FL H7169

Establishes a new Assistant Secretary for Child Welfare within the Department of Children and Families, requiring at least 7 years of experience in child protective or child welfare services, and creates community alliances with specified 9-member initial membership to provide independent, community-focused oversight of child protection and local community-based care systems, with all meetings open to the public.

Introduces formal definitions for "present danger," "impending danger," "medical neglect," and "safety plan" into child welfare law, and requires child protective investigators to implement specific, sufficient, and feasible safety plans when danger is identified—with mandatory filing of dependency petitions if no adequate plan can be developed or if parents fail to comply.

Creates Critical Incident Rapid Response Teams of at least 5 professionals (majority from outside the affected judicial circuit) to investigate child deaths and serious injuries within 2 business days, using root-cause analysis; final reports must be posted on the department's website, and an advisory committee must submit annual findings to the Governor and Legislature by October 1.

Adds new protections for medically complex children, including preserving and strengthening families caring for them, requiring medical neglect investigations to use a family-centered approach, involving physicians experienced with the child's specific condition, and mandating collaboration across agencies to maintain children in the least restrictive and most nurturing environment, including development of medical foster homes.

Strengthens sibling placement and contact requirements by mandating reasonable efforts to keep siblings together in out-of-home care, requiring frequent visitation or ongoing interaction when separation is necessary, and adding judicial review of the frequency and duration of contact among separated siblings.

Establishes new education and training requirements for child protection and child welfare personnel hired on or after July 1, 2014, including a bachelor's or master's degree with at least 12 credit hours of relevant coursework (or 5 years of direct experience), specialized training in areas such as medically fragile children and domestic violence, and mandatory preservice training for department attorneys handling child welfare cases.

Creates a tuition exemption program and a student loan forgiveness program (up to $3,000 per year for up to 4 years) to recruit and retain qualified child protective investigators, case managers, and supervisors pursuing social work degrees or required coursework at state universities.

Establishes the Florida Institute for Child Welfare within the Florida State University College of Social Work as a consortium of public and private universities, charged with advancing child welfare through research, policy analysis, evaluation, leadership development, and professional support—with a task force to recommend system improvements and reports due to the Legislature beginning October 1, 2017.

Restructures community-based care by replacing s. 409.1671 with a new Part V of Chapter 409, establishing nine outcome goals, requiring at least annual evaluation of lead agencies, and creating a results-oriented accountability system with transparent public reporting (including visual report cards), longitudinal studies, and performance incentive payments tied to legislative appropriations.

Creates the criminal offense of unlawful abandonment of a child as a third-degree felony when a caregiver leaves a child with a non-relative knowing it exposes the child to unreasonable risk of harm, with an exception for Safe Haven newborn surrenders, and appropriates $4,059,000 and 21 FTE positions for FY 2014-2015 implementation, effective July 1, 2014.