The Florida Senate

984.04  Families in need of services and children in need of services; procedures and jurisdiction.--

(1)  It is the intent of the Legislature to address the problems of families in need of services by providing them with an array of services designed to preserve the unity and integrity of the family and to emphasize parental responsibility for the behavior of their children. Services to families in need of services and children in need of services shall be provided on a continuum of increasing intensity and participation by the parent and child. Judicial intervention to resolve the problems and conflicts that exist within a family shall be limited to situations in which a resolution to the problem or conflict has not been achieved through service, treatment, and family intervention after all available less restrictive resources have been exhausted. In creating this ¹part, the Legislature recognizes the need to distinguish the problems of truants, runaways, and children beyond the control of their parents, and the services provided to these children, from the problems and services designed to meet the needs of abandoned, abused, neglected, and delinquent children. In achieving this recognition, it shall be the policy of the state to develop short-term, temporary services and programs utilizing the least restrictive method for families in need of services and children in need of services.

(2)  The Department of Juvenile Justice shall be responsible for all nonjudicial proceedings involving a family in need of services.

(3)  All nonjudicial procedures in family-in-need-of-services cases shall be according to rules established by the Department of Juvenile Justice under chapter 120.

(4)  The circuit court shall have exclusive original jurisdiction of judicial proceedings involving continued placement of a child from a family in need of services in shelter.

(5)  The circuit court shall have exclusive original jurisdiction of proceedings in which a child is alleged to be a child in need of services. When the jurisdiction of any child who has been found to be a child in need of services or the parent, custodian, or legal guardian of such a child is obtained, the court shall retain jurisdiction, unless relinquished by its order or unless the department withdraws its petition because the child no longer meets the definition of a child in need of services as defined in s. 984.03, until the child reaches 18 years of age. This subsection shall not be construed to prevent the exercise of jurisdiction by any other court having jurisdiction of the child if the child commits a violation of law, is the subject of the dependency provisions under this chapter, or is the subject of a pending investigation into an allegation or suspicion of abuse, neglect, or abandonment.

(6)  All procedures, including petitions, pleadings, subpoenas, summonses, and hearings, in family-in-need-of-services cases and child-in-need-of-services cases shall be according to the Florida Rules of Juvenile Procedure unless otherwise provided by law.

(7)  The department may contract with a provider to provide services and programs for families in need of services and children in need of services.

History.--s. 8, ch. 87-133; s. 60, ch. 94-209; s. 19, ch. 96-398; s. 90, ch. 97-238.

¹Note.--Chapter 984 is not divided into parts.

Note.--Former s. 39.42.