Florida Senate - 2023                              CS for SB 664
       
       
        
       By the Committee on Children, Families, and Elder Affairs; and
       Senator Burgess
       
       
       
       
       586-02301-23                                           2023664c1
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to contracts entered into by the
    3         Department of Children and Families; amending s.
    4         409.996, F.S.; revising requirements for contracts
    5         between the department and lead agencies; providing an
    6         effective date.
    7          
    8  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
    9  
   10         Section 1. Present paragraph (f) of subsection (1) of
   11  section 409.996, Florida Statutes, is redesignated as paragraph
   12  (h), and new paragraph (f) and paragraph (g) are added to that
   13  subsection, to read:
   14         409.996 Duties of the Department of Children and Families.
   15  The department shall contract for the delivery, administration,
   16  or management of care for children in the child protection and
   17  child welfare system. In doing so, the department retains
   18  responsibility for the quality of contracted services and
   19  programs and shall ensure that, at a minimum, services are
   20  delivered in accordance with applicable federal and state
   21  statutes and regulations and the performance standards and
   22  metrics specified in the strategic plan created under s.
   23  20.19(1).
   24         (1) The department shall enter into contracts with lead
   25  agencies for the performance of the duties by the lead agencies
   26  established in s. 409.988. At a minimum, the contracts must do
   27  all of the following:
   28         (f) Require lead agencies to annually provide written and
   29  published operating procedures that detail timelines and
   30  procedures to maximize the use of concurrent case planning,
   31  minimize the time to complete preliminary and final adoptive
   32  home studies, streamline data entry into the statewide child
   33  welfare information system, and reduce time to permanency.
   34         (g) Require lead agencies to gather all information to
   35  complete the requirements for the child-specific section of the
   36  unified home study, excluding information related to any
   37  prospective caregiver, and enter that data into the child
   38  welfare information system of record no later than 90 days after
   39  the filing of a petition for termination of parental rights.
   40         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2023.