The bill amends several sections of Florida Statutes related to child welfare, specifically focusing on the commercial sexual exploitation of children and the recruitment of child protective personnel. It requires the Department of Children and Families (DCF) to provide detailed assessment data to the Legislature in its annual report, including information on the prevalence of commercial sexual exploitation of children, the services provided, and the placement of affected children. The DCF is also mandated to maintain individual-level data on children assessed for placement in safe houses or foster homes, ensuring that this data is available for legislative analysis. Additionally, the bill establishes a recruitment program aimed at attracting individuals with public safety backgrounds to work as child protective investigators and case managers.

Furthermore, the bill introduces a four-year pilot program for treatment foster care, which will begin on July 1, 2025, and requires the DCF to identify two judicial circuits with the greatest need for implementation. The program will focus on children with high resource indicators and will include an independent evaluation to assess its effectiveness. The DCF is tasked with convening a case management workforce workgroup to analyze existing statutes and practices, gather data, and develop recommendations for improving case management processes. Lastly, the bill mandates a study on bed capacity for residential treatment services for child victims of commercial sexual exploitation, to be completed by December 31, 2025.

Statutes affected:
H 1127 Filed: 39.524