TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — For the first time in decades, all child welfare investigations are now handled by the state Department of Children and Families (DCF), starting this week.
Previously, there were seven county sheriff's offices that investigated allegations of child abuse, neglect, and abandonment. The rest of the cases across the state were handled by the Department of Children and Families. This local management of child welfare cases began back in the mid-1990s with Manatee County. In 1999, Pasco and Pinellas counties adopted the program. Hillsborough County followed in 2005.
The seven counties that were handling local cases until now account for a quarter of Florida's child population.
- Walton
- Broward
- Hillsborough
- Pasco
- Pinellas
- Seminole
- Manatee
Each sheriff's office has been transitioning its cases from county management to the state this summer, following a law passed by the legislature requiring them to do so. The last office to complete this transition was the Manatee County Sheriff's Office, finalized last week, according to DCF.
Hillsborough County made the transition in mid-July. Through public records requests, 10 Tampa Bay learned at the time of their transition, the department was managing 904 active investigations.
"The decision to transition child protective investigation (CPI) functions to the Department was a joint decision between the Department and the impacted Sheriff’s," Northwest Region Communications Director Tori Cuddy said via email.
"There is a focused commitment at the Department on prevention programming and integrating this function within existing crisis-oriented systems which will provide better outcomes for families."
In Hillsborough County, from January to June of 2023, the county's average child removal rate was 4.35. For the same time period, the state's average removal rate was 4.06.
Through this transition, county child protection investigators (CPIs) were offered positions with the DCF. If an investigator did not elect to work with the state, some had the opportunity to transfer within the sheriff's office or to find employment elsewhere.
There is a high turnover rate for CPIs in general, often attributed to the nature of the cases they manage.
At the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, in the 2022 calendar year, the turnover rate was 49 percent.
DCF ended FY 2022-2023 with a statewide vacancy rate for CPIs at 7 percent. This is down from over 20 percent the prior fiscal year.
According to Cuddy, DCF has approximately 1,600 CPI positions throughout the state.
147 CPIs from the seven sheriff’s offices that were previously managing child welfare cases accepted positions with the Department. DCF shared that it has also onboarded over 320 new employees (CPIs) as a part of this transition.
County sheriff's offices had until the end of 2023 to complete this transition.
Over the years, 10 Tampa Bay's investigative team has uncovered the shortfalls of the state department as well as the county-level investigators that, in some cases, have involved the deaths of children.
Malique Rankin is a general assignment reporter with 10 Tampa Bay. You can email her story ideas at mrankin@10tampabay.com and follow her Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages.