Child Welfare.

It is heartbreaking to learn that yet a third child in our state's foster care system has ended her life by hanging herself within the last year. The tragedies of teens like Giulianna Ramos Bermudez, Lauryn Martin, and Naika Venant show us that privatization of the child welfare system has done little to improve the welfare of Florida's children.

Under our current system, the Department of Children & Families assigns the care of children to contractors, who frequently subcontract and employ other third-party contractors to administer care, provide residential placements and address the therapeutic needs of these children. This system of hiring private contractors to oversee foster care in much of the state has frequently led to insufficient...