by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
To call what has been happening to Florida’s foster children a “crisis” badly understates the problem.
“Personally, I think it’s worse than the media have painted it,” said Howard M. Talenfeld, a Fort Lauderdale attorney. “Maybe people would understand better if kids were plants.
“We seem to understand you can’t transplant a plant very often without killing it.”
Talenfeld is a child advocate attorney with Colodny, Fass, Talenfeld, Karlinsky & Abate. He represented six Broward County siblings who had been starved, abused and molested while in foster care. He won a $5 million judgment last year on their behalf against the Department of Children & Families, the largest in the department’s history.
He litigated Ward v. Kearney, a class-action lawsuit that alleged Broward County’s foster homes, shelters and other residential facilities were crowded.
It also charged that children were not screened to determine if they present a risk to other children. And it challenged the caseload size and turnover of foster care workers.
“It’s easier to understand what’s going on when a child is abused or missing or dead,” said Talenfeld. “But thousands of other children around the state are emotionally injured.
“They emotionally die when they have been separated from their parents and are not returned home or find permanency in some other way, as required by law.”
The law requires that children either be returned home or given that permanency within 12 months.
“We’re operating in the two- or three-year level for many of these children,” said Talenfeld. “Some kids spend 15 years in care. This is a lifetime.
“They lose their educations; a large percentage develop severe psychological problems. They don’t learn to operate as adults.”
There are between 47,000 and 48,000 children in the DCF system, Talenfeld estimated. Tens of thousands are in foster care, he added.
“And there are tens of thousands of others who are in relative care, not receiving an ordinary upbringing through no fault of their own,” he said.
Florida’s Children First! in Orlando was one year old and had been run by volunteers when Gerard Glynn was named executive director in July.
A member of the faculty at Barry University School of Law, Glynn has been a child advocate for 12 years, actively litigating cases.
“It’s an exciting concept, pooling our resources, minimizing the harm being done to children,” said Glynn. “That harm is the unfortunate reality. Someone said yesterday that we’ve made great progress, but we have a lot more to do.”
One group high on the list for help contains the “increased number” of children who are being locked up in the state’s psychiatric hospitals, said Glynn.
“It’s been determined that it’s a lot easier to find a psychiatric bed than it is to find a good foster home, especially for those children who have been seriously hurt, the ones who are having what I call a normal reaction to the pain that’s been inflicted on them.
“We’re looking for lawyers to help those children and minimize the number of children in the hospitals and the length of time they spend in them.”
Talenfeld and Glynn are compiling a schedule of seminars they will conduct around the state, instructing attorneys on ways to help. Jacksonville was their first stop, following the Jacksonville Bar Association meeting Oct. 16.
“There is a crisis in the foster care system,” Glynn said. “Too many children, too many bad caretakers and too few good caretakers.”
Turnout for the seminar was “light,” and, “I really didn’t get any questions,” said Talenfeld. “I was talking, basically, to a group of folks that aren’t exposed to the dependency system.
“We’re opening their eyes to the huge needs these kids have.”
If attorneys down in the trenches have been slow to help, Talenfeld and Glynn do have a lot of support from the top.
Florida Bar President Miles McGrane III has dedicated his term to a program titled “For the Children.” The campaign aims to fulfill the recommendations of the Bar’s Commission on the Legal Needs of Children, including rule changes and engaging more lawyers in pro bono programs for children.
McGrane has also challenged the Bar’s 70,000 members to contribute to the Lawyers Challenge for Children, with the goal of raising $250,000.
“I think every child needs an advocate, an attorney, someone to focus on their individual needs while they are in care,” said Talenfeld. “There are safety issues, permanency issues.
“They need a professional to focus on their educations, to ensure they don’t miss anything for the years they’re in the foster care system. And they need someone to ensure visitation with siblings and their parents.”
Those who wish to help may go to www.floridaschildrenfirst.org. The web page contains two forms: one for children’s organizations that need help and one for lawyers who want to volunteer.
“Hopefully, some of the attorneys will want to help these kids,” said Talenfeld. “We’ll help train you, and we’ll find someone who needs you.”