page26

By MIKE BRANOM
Associated Press
ORLANDO — Gov. Jeb Bush gave the troubled Department of Children and Families ap¬proval Thursday to try loose¬ning confidentiality restrictions that hinder finding missing chil¬dren.
The governor directed the agency to file a request in state court to end restrictions that forbid the state's child welfare agency from publicizing infor¬mation about youths missing from its care.
"We should provide all the in¬formation that will help the children be found," Bush said at the Dependency Court Im¬provement Summit in Orlando. "It is important to regain the confidence of the people of the state, and one of the ways to do it is to be much more transpar¬ent"
The request, filed in Leon County Circuit Court on Thurs¬day, will hasten the search for about 500 children missing statewide while in the agency's care. Bush said.
"It seemed illogical to me that if a child is missing from their natural parenting home. that we can put out an all-points bul¬letin, but if the child is under the legal jurisdiction of the de¬partment, we couldn't," said Jack Levine, president of the Center for Florida's Children.
However, Levine warned that care should be taken that the in¬formation released should per¬tain only to the children's identities and not the circumstances {hat landed them in DCF custody

According to the DCFs petition, information for release would include names, dates of birth, physical descriptions, photos, dates last seen, circum¬stances of the disappearances and department efforts to find the children.
"But beyond that, all other in¬formation in the dependency file would remain confidential," said John Slye, deputy general counsel for the DCF.
Information about some chil¬dren missing from DCF super¬vision is posted on a Florida De¬partment of Law Enforcement Web site, along with informa¬tion about other missing youths. DCF officials say the postings do not violate confidentiality because the children are not identified as being under state care.
Slye said a hearing before Judge Nikki Ann Clark could be scheduled for as early as next week.

SECRECY
CONFIDENTIALITY

Does this serve and protect the children as intended or rather the bureaucracy of Children & Families. ???
Read the following recent news articles quoting Governor Bush and others about secrecy and then e-mail your thoughts on the problem by clicking on

SECRECY