Florida lawmakers hit state's child welfare agency with $70 million in 'claim bills'

Florida lawmakers now have filed close to $70 million worth of what are called "claim bills" for next year's legislative session to compensate families for alleged negligence by the state's child welfare agency.

The five bills, all filed by state senators, take aim at the Florida Department of Children and Families, and were filed on behalf of five Florida families.

One bill, for example, seeks millions for a child DCF left in the care of the child's mother, who later stabbed the child 14 times.

“These cases are all unique but they’re very important to the families that are involved,” said Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota.

Gruters, also a former chair of the Republican Party of Florida, is sponsoring two of the bills, which together ask for almost $43 million in relief.

"I tried to pass a bill to reform the claims process so we don’t have to go through this charade in Tallahassee,” he explained, but “the damage was done, the cases are over, (and now) the state has a responsibility to pay.”

But the sheer amount of damages filed for, if not a first, is a rarity in the legislative process, especially against an executive branch agency under Gov. Ron DeSantis, to whom lawmakers have been acquiescent in recent years. A request for comment to a department spokesperson is pending.

Claim bills have vexed legislators for years

It's no secret the claim bill process has long been a source of angst to victims and legislators, who have been subject to flak from local governments, the source of many claims, and their insurance companies that usually have to pay them out.

Generally, the legal doctrine of sovereign immunity protects a government from being sued or held liable in court without its consent. But in the U.S., that protection has been chipped away by governments themselves, who decades ago began allowing suits, most often related to negligence or other wrongful acts committed by their workers or officials.

Florida law, however, limits the amount government agencies can pay in damages to $200,000. Anything more than that and a lawmaker must file a claim bill, or a relief act, for more money for a victim.

But in some years, legislative leadership wouldn't allow any claim bills to be heard. And in 2013, a blue-ribbon legislative panel studied and recommended changes to the process. Its suggestions were never adopted.

Moreover, the Department of Children and Families has been under fire almost since its creation in 1996 out of the old Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services (HRS), especially after a high-profile death of a child that was under its care.

That notoriety came to a head ten years ago, when the Miami Herald’s “Innocents Lost” investigative series revealed “a system that was clearly broken, leaving children unprotected and at risk.”

More recently, the department has come under scrutiny for its call centers, which were found to have blocked 54% of calls from people seeking to connect with a representative. The call centers hung up on more than 700,000 calls in April alone, the Florida Phoenix has reported.

Here's more about the individual claims, all of which were filed this week:

About the bills

Senate Bill 2: Filed by Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez, R-Doral, the claim is for $20 million for a Fort Myers boy, C.C., who overdosed on his mother’s methadone at 13 months of age. DCF failed to investigate seven complaints against the mother, the bill says. The child, now 9, suffers from seizures, neurological impairments, vision and hearing impairments and learning disabilities, among other health problems.

Senate Bill 12: Filed by Gruters, the claim would provide relief to the grandparents of L.P., a minor who was stabbed 14 times by the child's mother after DCF left the child in her care. Following a two-week trial in 2022, a jury found DCF was negligent and awarded L.P. $28 million in damages, according to the bill.

Senate Bill 18: Filed by Gruters, the bill would set aside almost $15 million to compensate H.H., reportedly abused by her mother and stepfather when she was 18 months old. After DCF failed to “thoroughly investigate,” H.H. was admitted to the hospital with life-threatening injuries and now suffers from permanent brain damage, including the inability to walk or talk, inability to sit up independently, needing of a feeding tube, posttraumatic epilepsy and seizures, according to the bill.

Senate Bill 32: Filed by Sen. Alexis Calatayud, R-Miami, the claim would provide $3.8 million in relief for L.E., who was placed back into her mother’s care after the department determined the child would be in “ ‘present danger’ if left in the care of her parents,” the bill says. After DCF closed the investigation against L.E.’s parents, the child was admitted to the hospital, reportedly with injuries from child abuse. L.E. was diagnosed with shaken baby syndrome, which caused seizures and cerebral palsy, and malnourishment.

Senate Bill 34: Filed by Calatayud, the legislation would provide almost $300,000 in relief for Michael Barnett, whose child, R.B., was wounded from being shot in the neck by the estranged husband of their mother. In 2010, Patrick Dell fatally shot R.B.’s mother and four other siblings in their home, according to the bill. The department did not find the children were at significant risk in the home, even though the police had responded to 34 calls to service at the home in four years. Eleven of those calls were for domestic violence, the bill says.

Ana Goñi-Lessan, state watchdog reporter for the USA TODAY Network – Florida, can be reached at agonilessan@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Lawmakers hit Florida child welfare agency with $70M in 'claim bills'