Independent Living Program - Florida's Center for Child Welfare

Recommendations by the Council for the Department of Children andFamiliesActively participate and consider legislation to support therecommendations of the Road to Independence Redesign Workgroup andthe voluntary provisions of Fostering Connections.Department Response: The Department supports the work of theRedesign Workgroup, as well as strengthening laws to ensure youth haveaccess to services to help them transition to adulthood and to improveoutcomes relating to education, employment, and support system.EducationNew RecommendationsFostering Connections: Ensure that all educational requirements of thisAct within its own control are implemented both in policy andoperationally. DCF should revise appropriate rules in the FloridaAdministrative Code to reflect these educational requirements. Further,DCF should ensure that all local educational agreements include actions bythe schools and other signatory agencies to comply with this Act.Department Response: The Department concurs with thisrecommendation. The Department will consider and address theserecommendations in the Department’s rulemaking process.In the interim, the Department is working at both the state and the locallevels to ensure that the letter and spirit of the statewide InteragencyAgreement on Education, signed by the parties on July 30, 2009, are fullyimplemented.There is a statewide implementation team that meets twice monthly, aswell as local teams that meet twice monthly. The State team, headed bythe Department and Department of Education, will begin providing regulartechnical assistance calls to all local team members in early January.Definitional Need: To promote school stability, it is recommended that DCFdevelop a definition of “children awaiting foster care placement” pursuantto the McKinney-Vento Act provisions for the education of homelesschildren and obtain approval of this definition from the DOE.Department of Children and Families – Office of Family SafetyResponse to 2009 Independent Living Services Advisory Council ReportDecember 31, 20094