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Table of Contents

Cover – Top Issues for Florida’s Children

Foreword

Table of Contents

Sex Trafficking: Florida’s Challenge

Child Protection: Who’s Safeguarding Our Children?

Expungement: When the Past Won’t Go Away

Early Steps/Special Needs: Funding Isn’t Keeping Up

Pre-K & K-12 Equity: There’s No Fair Sharing

Actions Needed

Where Florida Ranks

A Florida Snapshot

Journey to Great Beginnings Maternal & Child Health Early Care & Education / Out-of-School Care

Journey to Justice Child Welfare Juvenile Justice

Child Population & Projections

Florida Child Data

Meet our Board of Directors & Executive Staff

Credits & Acknowledgments

Back Cover

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Despite nearly two decades of exposure, debate and promised reform, Florida’s child welfare system continues to struggle, especially with child protective investigations and follow-up with troubled families.

Look no further than the Miami Herald ’s “Innocents Lost” series for proof. The newspaper in March 2014 detailed the deaths of nearly 500 children whose troubled and dysfunctional families had prior involvement with the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF).

The latest efforts to remake DCF promise, among other things, more transparency – a high-profile goal that could lead to far-ranging improvements. But as welcome as such public disclosure may be, true system change is needed.

Fortunately, the answer is already in place: sheriff-led child protection units. Though operating in only six counties, the sheriffs’ programs have responsibility for more than a quarter of the state’s children.

To understand why sheriffs are critical to the success of child protection, consider the history of Florida’s system. Since the mid-1990s, the Legislature has made concerted efforts to reshape child welfare. Recognizing that a state-run system was ineffective, Florida shifted to locally managed Community-Based Care agencies (CBCs).

This transformation, undoubtedly intended to also enhance protections for Florida’s children, was and is still met with plodding and flailing implementation. Areas such as foster care, case manage-ment and adoption have all transitioned from DCF’s troublesome rule; however, the front line of child welfare, child protective investigations, has for the most part remained with a state agency beset by frequent leadership changes, budget problems and widespread managerial and supervisory issues.

In fact, DCF-run investigations have come under great scrutiny because of major mishandlings, underreporting, falsifications and a high number of child deaths.

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Despite the clear advantages of sheriff-led units, the encouragement and recruitment of this mod-el has been slow at best. For instance, out of Florida’s 67 counties, only six sheriffs – those in the counties of Broward, Hillsborough, Manatee, Seminole, Pinellas and Pasco – have taken over child protective investigation units. They include roughly 28 percent of the state’s children and about 27 percent of CPIs.

That leaves DCF’s control wide and vast, accounting for about 73 percent of the state’s child protective investigators. This massive overreach in investigations goes against the very framework by which Florida’s child welfare system was rebuilt: local service run by local people and organizations with the involvement and support of local governmental and non-governmental entities.

Not only has the sheriff-led model been highly effective, but each has become uniquely integrated into its community, providing sustainable service delivery that has become the standard for protection. As a result, the accountability of sheriff-led units is two-pronged: state-level and community systems.

The investigative process for DCF and the sheriffs is primarily the same. However, sheriffs’ investigators experience a greater bank of resources and advantages because of their law enforcement connection. This provides greater access to training, supervision, backup, and cooperation and community respect that is not often given to DCF investigators.

DCF investigators often have the deck stacked against them. Clunky technology does not provide enough information and support. In fact, over the last three years, the turnover rate for DCF investigators has been as high as 32 percent overall and even higher in some parts of the state.

Front-line investigator turnover means that inexperienced workers are far too often responsible for assessing and identifying danger in difficult and complex situations. The negative impacts of turnover are well-known: increased training costs ($6.2 million each year), inexperienced workers, increased caseloads, overwhelmed supervisors, failed objectives and child deaths.

Challenges & Issues

In spite of the Miami Herald coverage and that of other newspapers over many years, the exposure of the flaws in the child welfare system has not led to widespread and true systemic re-form that actually changes the status quo. Rather than focusing on structural changes and accountability, there remains consistent finger-pointing as to who is at fault when a child dies: DCF, Community-Based Care agencies or others who had some involvement in the failed case.

Throughout the state, CPIs and local case managers indicate a consistent lack of communication and coordination between them. Case managers and CPIs must have a strong working relation-ship to protect Florida’s children effectively. This is best handled and is more accountable when done by local sheriffs working with local community-based agencies.

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Budget

One common concern of sheriffs regarding their involvement in child protective investigations is contractual. Funding of their units is not guaranteed yearly, DCF has not been their steady advocate in front of appropriations committees of the Florida Legislature, and allocations actually provided force sheriffs to dip into the local tax base to augment what the state hasn’t provided.

The 2014 Florida Legislature took a step forward in addressing some of these concerns. A formula was used to fund sheriffs based on a cost-per-case model, and additional resources were earmarked. This formula can be improved, ensuring it’s appropriately aligned with the sheriff’s operations and needs.

Hopefully, better treatment in the budgeting and contractual process will encourage sheriffs in more counties to assume responsibility for child protective investigations.

State Action Needed

• Finish the original mission of the child welfare transformation, build on the sheriff model already successfully in place around the state and make child protective investigators locally managed.

• Support initiatives for DCF to excel in a contract management/oversight role and eliminate DCF direct service in child protective investigations.

Scotti Edward Branton II contributed to the research and writing of this report. He is an apprentice at the Practical Apprenticeship Center, an initiative of The Children’s Campaign.

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Most Floridians are shocked when informed that crimes committed by children are not expunged automatically when children become adults, according to a recent poll conducted by The Chil-dren’s Campaign. It’s a common and widespread misbelief. The consequences of not expunging records, however, are real.

Even records for crimes that are not public safety risks can haunt a young person for years, resulting in being denied entry into the military, a college scholarship, a job and more.

For thousands and thousands of children in Florida with prior involvement with the juvenile justice system, having their futures delayed or blocked is not just a bad dream – it’s their reality.

Related facts to this issue include:

• The part of the brain that governs impulse control is still under development in juveniles. In fact, the brain is not fully developed until age 25. This fact has been substantiated by recent court rulings including the United States Supreme Court.• Not expunging juvenile records results in children continuing to “pay” for their crime long after the case has been settled and sanctions have been completed, including restitution to the victim. • Juveniles can petition to have their records expunged, but the process often requires attorneys and court fees, which can be financially out of reach for many families. This creates an imbalance of justice between children of differing financial status.

Challenges & Issues

Elected officials, public administrators and a range of educational institutions and organizations may acknowledge that children should be treated differently from adults, but current practice does not always support that widespread understanding. Making children account for misdeeds years later creates a stigma that is often difficult to overcome.

Copies of juvenile arrest and disposition histories may be maintained by some criminal justice agencies, the courts and others even if the record is sealed (closed) or expunged (erased). They are often brought up in future background checks or used in criminal cases.

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Much can be at stake:

• Colleges may deny admission. Some colleges require that juvenile records be disclosed, including juvenile arrests, dismissed charges and sealed records.• Certain jobs may be out of reach, such as: o Military o Police officer o Lawyer o Child care worker o Teacher o Juvenile probation officer• Housing may be denied at schools of higher learning, in public units or in the private market place.

Budget

Broward County recognized the problem of not expunging records and took a step toward fixing the problem. According to a May 11, 2014, article in the Sun Sentinel, Broward received a $41,925 grant from the state to expunge the misdemeanor records of 500 youth. The average cost per record expunged was $83.85.

Costs vary for seeking private legal counsel and for court fees associated with expunging a juve-nile record. Regardless of the expense, it is often the path taken because of the potential for long-term negative consequences.

It can be argued that averting social costs is another justifiable reason for reviewing Florida expungement laws. A youth with an arrest or conviction record is more likely to be steered into a job with lower pay if hired at all and is more likely to need government aid in his or her adult years.

State Action Needed

• Review and revise state laws involving the expungement of juvenile records.

Jacqueline Lefferts contributed to the research and writing of this report. She is an apprentice at the Practical Apprenticeship Center, an initiative of The Children’s Campaign.

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©2014 The Children’s Campaign Candidate Connection iamforkids.org

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©2014 The Children’s Campaign Candidate Connection iamforkids.org

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©2014 The Children’s Campaign Candidate Connection iamforkids.org

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Sex Trafficking

• Continue to focus the legal response on prosecuting johns and pimps while providing services to victims that include trauma-in-formed multidisciplinary teams, a system of care with high-quality comprehensive ser-vices and support suited to the needs of each survivor, and specialized therapeutic services to the victims of child abuse and child rape to help them break the cycle of abuse. • Appropriate funding for drop-in centers in-cluding mentor-survivors as first responders, quality safe houses and specialized training.• Continue the original intent of Safe Harbor; recognize victims of child abuse and rape as victims. Victims should NEVER be locked up and forced to stay against their will.

Child Protection

• Finish the original mission of the child wel-fare transformation, build on the sheriff mod-el already successfully in place around the state and make child protective investigators locally managed. • Support initiatives for the state Department of Children and Families to excel in a con-tract management/oversight role and elim-inate DCF direct service in child protective investigations.

Expungement

• Review and revise state laws involving the expungement of juvenile records.

Early Steps/Special Needs

• Reduce the ratio of providers to children to bring it closer to the national average. • Invest enough at the state level to bring down available federal dollars to help Florida children. • Increase the annual per-child budget for Early Steps to at least match the national average to ensure children are receiving proper services. • To increase retention, create a state-level response to issues of travel reimbursement and the amount of paperwork for providers.

Pre-K/K-12 Equity

• Increase investment in pre-K to support a de-greed teacher in every classroom.• Restore the teacher-student ratio standard Florida once met: 1 teacher for every 10 chil-dren. It is now 1-to-12 for the summer pre-K program and 1-to-11 for the school year pre-K program, when most children participate. • Adopt accepted and credible research-based pre- and post-assessment tools similar to those used in states that are ahead of Florida.

The following are highlights of state-level recommendations that are key to the well-being of Flori-da’s children. They are arranged by the subject areas covered in the Candidate Connection.

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Maternal & Child Health

• Remove the five-year waiting period re-quired for qualified children of legal immi-grants to be covered by KidCare.• Implement the Affordable Care Act Med-icaid expansion to increase health coverage and receive billions of dollars in available federal funds. • Increase Medicaid reimbursement for pri-mary care doctors, specialists and dentists to ensure access to care for children. • Ensure that maternal health programs re-ceive funding and services are expanded to include more women who qualify. • Take advantage of federal programs that provide, with increased state investment, more meals to children who are hungry.• Support home and community-based set-tings and services for all children with disabil-ities, including those who require extensive nursing care and have medically complex conditions.

Early Care & Education / Out-of-School Care

• Improve caregiver ratios to meet national standards for each age level.• Create a dedicated state funding source to meet the needs of before- and after-school programs. • Establish guidelines requiring the Child Care and Development Fund and local Ear-ly Learning Coalitions to develop a fiscally responsible and research-based methodology for child care and before- and after-school funding.• Increase investment in pre-K to support a degreed teacher in every classroom.• Expand Florida’s ability to participate in the 21st Century Community Learning Center initiative.

Child Welfare

• Develop a needs-based budget to adequately provide alcohol, drug and mental health ser-vices to children and families.• Complete the child welfare transformation by identifying local partners for protective services investigations, starting with recruiting more county sheriffs to handle the responsibility. • Continue the improvement of services to chil-dren in foster care, expanding the effort to help them obtain a driver’s license. • Plan, fund and implement an evidence-based and voluntary statewide service network that meets the needs of sex trafficking victims.• Finish the job of providing a volunteer guard-ian ad litem for every child in foster care.

Juvenile Justice

• Bring equity to the allocation of resources to girls and ensure the availability of gender-spe-cific services.• Restore lost funds to the juvenile justice sys-tem and assign them to prevention, diversion, mental health and substance abuse treatment, and community services. • Review the practice of direct file and the need / benefit of expunging juvenile records.

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Where Florida Ranks

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A Florida Snapshot

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Florida struggles to ensure children see health care professionals when they’re sick, for prevention and early intervention services and to achieve higher levels of timely care for expectant mothers.

Many factors explain the crisis: ideological resistance to federally available resources, even though Florida taxpayers have already contributed those dollars to the federal government; overly restrictive access policies and regulations; and too little state investment to even come close to meeting the known need.

For a state that boasts about its health care industry in its business and economic recruiting pitches, children’s health care policy is woefully fragmented and leadership is inconsistent.

For a snapshot of the dilemma, consider these examples of Florida’s track record:

• Beginning prenatal care in the first trimester can provide a pregnant woman the best chance of a healthy pregnancy, but more than 1 of every 5 pregnant women do not get that care.• The number of Florida’s children who are uninsured hovers at 14 percent (nearly 600,000), exceeding the national average of 10 percent. • About 1 in 5 toddlers between the ages of 19 and 35 months had not received the recommended number of immunizations.• The recommended nurse-to-student ratio is 1-to-750 students. Florida’s school health service nurse-to-student ratio historically has been as high as 1-to-2,605 students.• Children up to age 17 were more than three times as likely as adults to live in families that had problems paying medical bills, according to the 2011 National Health Interview Survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That amounts to nearly 24 percent of children in families struggling to pay their medical bills.• Reimbursement rates to doctors remain very low, severely reducing physician participation. This leaves huge access gaps for patients. Children could be covered under a health plan, but their families may need to drive a long way or take burdensome public transportation because there is no primary care physician or specialist nearby. Some families may even have to travel to another county.

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Challenges & Issues

In the most recent legislative session, several action items failed, underscoring Florida’s problems:

• The Medicaid eligibility standard did not increase for infants under 12 months, and eligibility was not expanded for pregnant women. That change would have provided prenatal care for an additional 3,000 pregnant women.• For the third straight year, the five-year waiting period was not eliminated for legally documented child immigrants to receive health care coverage.• The state refused to expand Medicaid, rejecting $51 billion in federal money over 10 years. If Florida had accepted the federal aid, roughly 1 million Florida families would have benefited. • Healthy Start, the state’s premier maternal health program, remains chronically unfunded, and its annual state revenue base was not improved.

So who loses when funding falls short, proposed legislation fails and programs undergo major changes? Some of Florida’s most vulnerable.

Premature and low-birth-weight babies place a multibil-lion-dollar financial burden on health care providers, business and, ultimately, taxpayers. According to the March of Dimes, one premature or low-birth-weight baby costs as many health care dollars as eight healthy babies.

An estimated 25,000 children of lawfully residing immigrants will miss out on low-cost health in-surance under the state’s KidCare program.

Young special-needs patients and their parents are in a particularly difficult situation as the state moves to privatize the Children’s Medical Services program. Communication with families about important deadlines remains unclear.

Tooth decay affects more children than any other chronic infectious disease, but only 1 of every 4 children enrolled in Medicaid actually receives dental care.

While the “Booster Seat” bill passed after years of trying, evidence shows the regulations are not strong enough. The new legislation requires child-safety seats for all children 5 and under. But a recent study by the CDC demonstrated that children ages 7 and 8 who are not in booster seats are still at serious risk for sustaining fatal or incapacitating injuries.

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Budget

Florida’s maternal and child health services need funding. Nearly every credible health care association and advocacy group in the state opposes the decision to refuse $51 billion in federal Medicaid money.

Children desperately need improved access to primary care doctors, specialists and dentists. But huge gaps will remain without significant improvements in reimbursement rates, resulting in very costly reliance on emergency rooms.

A modest $5 million investment in Healthy Start would result in 17,340 pregnant women and in-fants receiving timely and needed care.

State Action Needed

• Remove the five-year waiting period required for qualified children of legal immigrants to be covered by KidCare.• Implement the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion to increase health coverage and receive billions of dollars in available federal funds. • Increase Medicaid reimbursement for primary care doctors, specialists and dentists to ensure access to care for children. • Ensure that maternal health programs receive funding and services are expanded to include more women who qualify. • Take advantage of federal programs that provide, with increased state investment, more meals to children who are hungry.• Support home and community-based settings and services for all children with disabilities, including those who require extensive nursing care and have medically complex conditions.

Brittany Rogers contributed to the research and writing of this report. She is an apprentice at the Practical Apprenticeship Center, an initiative of The Children’s Campaign.

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We have come to accept that we live in a mobile and global society. The signs are everywhere – from our use of cell phones and virtual offices to the ability to connect with friends, family and co-workers across the globe in just seconds. While it is easy for us to embrace the benefits and conveniences of this mobile/global world, we have yet to muster the political will to create a high-quality system of child care and early education that meets the needs of our children in today’s society.

For most children, primary child care in a mobile and global society no longer occurs in their homes and neighborhoods:

• Nationwide, about 8.2 million kids – 40 percent of children under age 5 – are cared for by some -body other than a parent or guardian. • In Florida, 800,000 children are estimated to need out-of-home care. • The average full-time child care cost for infants can be more than rent or a mortgage payment. • The average annual cost of center-based child care in Florida exceeds in-state college tuition. • Florida’s constitutionally mandated pre-K program ranks among the lowest in quality nationwide.

Today’s children lack the crucial support system provided by families in decades past. Parents must work to support their families, but their absence is taking a toll. Parents are forced to choose between the well-being of their children versus the economic well-being of their family. Taken over time these choices have a long-term impact on the viability of Florida’s economy.

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Challenges & Issues

Child care

Working parents and businesses need high-quality child care. Studies find that working parents with access to high-quality child care miss fewer days at work, are more productive and worry less about their children, saving companies billions of dollars.

• Quality child care begins with ensuring that well-trained professionals provide services in an appropriate and safe environment.• Caregiver-to-children ratios must meet research-based best practices: 1 caregiver for every 3 infants 6 to 18 months old. In Florida, only one-third of child care settings meet this standard. Child care facilities that serve 19 or fewer children or operate less than eight hours weekly are not required to have any credentialed staff. • Overall quality in U.S. child care centers is extremely uneven, and facilities are barely monitored. Without uniform regulation, parents can’t easily judge the quality of where they place their children. Parents not qualifying for subsidized child care often end up taking their children to small, unsafe places.

Pre-K

Simply put, Florida’s failure to offer high-quality pre-K leaves 4-year-olds missing out on educational gains, and taxpayers pay the price for years. Investing in early education enables a child’s brain to properly develop for lifelong learning.

Providing early interventions such as high-quality pre-K for disadvantaged children produceshigher returns than remedial programs. It is one of the highest returns for any public investment, due to a combination of factors: savings on K-12 education, public assistance and the criminal justice system, plus increased tax revenues from better-educated workers earning higher wages.

After School

Over 15 million children nationwide — and 667,000 of schoolchildren in Florida — have nobody to take care of them when class lets out. More than half of them come from middle- or upper-class households. After-school programs need high-quality programming developed around evidence-based practices to be successful. Quality after-school programs promote social and emotional development, commitment to schoolwork, improved test scores and grades, better attendance and overall improved self-esteem.

Students in after-school programs are less likely to join gangs, be victims or perpetrators of violence, become teen parents or drug users and have shown reduced conduct problems. Despite all the benefits, after-school programs continue to be underfunded while the number of “latchkey” children grows.

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Budget

Only minimal government assistance is available to offset the expenses of quality child care, early education and after-school programs. Florida subsidizes some child care costs through its School Readiness Program, funded by state and federal money. But the eligibility requirements are strict. Florida spends nearly three times more per student on K-12 than on pre-K. Florida has no dedicat-ed funding to support before- and after-school programs.

• Florida ranks 35th out of 41 states in the amount of state dollars it invests per pre-K child: $2,242 in fiscal year 2012-13.• The only federal funding source dedicated exclusively to before-school, after-school and summer learning programs in Florida is the 21st Century Community Learning Center initiative. There are more than 1 million eligible children, but the initiative has funds to serve only about 60,000.• Respectively, the federally funded Child Care and Development Fund and state-funded Early Learning Coalitions oversee program dollars and provide vouchers or subsidies for low-income parents to pay for child care, including preschool, before-school, after-school and summer care for children up to age 12. Funding decisions lack a fiscally responsible and needs-based methodology for distribution, often pitting service providers against one another. Priorities for funding have routinely trended toward child care rather than after-school programs.

State Action Needed

• Improve caregiver ratios to meet national standards for each age level.• Create a dedicated state funding source to meet the needs of before- and after-school programs. • Establish guidelines requiring the Child Care and Development Fund and local Early Learning Coalitions to develop a fiscally responsible and research-based methodology for child care and before-and after-school funding.• Increase investment in pre-K to support a degreed teacher in every classroom.• Expand Florida’s ability to participate in the 21st Century Community Learning Center initiative.

Leah Fraley contributed to the research and writing of this report. She is an apprentice at the Practical Apprenticeship Center, an initiative of The Children’s Campaign.

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Which of the following 10 statements about Florida’s juvenile justice system is NOT true:

• The juvenile crime rate has dropped by about 28 percent, but aftercare violations are up.• The use of civil citations for minor crimes is diverting thousands of children from system involvement, and the trend is improving.• The use of expensive (and largely unsuccessful) “back-end” residential placements has decreased significantly.• Girls are not receiving an equitable share of resources for gender-specific services and are often treated more harshly than boys.• Low- to moderate-risk children who are not public safety risks continue to be placed in residential facilities.• Florida leads the country in the number of children charged and tried as adults, and the use of “direct file” by certain State Attorneys far exceeds its use by other State Attorneys.• Children are forced to pay for their misdeeds long into the future because their juvenile records are not expunged when they become adults.• Florida’s juvenile justice system is strapped for cash resources.• Children of color continue to be overrepresented in the juvenile justice system and by large numbers.• Florida has made good on its pledge to reinvest significant dollars from the “back end” to the front end, stressing prevention and early intervention.

Answer: Only the last statement is NOT true. Expenditures for residential programs have dropped from a high-water mark of $309 million in 2007-08 to about $180 million in 2013-14, while prevention funding started and stayed at about the same $68 mil-lion level over the same period of time. Some improvement will take place in the coming fiscal year with prevention spending reaching about $80 million.

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Source: Florida Department of Juvenile Justice

Commendable reforms include diverting children from the system through promising communi-ty-oriented practices; stemming the tide of the school-house to jail-house pipeline (though more needs to be done); restricting the use of secure detention; moving away from large residential programs with 165 beds to facilities with no more than 90; and reducing the number of misde-meanants who find their way into potentially harmful lock-up settings.

Modest improvements in state law continued during the 2014 legislative session with revisions to Chapter 985 of Florida Statutes. They amend various provisions relating to juvenile delinquency and attempt to enhance public safety, reduce recidivism, better measure performance outcomes and improve care provided to juvenile offenders in the custody of the Department of Juvenile Jus-tice.

Those entering the system run the risk of making it a lifetime default – moving from the juvenile to the adult correctional system. Prevention and diversion programs are essential to keep children who don’t need to be in the system out. Acknowledging that juveniles are different from adults can help those in the system get the services they need to change their path.

Current practices around retaining and reporting juvenile records make it difficult and expensive for juveniles to get their records expunged. Denying or blocking access to education and jobs in-creases the likelihood of future adult crime and reliance on government aid and intervention.

Girls make up about 1 of every 3 referrals to the juvenile justice system, but resources assigned to their treatment lag. Dollars allocated for gender-specific services are estimated to be between 5 and 10 percent annually. The execution of a few new contracts is underway.

Another reform is regulation of the practice of direct file, which gives prosecutors unfettered authority to transfer a case to adult court without a hearing or review by a juvenile court judge. Florida is one of just 15 states that give prosecutors this power. Florida has the dubious distinction of charging more children as adults than any other state in the nation, accord-ing to a new report from Human Rights Watch.

Challenges & Issues

Florida needs to invest in programs that can provide the right services at the right time in the least restrictive environment while continuing to provide significant sanctions for youth involved in seri-ous and violent crime, where appropriate. The state also must offer more gender-specific program-ming, address the disproportionate presence of minorities in the system and provide adequate resources to meet the mental and physical health needs of youth.

Over 65 percent of the youth in DJJ’s care have a mental health, alcohol or substance abuse issue. Additionally, a significant number have experienced severe childhood trauma, especially girls, which impacts their behavior and treatment needs.

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Budget

DJJ’s upcoming budget is about $551 million, including a modest amount of redirected funds to expand prevention and treatment programs for at-risk youth, including PACE Center for Girls and Children in Need of Services (CINS).

DJJ created a roadmap to improve Florida’s juvenile justice system. Part of that strategy involves shifting resources from the back end – such as underused beds in residential facilities – to the front end, where services focusing on prevention, education and health can help in communities where troubled kids live.

Since 2007-2008, there has been a steep drop in funding for back-end services with little of the money slated for reinvestment at the front end. Not only were the dollars not reallocated for the most part, but the majority were lost to the DJJ budget altogether.

Overall, residential funding has decreased by about $130 million in the past six years while pre-vention funding has increased by less than $870,000.

State Action Needed

• Bring equity to the allocation of resources to girls and ensure the availability of gender-specific services.• Restore lost funds to the juvenile justice system and assign them to prevention, diversion, mental health and substance abuse treatment, and community services. • Review the practice of direct file and the need / benefit of expunging juvenile records.

Danielle Keane contributed to the research and writing of this report. She is an apprentice at the Practical Apprenticeship Center, an initiative of The Children’s Campaign.

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1970 Census Actual

1980 Census Actual

1990 Census Actual

2000 Census Actual

2010 Census Actual

2020 Census Projected

2030 Census Projected

2040 Census Projected

0-4 501,172 570,247 873,033 945,853 1,073,506 1,166,841 1,287,943 1,365,384

5-9 605,715 621,565 809,316 1,031,748 1,080,255 1,149,283 1,295,164 1,398,915

10-14 643,011 685,048 746,353 1,057,055 1,130,847 1,230,366 1,305,456 1,425,108

15-17 359,229 482,909 455,165 611,794 717,483 744,922 773,990 861,508

18-19 217,541 328,473 348,626 402,302 510,899 524,174 544,617 604,318

Total 2,326,668 2,688,242 3,232,493 4,048,752 4,512,990 4,815,586 5,207,170 5,655,233

Florida Children Population and Projections

FLORIDA POPULATION BY AGE GROUP

1970-1980 1980-1990 1990-2000 2000-2010 2010-2020 2020-2030 2030-2040

0-4 69,075 302,786 873,033 127,653 93,335 121,102 77,441

5-9 15,850 187,751 222,432 48,507 69,028 145,881 103,751

10-14 42,037 61,305 310,702 73,792 99,519 75,090 119,652

15-17 123,680 -27,744 156,629 105,689 27,439 29,068 87,518

18-19 110,932 20,153 53,676 108,597 13,275 20,443 59,701

Total 361,574 544,251 816,259 464,238 302,596 391,584 448,063

FLORIDA POPULATION - NUMERIC CHANGE

1970-1980 1980-1990 1990-2000 2000-2010 2010-2020 2020-2030 2030-2040

0-4 13.8% 53.1% 8.3% 13.5% 8.7% 10.4% 6.0%

5-9 2.6% 30.2% 27.5% 4.7% 6.4% 12.7% 8.0%

10-14 6.5% 8.9% 41.6% 7.0% 8.8% 6.1% 9.2%

15-17 34.4% -5.7% 34.4% 17.3% 3.8% 3.9% 11.3%

18-19 51.0% 6.1% 15.4% 27.0% 2.6% 3.9% 11.0%1

Total 15.5% 20.2% 25.3% 11.5% 6.7% 8.1% 8.6%

FLORIDA POPULATION – PERCENTAGE CHANGE

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vv

Total PopulationNumber of Children Under Age 18

Age 0-4Age 5-9

Age 10-14Age 15-19

Total18,905,0484,006,5441,076,5851,087,1311,130,6761,215,664

White14,149,4652,637,941693,306712,607754,295816,156

Nonwhite4,755,5831,368,603383,279374,524376,381399,508

Population 201Population 2011

Number of BirthsBirth Rate (per 1,000 population)

Teen Birth Rate Age 15-17Teen Birth Rate Age 15-19

Number of Infant DeathsInfant Mortality Rate

Births to Unwed MothersBirths to Unwed Mothers Under Age 20

Births to Unwed Mothers Age 20 and OverBirths to Mothers Under Age 20

Births Receiving Early Prenatal CareLow-Birth-Weight Births

Total213,23711.313.729.01,3726.4

White152,00710.211.826.46984.6

Nonwhite60,46114.917.434.067011.1

#101,46615,91185,54517,320154,29418,558

%47.67.540.18.180.38.7

#63,2669,32853,93610,561113,71211,085

%41.66.135.56.982.47.3

#37,8876,53431,3466,70440,1427,413

%62.710.851.811.175.012.3

Population 201Birth Indicators 2011

Population 201Child Well-Being 2011

Child Deaths Age 1-14 Violent Deaths

Teen Deaths Age 15-19 Violent Deaths

Dissolutions of Marriage with Minor Children Affected Minimum Number of Children Affected by Dissolutions of Marriage

Total55923359741932,47053,538

Florida 2011 and 2011/12 Child Data

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Public Student Enrollment (Pre-K to 12[Fall count])

Students Eligible to Participate in Free/Reduced Lunch Number of Non-Promotions

Number of Dropouts Number of Disciplinary Actions by Type

Corporal Punishments In-School Suspensions

Out-of-School Suspensions Placed in Alternative Education Settings

Florida Federal Graduation RatePrivate School Student Enrollment

Total2,668,1551,536,049103,71427,124

2,966228,198197,8706,52874.5316,745

White1,131,901432,16635,8668,085

1,89077,13862,4792,31879.4

Black612,464482,06635,3199,945

74683,62683,3022,64463.7

Hispanic762,854545,05228,0108,028

19558,16244,1561,25872.9

Population 201Education 2011/12

Population 201 Juvenile Justice 2011/12

Delinquency Cases Received Youths Referred for Delinquency

Delinquency Cases Transferred to Adult Court Youths Transferred to Adult Court

Delinquency Cases Committed Youths Committed

Total96,51558,1732,7732,0634,4493,690

White50,47132,3331,0868151,8631,580

Black42,23423,7541,5591,1492,3831,952

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37

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Scotti Edward Branton II is earning his master’s in so-cial work policy from Flori-da State University. He will graduate in August 2014. He plans to work for a year and then pursue either a Juris Doctor or a master’s in communication.

Leah Fraley will graduate August 2014 with her master’s in public administration from FSU. Her graduate studies have focused on nonprofit management and have built on her undergradu-ate foundation in social work. Leah plans to work in the public

sector to influence policies affecting children and communities, especially in early childhood educa-tion.

Jacqueline Lefferts graduated from FSU in spring 2014 with a bachelor’s in family and child sciences. She plans to pursue a career in adoption or child ser-vices and will continue to advo-cate on behalf of children and families in need.

Danielle Keane is working on her graduate degree for applied American politics and policy at FSU. After graduating in spring 2015, she hopes to work in the advocacy arena and move outside of Florida.

The Candidate Connection was researched, written, edited and designed by a team of apprentices from the Practical Apprenticeship Center under the guidance of policy experts and editors at The Children’s Campaign. The center, an initiative of The Children’s Campaign, helps students devel-op professional skills for the 21st century workforce while meeting the diverse needs of nonprofits.

Policy apprentices, in alphabetical order

Credits & Acknowledgments

Brooke Roberts is a ju-nior at FSU majoring in Family and Child Scienc-es. She will graduate in spring 2016 and plans to attend Gallaudet Univer-sity to earn a master’s in deaf education. Her main

goal is to bridge the gap between the deaf and hearing cultures.

Brittany Rogers graduates from FSU this summer and will pursue her graduate degree for applied American politics and policy. Brittany has previously interned in Washington, D.C., and plans to return after com-

pleting her master’s. She also helped manage the editing and production of the Candidate Connec-tion.

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Jaqui Vallina is a graduate student at FSU pursuing her master’s in criminol-ogy and social work. She received her bachelor’s in criminology and psychol-ogy from FSU and has always been interested in

juvenile justice studies. Jaqui hopes to work for the FBI for the Violent Crimes Against Children program.

Communications Apprentices, in alphabetical orderTasha Hendershot gradu-ated from FSU in spring 2014 with a bachelor’s in editing, writing and me-dia. She plans to pursue a master’s in media and communication studies at FSU and is interested

in improving the quality of education for children. Tasha was a designer of the Can-didate Connection.

Xinyang Li graduated from FSU in spring 2014 with a master’s in integrated marketing communi-cation and project management. She’s from China. Xinyang focused on three categories in school: developing marketing communication strategy, web-

site design and project management. She was the lead designer of the Candidate Connection.

Juliet Reilly is a senior at FSU majoring in creative writing with a minor in women’s studies. After graduation, Juliet intends to use her writing and com-munication skills in advoca-

cy work involving women and children. Juliet provided writing assistance for the Candidate Connection and was the lead proofreader.

Alicia Settle is a public relations major and will graduate from FSU in spring 2016. After school, she would like to continue working for a nonprofit or as the public information officer for local govern-

ment. Alicia was a designer of the Candi-date Connection.

Felix Velazquez is a graduate of FSU earning a degree in religion and English with a minor in psychology. He is establishing a writing portfolio that will be used for his return to graduate school. Felix helped proofread the Candidate Connection and

worked on the website version of the handbook.

Matthew Seeger holds several volunteer positions in Tallahassee, including news anchoring and sound produc-tion duties at WVFS. In 2012, he worked as an intern for the NPR station in Tampa. Mat-thew has taken a lead role in

producing audio reports of the Candidate Con-nection.

Gerrit Van Lent is a senior at FSU pursuing a bachelor’s in political science, with minors in public administration and writing. Af-ter he graduates in 2015, Gerrit plans to either continue his edu-cation or look for an entry-level position working for the state of

Florida, a nonprofit or a lobbying firm. Gerrit was instrumental in developing a candidate database for the Candidate Connection.

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Chris Miller, Social & Digital Knowledge Navigator, is an independent social media and content mar-keter, using new media tools to build strategic, goal-oriented business results for his clients.

Chris is a veteran media content manager, having programmed and marketed radio stations in cities such as Portland, Atlanta and Cleveland. Chris led the online market-ing team of the Candidate Connection.

Children’s Campaign

Roy Miller is President and Founder of The Children’s Campaign. Linda Alexionok is the Executive Director. Roy and Linda were co-authors of the Candidate Connection and provided expertise and guidance to the policy and communications apprentice teams in the research, writing and editing of the reports. Roy holds a degree in social work from Florida State University and is one of the state’s leading child advocates. Linda, an FSU graduate in education, has an extensive back-ground in teaching and banking. She is president of Voices for Florida, an affiliate of The Children’s Campaign.

Administrative and Web Development Apprentices, in alphabetical order

Antonio Arango coordi-nates email communica-tion from The Children’s Campaign and provides database expertise. He helped with the online and database aspects of the Candidate Connec-

tion. When not in the office, Antonio enjoys writing fiction.

Robyn Metcalf is a double mas-ter’s degree student at FSU studying public administration and social work. She received her undergraduate degree in social work from FSU. Robyn provided administrative support for the production of the

Candidate Connection.

Lynn Osgood, Journalism Knowledge Navigator, led the communications team and oversaw production of the Candidate Connec-tion. Lynn, a graduate of Penn State University, is a veteran journalist whose

career at the Orlando Sentinel included writ-ing, editing and overseeing copy editors and reporters.

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Amanda Ostrander, Public Policy and Online Advocacy Knowl-edge Navigator, led the policy team working on the Candidate Connection. Amanda, who holds a master’s in social work policy and administration from FSU, has an extensive child ad-

vocacy background and has served in many dif-ferent capacities for The Children’s Campaign.

Christina Roberto, BOOT Online Advocacy Coordi-nator for The Children’s Campaign, helped direct the policy team working on the Candidate Connec-tion. Christina graduated from FSU in spring 2014

with a double master’s in social work so-cial policy and public administration. She is interested in analyzing social policies and finding effective strategies for social and economic change in the community.

Acknowledgments

These individuals and groups provided research assistance:Alan F. Abramowitz – Executive Director of the Statewide Guardian ad Litem (GAL) OfficeGypsy Bailey – Director of Courts and Staff Attorney, Leon County Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller’s OfficeDeb Brodsky – Director of the FSU Project on Accountable JusticeKurt Kelly – CEO of the Florida Coalition for ChildrenPatty McWhirter – Executive Director of the Healthy Start Coalition of Osceola County Inc.Vanessa Patino Lydia – Vice President of Research and Planning at the Delores Barr Weaver Policy CenterBrittney Rucker – Family Teams Specialist, Big Bend Division, March of Dimes Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse AssociationFlorida KIDS COUNT at the University of South Florida

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