Reason for Alarm: Abuse and Neglect in the 12th Circuit

What is happening to our children in the 12th Circuit of Florida (Sarasota, Manatee, and Desoto counties)?

You sure you want to know? Knowledge requires action. Here are the facts:

In the 12th Circuit, almost 10,000 investigations of alleged abuse and neglect were conducted over the past 10 years. Picture each little boy or girl involved. How many were verified? Let’s look at the last 15 months: there have been over 1,800 verified findings of abuse and neglect just within our neighborhoods. Can we ever look up and down our streets the same way again?

So what happens to these children? In the current fiscal year (2011-2012), nearly 1,400 children have needed services from child welfare workers, with 854 in out-of-home care. Most live with friends and relatives, but over 300 lived in licensed foster care and group care homes.

Try not to get lost in the numbers. These are real children who exist in our community. They represent every race, ethnicity and socioeconomic level. Some enter the world and spend weeks in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, born with drug and/or alcohol addictions. Others are pre-teens or teens who suffer from physical, psychological and/or emotional abuse. All are victims of trauma. All have scars. All of them just want to be loved and feel secure. These children live in your neighborhood, go to your child’s school, and attend your churches.

The need never stops. About the same rate that children enter the system, they exit and others come in to take their places. For instance, in the current fiscal year, 675 children entered services and 731 exited. In one month (December 2011), over 100 children entered state care, most of them under the age of six. An army of workers are needed to care for these children. There are 69 authorized case managers overseen by Safe Children Coalition (SCC), a division of the YMCA and the lead agency for the Circuit. This does not account for the investigators, support services, volunteers, foster parents, grandparents, other relatives, or responsible friends.

But even the positives highlight the negatives. It's just as bad at the end of the day than when we started. We're not gaining ground. Over $24,000,000 has been allocated through the Department of Children and Families, a State of Florida agency—just for the 12th Circuit. Since 2005, almost 900 children have been adopted to forever families within the Circuit. On average, of the children who are removed from their homes and are then reunified with their families, 80% return home within 12 months. Currently, about 200 young people are being assisted in moving toward adult independence. These are good things, but they remind us that there is a deep problem that we have only just begun to alleviate.

Consider seriously this perspective: three children per day are verified as victims of abuse and neglect right here in our community. Pause a moment. Let that sink in: three per day...three per day. That’s three per day, every day. Day in and day out. Every month, every year. It never stops. And it’s getting worse.

But before you judge the parents, we have to try to understand the abusers as well as the children. What are the factors that cause these families to be at risk? Why have so many family structures broken down? What are we going to do to make a difference? This is the heart of what BAANK is trying to figure out.

(Thanks to Maureen Coble at Safe Children’s Coalition for the data found in this article.)