Janelle Irwin Taylor
Rep. Josie Tomkow wants to make it easier for foster parents and temporary guardians to adopt kids who have been bounced around in the foster system.
Sen. Wilton Simpson, incoming president of the Florida Senate, plans to sponsor the bill in that chamber.
Tomkow plans to file a bill that would balance child placement stability with the rights of biological parents. The idea is not to take kids away from their parents without due process, but rather to provide a pathway to adoption for kids whose parents have exhausted their options, failed to follow reunification guidelines or who present a danger to their kids.
“This is about doing what is in the best interest of the child and not necessarily just what is in the best interest of the parent,” Tomkow said.
Tomkow hasn’t filed the bill yet and is still fine tuning language based on various discussions with stakeholders. But she has a solid idea of what it will include.
The bill will provide a process for better communication between caregivers and biological parents and set parameters for how and when to communicate. The language is intended to protect foster parents and caregivers from threats from parents whose children have been removed from their care.
It would also include training requirements for judges who handle child removal cases so they understand the ultimate goals for children and the child welfare process. That training is something Tomkow said judges have told her they want.
The bill would also address situations in which biological parents are not fulfilling the process set forth to maintain or regain custody of their children. That includes enforcing orders for things like substance abuse, parental classes or substance abuse treatment.
Tomkow stressed that her bill is not intended to make it more difficult for parents who are taking the appropriate steps to improve the situation for which their child was removed to regain custody.
“If a parent is really trying to improve their situation and do what is in their child’s best interest, this bill is not about them,” she said.
Rather, she intends the legislation to address either parents who consistently fail to meet basic requirements or situations where children have been in and out of the child welfare system their whole lives.
Tomkow said she’s also working on language that would protect children from bad foster parents. That likely means language that strengthens the vetting process for foster parents and increases recruitment efforts for good ones.
5 comments
Haule
December 17, 2019 at 6:03 am
Josie is a racist. She also claims that she lives in a wedding hall owned by her mom. Also she use to sext all the boys in high school and paid us a ton of money not disclose any of the pictures.
Grandma
December 21, 2019 at 11:06 am
This just sounds like the state usurping more of our rights. Children have a right to their own biological family. If child separation is wrong for immigrant families it’s wrong for American families too. Adoption isn’t the fairytale ending these agencies who are profiting off separating families and adoption would have you believe!
Mary Brown
December 21, 2019 at 5:47 pm
AMEN!!!
Mary Brown
December 21, 2019 at 5:56 pm
A question.. It has been established that is is child abuse to remove children from parents right!? Then foster care is ALSO child abuse! The big question becomes is, does the ‘abuse’ the child is removed from exceed the abuse of removal?
Before you go on about ‘horrible abuse’ etc, keep in mind that abuse is the reason less than 20 percent of the time. Neglect is the reason the majority of the time, and it has come to mean that I am raising my child in a manner you don’t approve of.
Before you go celebrating adoption, perhaps you need to do some research on the trauma of adoption. You do know that most adoptees feel it don’t you? You do know the suicide rate is 4 times that of the general population don’t you?
For those that say parents won’t get off the dime and get things done, please realize just how toxic the current system is. Caseworkers can lie and are immune from prosecution. Parents are thrown into a kangaroo court with no due process. Many become paralyzed with grief and fall into hopeless and despair. Which becomes the reason for TPR.
I also ask you, how is foster to adopt not coveting and stealing?
So anyone that says they are looking out for the best interests of the child, their best interests are to reunite them with family if at all possible. Adoption is a failure and should be an absolute LAST RESORT!
Kim P
December 22, 2019 at 7:04 am
Adoption, particularly in Florida, affords the adopted person no equality.
They are never permitted to know their real family or story (unless they are old enough to remember).
Complete and permanent family erasure is not necessary to care for a child in need.
Sad to read this article…..
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