Florida Statutes 39.0121 – Specific rulemaking authority
Current as of: 2024 | Check for updates
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Pursuant to the requirements of s. 120.536, the department is specifically authorized to adopt, amend, and repeal administrative rules which implement or interpret law or policy, or describe the procedure and practice requirements necessary to implement this chapter, including, but not limited to, the following:
(1) Background screening of department employees and applicants; criminal records checks of prospective foster and adoptive parents; and drug testing of protective investigators.
(2) Reporting of child abuse, neglect, and abandonment; reporting of child-on-child sexual abuse; false reporting; child protective investigations; taking a child into protective custody; and shelter procedures.
(3) Confidentiality and retention of department records; access to records; and record requests.
(4) Department and client trust funds.
(5) Requesting of services from Child Protection Teams.
(6) Consent to and provision of medical care and treatment for children in the care of the department.
(7) Federal funding requirements and procedures; foster care and adoption subsidies; and subsidized independent living.
(8) Agreements with law enforcement and other state agencies; access to the National Crime Information Center (NCIC); and access to the parent locator service.
(9) Licensing, registration, and certification of child day care providers, shelter and foster homes, and residential child-caring and child-placing agencies.
(10) The Intensive Crisis Counseling Program and any other early intervention programs and kinship care assistance programs.
(11) Department contracts, pilot programs, and demonstration projects.
(12) Legal and casework procedures, including, but not limited to, mediation, diligent search, stipulations, consents, surrenders, and default, with respect to dependency, termination of parental rights, adoption, guardianship, and kinship care proceedings.
(13) Legal and casework management of cases involving in-home supervision and out-of-home care, including judicial reviews, administrative reviews, case plans, and any other documentation or procedures required by federal or state law.
(14) Injunctions and other protective orders, domestic-violence-related cases, and certification of domestic violence centers.
(15) Provision for making available to all physical custodians and family services counselors the information required by s. 39.6012(2) and for ensuring that this information follows the child until permanency has been achieved.
(16) Provisions for reporting, locating, recovering, and stabilizing children whose whereabouts become unknown while they are involved with the department and for preventing recurrences of such incidents. At a minimum, the rules must:
(a) Provide comprehensive, explicit, and consistent guidelines to be followed by the department’s employees and contracted providers when the whereabouts of a child involved with the department are unknown.
Terms Used In Florida Statutes 39.0121
- abandonment: means a situation in which the parent or legal custodian of a child or, in the absence of a parent or legal custodian, the caregiver, while being able, has made no significant contribution to the child's care and maintenance or has failed to establish or maintain a substantial and positive relationship with the child, or both. See Florida Statutes 39.01
- Abuse: means any willful act or threatened act that results in any physical, mental, or sexual abuse, injury, or harm that causes or is likely to cause the child's physical, mental, or emotional health to be significantly impaired. See Florida Statutes 39.01
- Adoption: means the act of creating the legal relationship between parent and child where it did not exist, thereby declaring the child to be legally the child of the adoptive parents and their heir at law, and entitled to all the rights and privileges and subject to all the obligations of a child born to the adoptive parents in lawful wedlock. See Florida Statutes 39.01
- Department: means the Department of Children and Families. See Florida Statutes 39.01
- Diligent search: means the efforts of a social service agency to locate a parent or prospective parent whose identity or location is unknown, initiated as soon as the social service agency is made aware of the existence of such parent, with the search progress reported at each court hearing until the parent is either identified and located or the court excuses further search. See Florida Statutes 39.01
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- Family: means a collective body of persons, consisting of a child and a parent, legal custodian, or adult relative, in which:(a) The persons reside in the same house or living unit; or(b) The parent, legal custodian, or adult relative has a legal responsibility by blood, marriage, or court order to support or care for the child. See Florida Statutes 39.01
- Foster care: means care provided a child in a foster family or boarding home, group home, agency boarding home, child care institution, or any combination thereof. See Florida Statutes 39.01
- Mediation: means a process whereby a neutral third person called a mediator acts to encourage and facilitate the resolution of a dispute between two or more parties. See Florida Statutes 39.01
- Out-of-home: means a placement outside of the home of the parents or a parent. See Florida Statutes 39.01
- Parent: means a woman who gives birth to a child and a man whose consent to the adoption of the child would be required under…. See Florida Statutes 39.01
- Shelter: means a placement with a relative or a nonrelative, or in a licensed home or facility, for the temporary care of a child who is alleged to be or who has been found to be dependent, pending court disposition before or after adjudication. See Florida Statutes 39.01
(b) Include criteria to determine when a child is missing for purposes of making a report to a law enforcement agency, and require that in all cases in which a law enforcement agency has accepted a case for criminal investigation pursuant to s. 39.301(2)(c) and the child’s whereabouts are unknown, the child shall be considered missing and a report made.(c) Include steps to be taken by employees and contracted providers to ensure and provide evidence that parents and guardians have been advised of the requirements of s. 787.04(3) and that violations are reported.