In an article in The Post’s Opinion Section on February 10th, Florida Department of Children and Families Secretary David Wilkins talked about how the death on Valentine’s Day 2011 of Nubia Barahona had shaken up his agency and forced it to change for the better:
Jorge, Nubia and Carmen Barahona
“This death highlighted numerous issues in our child welfare system,” he wrote, “that needed to be addressed in order to drastically improve the overall child protection program. Gov. Scott and I pledged to deliver a plan that would address these issues quickly and thoroughly, with an appropriate redesign of the investigative process.
“Over the past year,” Secretary Wilkins continued, “we have implemented recommendations developed by an independent task force and a Miami-Dade County grand jury. We also have prepared a legislative package to establish a front-end capability for the child protection investigation function that we believe will be a national standard.”
You can read Secretary Wilkins’ full commentary here.
In a February 15th rebuttal in the same space, Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, challenged Mr. Wilkins’ view:
“At the end of his commentary last week bragging about all he has done in response to the death of Nubia Barahona, allegedly killed by her foster/adoptive father, Florida Department of Children and Families Secretary David Wilkins invites readers to go to the DCF website and read a longer version, his ‘Child Welfare Transformation Project.’
“What readers will find there,” Mr. Wexler wrote, “is the same message Mr. Wilkins has been sending since the Barahona case made headlines a year ago, a message that amounts to: Everything here stank until I walked in the door, but now I, David Wilkins, will save the day.”
You can read Mr. Wexler’s full commentary here.
Palm Beach Post reporters Ana M. Valdes and John Lantigua also have put together a piece that discusses changes at DCF in the past year. You can read that story here.
What do you think? Is Florida’s child protection system safer than it was a year ago? Leave a comment or click on the link below to take our poll.
Is Florida’s child protection system safer than it was a year ago?
