higher education to include more young people who spent time in the system.

It will also will increase monthly payments to relatives and nonrelatives who serve as caregivers to foster children.