vs. APD, 1st DCA opinion / DD Services required for foster children with DD

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Will Hawke wrote: vs. APD, 1st DCA opinion / DD Services required for foster children with DD FYI Betancourt Director of Communications Florida Developmental Disabilities Council 124 Marriott Drive, Suite 203 Tallahassee,

Florida 32301 Voice: Toll-Free: Fax: www.fddc.org State ordered to care for teen `in crisis'By Carol Marbin 05/09/2006 © Miami Herald Florida's disabilities agency, which has been fighting in the Legislature to strip judges of the power to order care for disabled foster children, lost an important battle in the judiciary Monday when an appeals court ordered the reluctant agency to help a mentally retarded teen. In a strongly worded 22-page ruling, the First District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee said that a 15-year-old girl was in ''crisis'' and could not be denied services for her disability. Both the Agency for Persons with Disabilities and the state Department of Children & Families had refused to help the girl, identified only as Amber, for about three years -- each agency insisting it was the other's job to arrange care for the girl. ''It is undisputed that Amber is emotionally disturbed and she is developmentally

disabled,'' says the opinion, written by Judge A. Van Nortwick Jr. `` children like Amber are particularly in need of services because they are more likely than others to have suffered neglect or abuse and to have behavioral healthcare needs.'' Advocates for Florida foster children hailed the opinion, saying it would put foster kids on the same footing as other children who have moms and dads to make waves on their behalf. `A GREAT VICTORY' ''This is a great victory for children in foster care,'' said Paolo Annino, a clinical professor at the Children's

Advocacy Center at the Florida State University College of Law, who represents Amber in court. ``They were being excluded from medical services that other children who are not in foster care were able to obtain. . . . This evens the field.'' Hodges, a spokeswoman for APD in Tallahassee, declined to discuss the opinion at length but said in a short prepared statement that APD officials ``will certainly comply with the instructions of the court.'' Last week, lawmakers passed a bill proposed by APD that stripped juvenile court judges of the authority to order disability officials to provide care or services to disabled children in foster care. Strongly opposed by both children's advocates and advocates for disabled people, the bill was amended late in the session to place foster kids near the top of a long waiting list for care. ''This legislation will work to the benefit of dependent children who do not necessarily meet'' criteria to be taken off the wait list and be given services based upon a determination the child is in

''crisis,'' Hodges said. DIRE CIRCUMSTANCES ''The goal of the crisis process is to identify those clients each month who are in the most dire of circumstances. These decisions are incredibly difficult, since there are limited crisis slots and substantial need,'' she added. About 235 Florida foster children are on the waiting list for state-paid services to help them cope with a developmental disability, such as mental retardation, autism or cerebral palsy. About 30 of the children live in Miami-Dade and another 41 live in Broward. Depending on how the wait list is defined, between 14,000 and 16,000 disabled

people, including the foster children, statewide are on the list. TROUBLED PAST Amber, who has an IQ of 64, became a foster child after her father abandoned her and she was physically and sexually abused in her mother's care, according to the court's ruling and Amber's attorney. In 2001, both parents were stripped of their rights to raise the girl. She has bounced from foster home to foster home, and now suffers from adjustment disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, the ruling said. Court records say the teen killed a cat or kittens at one of her foster homes, has cut herself with glass, run away numerous times and tried to commit suicide. Monday's opinion says DCF foster-care officials have provided some services for Amber's psychiatric problems, such as paying for her to live in residential treatment centers for troubled kids. But both DCF

and APD have refused to do anything for her developmental disability, such as paying for behavioral analysis, a type of psychological treatment for children with retardation designed to improve dangerous or inappropriate behavior by identifying its causes. ''Evidence shows that Amber has not received the services she needs in the 13 foster homes and residential programs in which she has been placed, and that she will not receive the services she needs from the family safety program'' at DCF, the appeals court wrote. Imported: May 9 2006 4:37AM Indexed: May 9 2006 4:42AM No virus found in this incoming message.Checked by AVG Free Edition.Version: 7.1.392 / Virus Database: 268.5.5/334 - Release Date: 5/8/2006

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