Not Home Safe Yet

By Kathie Klarreich

The infamous disappearance of 5-year-old foster child Rilya Wilson--and the fact that it took Florida's Department of Children and Families 15 months to notice she was gone--is the most egregious example of the mess the agency is in. Here's another: DCF has spent eight years and some $170 million developing a computer system to track the children in its care better--and it still doesn't work. HomeSafenet took five years to plan, and then no contractor could be found to implement it. DCF itself introduced the first phase, which was met by complaints that the system was riddled with problems. Florida legislators will now make quarterly assessments before releasing chunks of the $60 million DCF says it needs to make HomeSafenet fully operational by 2004. So far, no additional children in the agency's care have gone missing. One was more than enough. --By Kathie Klarreich