Florida's Foster Children Have a New Voice

From a prominent West Palm Beach trial lawyer to the head of the state's Children's Advocacy Center, a group of about 15 people has formed a nonprofit, first-of-its-kind organization to help protect children.

Their motivation? A fear that many children in foster care are not getting the care or services they need.

Headquartered at the Barry University School of Law in Orlando, Florida's Children First grew out of a collaboration of lawyers working on class-action litigation against the foster-care system last year.

While the members are mostly attorneys, they said the legal system would not be their primary focus.

"We will attempt to try to convince the Legislature to do the right thing for foster children," said Howard Talenfeld, a child-advocate attorney from Fort Lauderdale. "As a last resort, we would turn to the courts."

Gerald Glynn, executive director of Children First, said the group plans to monitor the legislative budget process, share news pertaining to children's issues with the media, lobby for foster-care reform and provide training and resources to advocates.

Although it is based in Orlando, the group will work statewide.

"We're looking at the big picture, the entire state -- and unfortunately, it's not a good picture," said Talenfeld, who litigated Ward v. Kearney, a class-action lawsuit to reform the foster-care system in Broward County. He won a landmark civil-rights settlement on behalf of six neglected and abused foster children.

The most immediate concern of Children First is disabled children who turn 18 in foster care. A law called the Road To Independence Act -- enacted in October and being implemented statewide -- means hundreds of teenagers under the care of the Department of Children & Families will be on their own once they turn 18, whether or not they have the skills to function alone.

Children First is most concerned with teenagers who are developmentally disabled or mentally ill.

Those foster children can be the ones who need the most help, said Glenna Osborne, director of program operations at the Children's Home Society of Lake & Sumter counties. Lake County has 148 foster kids, according to the Department of Children & Families.

"They need adequate funding in order to address their physical and emotional needs and then people who care for them -- who really care for children," Osborne said.

Children First is pushing for legislation that would expand state-funded services for those people indefinitely. "Why would one expect them to, all of the sudden at age 18, be able to survive on their own without ending up in the jails, psychiatric centers or homeless shelters?" Talenfeld said.

"Children's lawyers around the state have fought their own individual battles on behalf of children at risk, said Bernard Perlmutter, director of the Children and Youth Law Clinic at the University of Miami School of Law.

"But the new organization will allow these efforts to be coordinated, strengthened and built into a powerful force for children," he said.

By Stephanie Erickson
Sentinel Staff Writer
June 26, 2003