FL-Some Good News: Number of kids missing from state custody dropping

hoppyfrog

Retired WS Staff
20 Year
Joined
Jun 3, 2005
Messages
8,660
Reaction score
12,535
  • #1
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/AP/story/1232680.html

14 Sept 09

Of the 19,710 children in foster care in July, 308 or about 1.5 percent, were missing. That's a record low and down from the 2.3 percent who were missing two years ago.

About 90 percent of those missing today are teenagers who ran from their foster home, with the rest almost entirely children abducted by a parent who had lost custody.

and

Now they [DCF caseworkers] carry handheld GPS units that stamp a date and location when they visit each child. The information is automatically updated into the state's database, making it easier to see a missing child's last whereabouts and adding more oversight for caseworkers.

and

...reported the lowest number of missing children, 233, on Aug. 31. That's roughly three years after a peak of 708 missing children on July 10, 2006.

and

At the time [Oct 2007], case managers were required to make one attempt a week to locate a missing child.

"They aren't missing persons detective so their efforts weren't the greatest and we weren't holding them accountable," [Todd] Raleigh [former missing persons detective and now Jacksonville DCF coordinator] said.

Now he works with Family Support Services, the local contractor with DCF, and trains caseworkers.

much more at link; excellent article
 

Guardians Monthly Goal

Members online

Online statistics

Members online
141
Guests online
1,873
Total visitors
2,014

Forum statistics

Threads
635,351
Messages
18,674,345
Members
243,172
Latest member
TX Terri
Back
Top