More Bad News on DCF Children Deaths

Gov. Rick Scott has praised the work of DCF child welfare chief David Wilkins.

Commenting on the latest death, Scott told reporters: "You would hate for anything to happen to any child ... Any time anything like this happens, you take it very seriously and the expectation is you go back and make sure it doesn't happen again. I think Secretary Wilkins is doing a very good job. He's very committed to doing the right thing. He's very committed to making sure that every child is taken care of, and he'll do the right thing in looking into this."

Wilkins was doing so good of a job he as forced to resign. Scott offered his praise to Wilkins after four children died in the DCF child welfare program. Scott has a unique view of what constitutes doing a good job.

We now learn of the brutal death of a two-year old boy at the hands of his father Jayden Villegas-Morales. How did Villegas-Morales ever past the home inspection is a mystery.

Though DCF had declared Villegas’ home study to be “positive,” it included a handful of facts that some children’s advocates call troubling: Villegas was unemployed, living in a one-bedroom home with eight other children, had been repeatedly accused of domestic violence and had admitted to child-welfare authorities that he had “an anger issue.” Investigators also documented alleged marijuana use in front of the children, the presence of cockroaches in the home and instances where children were hemmed up in dirty diapers.

After this tragedy, Judge Hanzman has ordered hearings before caregivers can place a child. The legal system no longer trusts the DCF.

Rick Scott's Poor Handling of Department of Children & Families Deaths

I have blogged in the past about child abuse and mismanagement by the Department of Children & Families here, here and here. Gov Rick Scott has praised Secretary David Wilkins handling of the DCF. The only problem with Scott's narrative is dead children and the words of Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jeri Beth Cohen.

“We have a very severe systemic problem,” Cohen said. “The system is not working, and it’s scary.”

“Every single one of these deaths could have been avoided,” said Cohen who was a veteran child welfare judge before transferring to Miami’s drug court, where she often still deals with parents whose addictions undermine their parenting. “You can’t explain away this many child deaths in this short a period of time where the state’s child protective investigation system is implicated. It’s urgent and it’s serious and it’s unconscionable..''

Translation: Judge Cohen is saying that the state bears responsibility in these deaths and lacks credibility. The Scott administration's first reaction to the TB outbreak was to cover it up. The result was 3,000 Floridians getting TB. This is the kind of incompetent governing that happens when a ideologue conservative becomes governor.