Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability
Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability

Florida Professional Guardianship Information: 2025

Report 25-05, October 2025

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Report Summary

  • The Florida Guardianship Data Transparency System (FLGDT) database and public facing website officially launched in 2024. As of June 2025, 338 users had access to FLGDT. OPPAGA found FLGDT to be operational, but underlying data was incomplete. Clerks implemented approaches proposed by Florida Clerks of Court Operations Corporation (CCOC) to capture missing data elements, but the absence of a unique identifier that links individual guardians to their cases continues to inhibit accurate reporting of guardianship data.
  • Due to the lack of a unique identifier, OPPAGA used a subset of cases to generate professional guardian caseload statistics. OPPAGA received data extracted from the FLGDT database—which included 6,478 active professional guardianship cases—and identified the specific professional guardian in 56% of the cases.
  • Analysis of these cases indicated that most guardians are appointed to 10 or fewer cases, but 40% of wards were served by guardians with caseloads of more than 30 cases. Active caseloads for professional guardians ranged from 1 ward to an outlier of 275 wards.   
  • OPPAGA interviewed officials in four states; these officials emphasized the importance of collecting accurate, statewide guardianship data and reported that data cleanup is a challenging step in that process. Both Pennsylvania and Minnesota created statewide guardianship portals that allow guardians to enter required reports online and allow court staff to monitor and oversee guardians’ activities; Nevada is developing a statewide portal, and New Mexico collects statewide data using unique status codes in its existing case management system.

 

Related Reports
  1. Florida Professional Guardianship Information 2024
    Report 24-07 October 2024
Copies of this report in print or alternate accessible format may be obtained by email OPPAGA@oppaga.fl.gov, telephone (850) 488-0021, or mail 111 W. Madison St., Room 312 Tallahassee, FL 32399-1475.
Copies of this report in print or alternate accessible format may be obtained by email OPPAGA@oppaga.fl.gov, telephone (850) 488-0021, or mail 111 W. Madison St., Room 312 Tallahassee, FL 32399-1475.
Guardianship, public guardian, family guardian, Florida Guardianship Data Transparency System, Florida Clerks of Court Operations Corporation, Public & Professional Guardians (OPPG), guardianship data