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

Department of Children and Families

Child and Family Well-Being

For assistance, call 850-488-8762 or visit https://www.myflfamilies.com/service-programs/child-welfare/

What is the purpose of the program?

The Office of Child and Family Well-Being works in partnership with six regions, 17 community-based care lead agencies and seven sheriff's offices to develop and oversee policy and practice requirements for child protective investigations, prevention services, and case management services in their local communities for children who are at risk of or have been abused, neglected, or abandoned.

What steps are involved in protecting children?

There are three major functions performed by the program, as described below.  The single entry point to child welfare services in Florida is the Florida Abuse Hotline. The hotline receives all child maltreatment allegations. Following reported child maltreatment, the department
  • conducts Investigations of alleged maltreatment reports for the purpose of determining the necessity for providing initial intake services and crisis intervention to maintain the child safely in his/her own home, or to protect the safety of the child through emergency removal and out-of-home placement with relatives or in licensed care;
  • coordinates In-Home Services designed to keep children safe with their own families whenever possible to do so. In-home services are intended to support families with strengthening caregiver protective capacities while at the same time implementing in-home, agency directed and managed safety plans; and
  • coordinates Out-of-Home Placement Services for children who cannot remain safely at homes and need temporary care while services are provided to reunite the family or achieve some other permanency option. Types of out-of-home placements include relative care or guardianship as well as licensed foster homes and residential group facilities.

Who does the program serve?

The program serves children and families involved with the child welfare system as a result of reports of abuse, neglect, and abandonment.

What types of services are provided by the program?

The Department contracts for the delivery of child welfare services through community-based care (CBC). CBCs deliver foster care and related services, including family preservation, prevention and diversion, dependency casework, out-of-home care, emergency shelter, independent living services, and adoption. Many CBCs contract with subcontractors for case management and direct care services to children and their families. This system allows local agencies to engage community partners in designing and modifying their local system of care that maximizes resources to meet local needs.

In-Home Protective Services permit the child to remain in the family setting with safety plan services in place. Safety plan services include, but are not limited to, supervision and monitoring, stress reduction, behavior modification, crisis management, and parenting assistance.

Out-of-Home Care is provided to children who are determined to be unsafe at home and need temporary care while services are provided to reunite the family or achieve some other permanency option, including guardianship or placement with relatives, foster homes, and residential group facilities. The most appropriate available out-of-home placement is chosen after analyzing the child's age, sex, sibling status, special physical, educational, emotional and developmental needs, alleged type of abuse, neglect or abandonment, community ties, and school placement.

Adoption occurs when the court determines that it is not in a child's best interest to be reunited with their parents. Services provided through the program include mental health counseling to prepare a child for adoption, legal services to sever parental rights in order for a child to be legally free for adoption, supervision of adoptive placements, adoption subsidies, and post-adoption services such as counseling.

Services for Young Adults are available for young adults 18 to 23 years of age who were residing in licensed foster care when they become 18 years of age. There are three components to the program.

  • Extended Foster Care is available to young adults until 21 years of age (or 22 years of age with a documented disability). Youth who would previously age-out of licensed care at age 18 can opt to stay in while finishing school or gaining work skills and experience.  Participants must live with a licensed foster parent, in a licensed group home, in a transitional living program, or in a shared living arrangement.
  • Postsecondary Education Services and Support (PESS) provides a monetary stipend to young adults formerly in foster care to attend post-secondary or vocation school until age 23. PESS is available to young adults regardless of whether they enroll in Extended Foster Care.
  • Aftercare Services provides temporary services, including financial assistance, for young adults not participating in the extended foster care or PESS programs. Assistance may include mentoring, tutoring, jobs and career skills training, and mental health or substance abuse services.

How well does the child welfare system serve children?

In Fiscal Year 2021-22, there were 21,437 children served in out-of-home care and 8,688 who remained in their homes and received in-home services. For children in out-of-home care during Fiscal Year 2021-22, the department reported that 32% of children were reunified with their families within 12 months of removal from their homes, below the department's standard of 65%. For the same period, the department reported that 9% of children reunified were removed within 12 months of that reunification, above the department's standard of 9.9%. The department also reported that 49% of children had their adoptions finalized within 24 months of being removed from their homes, above the department's standard of 40%.

How are these activities funded?

The Child and Family Well-Being program is funded as part of the Family Safety Program budget entity through a combination of federal and state funds.
Fiscal Year: 2023-24
Fund Dollars Positions
PROGRAM: FAMILY SAFETY PROGRAM
FAMILY SAFETY AND PRESERVATION SERVICES
2,045,606,063
4,570.00
TOTAL
2,045,606,063
4,570.00

Updates

The 2023 Legislature made several changes to child welfare laws.

  • Chapter 2023-77, Laws of Florida, requires sheriffs in certain counties who provide child protective investigative services functions to transfer such functions to DCF. The law also requires DCF to perform child protective investigation activities to determine child safety, such as conduct a review of available information, conduct in-person interviews, complete assessment of immediate child safety, and more.
     
  • Chapter 2023-85, Laws of Florida, requires the Services and Resources Committee of the Statewide Council on Human Trafficking to conduct a study and make recommendations regarding the regulation of adult safe houses. The law also requires DCF to initiate rulemaking to establish minimum standards for certification of adult safe houses to serve survivors of human trafficking after the completion of the study. DCF must also inspect adult safe house no less than annually to ensure compliance with adopted rules. The law allows adult safe houses to recommend a list of names of human trafficking advocates or volunteers from adult safe houses for confidential communication privilege to DCF. The law also requires that DCF develop age-appropriate educational programming for children, security for safe houses and safe foster homes, and that residential treatment centers for children and adolescents and facilities maintained by child-caring agencies to display human trafficking warning signs. The law makes changes to shorten the time that public lodging establishments have to correct training deficiencies and makes public lodging establishment ineligible for any correction period for a second or subsequent violation of the training and awareness requirements if the violation occurred after July 1, 2023.

  • Chapter 2023-178, Laws of Florida, expands the contract requirements of DCF requiring a lead agency to annually provide and publish operating procedures detailing timelines and procedures to maximize the use of concurrent planning. These operating procedures must minimize the time to complete preliminary and final adoptive homes studies, streamline data entry into statewide child welfare information system, and reduce time to permanency. The law also requires a lead agency to gather child specific information to complete the unified home study.

  • Chapter 2023-247, Laws of Florida, creates the Task Force on the Monitoring of Children in Out-of-Home Care in collaboration with DCF and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE). The law requires the Task Force to identify the root causes of why out-of-home care children go missing and ensure prompt and effective action to address such causes. In addition, the Task Force must report findings and recommendations to the Governor, the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The law also requires DCF to submit monthly reports to assist the Task Force in fulfilling its duties and requires the Florida Institute for Child Welfare to conduct focus groups or individual interviews with children in out-of-home care and young adults who have aged out of the foster care system.

  • Chapter 2023-248, Laws of Florida, makes changes to statutes that enhance support for children and young adults who are currently or have formerly been in out-of-home care. The law requires case managers and other staff to provide children in out-of-home care certain education and information about topics, rights, policies, and procedures related to their protection and safety. The law also requires DCF to consult with youth about digital information for educational purposes. The law establishes the Office of the Children's Ombudsman within DCF.

  • Chapter 2023-254, Laws of Florida, makes changes to statute that integrates a trauma screen into the assessment of a child removed from their home. The law requires DCF or a community-based care lead agency (CBC) to conduct a trauma screen during the assessment of a child after removal from their home no later than 21 days after shelter hearing. The law also requires that trauma assessments, services or interventions be provided to the child within 30 days of the shelter hearing. The law further requires DCF or the CBC to provide information and support that will help a caregivers respond and care for a child placed out-of-home in a trauma-informed and therapeutic manner.

  • Chapter 2023-257, Laws of Florida, limits a dependency-involved parent’s ability to execute a valid and binding consent to adoption with an adoption entity to the pendency of the Ch. 39, Florida Statutes, proceeding up to and including the 30th day after the filing of the petition for termination of parental rights. The law assumes, unless proven otherwise, that a placement is stable and it is the best interests of a child to remain in the placement if the child has been placed with the prospective adoptive parents for at least 9 continuous months. The law also makes changes to revise the clerks of court's responsibility in adoption proceedings and to require notice of an adoption proceeding be provided as prescribe by the Florida Family Law Rules of procedure. The law requires the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA) conduct an analysis of time to permanency by adoptions and a national comparative analysis of states processes that allow adoption entities to intervene in dependency cases. The law further requires DCF and licensed child caring and child-placing agencies to provide OPPAGA with data to conduct the study.

Implementation of the DCF Accountability Act. The 2020 Legislature established an Office of Quality within the Department of Children and Families to measure and monitor the performance of agency programs provided by the department and contracted entities. The department has a standard outcome measure for the 5% of all open DCF investigations, case management cases, and behavioral health treatment plans to be reviewed by the Quality Office. The baseline for this outcome was 0% in Fiscal Year 2019-20. Actions taken by the Quality Office during Fiscal Year 2021-22 include 7,582 case reviews and 789 cases sent to the field for immediate safety actions.

Where can I find related OPPAGA reports?

Adoption of Children in Florida: An Overview, Report 23-15, December 2023
A Review of Multidisciplinary Legal Representation for Parents in Dependency Proceedings: Fiscal Year 2022-23, Report 23-11, November 2023
Annual Report on the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Florida, 2023, Report 23-08, June 2023
Homeless and Foster Youth Services, Report 22-08, December 2022
Review of Multidisciplinary Legal Representation of Parents in Dependency Proceedings, Report 22-07, December 2022
Annual Report on the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Florida, 2022, Report 22-05, July 2022
Literature Review of Studies on the Effectiveness of Advocacy Models for Children in Dependency, Report 21-07, December 2021
Annual Report on the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Florida, 2021, Report 21-06, July 2021
Annual Report on the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Florida, 2020, Report 20-05, July 2020
Placement Options for CSE Victims Have Increased; CSE-Specific Services Remain Limited, Report 19-05, July 2019

Where can I get more information?

Other Reports
A complete list of Department of Children and Families welfare reports is on their website

The Auditor General reports on department operations are located on its website
Oversight and Administration of Community-Based Care Lead Agencies and Behavioral Health Managing Entities and Selected Department Administrative Activities, Auditor General Report No. 2019-111, January 2019

Further Assistance from HHS Would be Helpful in Supporting Youth's LGBTQ+ Identities and Religious Beliefs, U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-22-104688, April 2022
HHS Should Facilitate Information Sharing Between States to Help Prevent and Address Maltreatment in Residential Facilities, U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-22-104670, January 2022
HUD and HHS Could Enhance Coordination to Better Support Communities, U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-21-540, September 2021
Better Data and Guidance Could Help States Reinvest Adoption Savings and Improve Federal Oversight, U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-22-6, October 2021
Pandemic Posed Challenges, but also Created Opportunities for Agencies to Enhance Future Operations, U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-21-483, July 2021
HHS Could Enhance Support for Grandparents and Other Relative Caregivers, U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-20-434, July 2020
Education Could Help States Improve Educational Stability for Youth in Foster Care, U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-19-616, September 2019
States with Approval to Extend Care Provide Independent Living Options for Youth up to Age 21, U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-19-411, May 2019
Selected States Report Various Approaches and Challenges to Supporting Children, U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-19-388, April 2019

Websites of Interest
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Children's Bureau
Florida Institute for Child Welfare
Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Child Welfare League of America
Children's Defense Fund
Child Trends 

Performance Information
Planning and Performance Measures report the department's performance on external and internal measures for its various programs. The measures allow the user to view performance at both a statewide and geographic region level.


Performance measures and standards for the department may be found in its Long Range Program Plan.

What are the applicable statutes?

Chapters 39 and 63, and ss. 409.145 through 409.176, Florida Statutes

Whom do I contact for help?

Child and Family Well-Being, 850-488-8762
Website