Jesse Scheckner
Florida lawmakers are looking to trim down the number of positions at the Department of Children and Families (DCF), but they haven’t yet agreed on how many.
The House wants to slash the number by an estimated 802 — all of them positions that have been vacant for more than 90 days.
Meanwhile, the Senate is contemplating a more modest number: 454, give or take, comprising about 89 currently vacant positions and 365 full-time-equivalent (FTE) posts working at the agency’s mental health facilities that would be reduced.
DCF employs about 12,000 people across the state, according to the agency’s website.
Funding-wise, the House plan is expected to free up more than $53.15 million in the coming budget, which the two chambers have been haggling over for weeks.
About 60% of that would remain in the state’s General Revenue Fund, with the remainder staying in trust fund coffers.
The upper chamber’s proposal, conversely, would result in a $22.4 million positive budgetary impact, 92% of which would be General Revenue Fund bucks.
Asked Monday about employee cuts at DCF and other state agencies, Tampa Republican Rep. Lawrence McClure, who chairs the House Budget Committee, said his chamber and the Senate are trying to take a measured, needs-based approach to the process.
He added that many of the positions listed as vacancies “aren’t true vacancies.”
“They’re FTEs to plus up,” he said. “Instead of doing that exercise, why don’t we just understand what we need and how much it costs and apply it? We’re not offended, per se, by the value proposition; we’re more disturbed by the accounting practices.”
Palm Harbor Republican Sen. Ed Hooper, Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, added that maintaining staffing levels at DCF isn’t easy because of how much work each employee has and the agency’s promotion process.
“It’s a tough job,” he said. “We give them caseloads that are incredibly hard to manage. The expectation is if you’re a case manager for two years, you’re probably going to be a supervisor. It’s a tough job. Yeah, there’s no doubt about that.”
In January, former DCF Secretary Shevaun Harris described 2024 as “another monumental year” for the agency, which is tasked with protecting vulnerable individuals, including children and disabled adults, and promoting strong families.
That includes overseeing the state’s child welfare and protection programs, administering public assistance like Medicaid and SNAP, licensing and regulating child care facilities and investigating reports of abuse.
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ proposed 2025-26 budget, unveiled in February, included $4.8 billion for DCF.
