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USA TODAY’s two-part investigation, published in October and December, revealed that after Florida lawmakers rewrote the state’s child welfare rules in 2014 to make it easier to seize children from their parents, thousands of kids flooded the foster care system. Faced with a shortage of foster parents, DCF sent some children to live in unsafe homes where they were physically and sexually abused.
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To prevent future missteps, DCF will expand its Crisis Incident Rapid Response Team, originally established to investigate child deaths, to evaluate the agency’s work in cases that involve accusations of sexual abuse against foster parents, Poppell said. Experts will review those cases, offer corrective feedback and provide a recommendation on whether a child should be returned to a home where abuse was alleged.
HOLLAND — A new center for Ottawa County s foster care needs opens soon in Holland.Journey Home, a project of Ottawa County-based nonprofit Michigan Fosters, aims to ease the transition to foster care for children and provide a welcoming, non-judgmental space for parents of children in foster care to meet with caseworkers and foster parents.Having fostered more than 40 kids and teens herself, Michigan Foster s executive director Tiffany Kraker understood how difficult, stressful and