Bar works to find foster kids teal families: Legal Needs of Children Committee enters into unique partnership with DCF.

They are not cute cuddly babies with good chances of being adopted.

They are what children's advocates call "special needs kids." Perhaps they have several brothers and sisters. Maybe they've struggled in school because of learning disabilities. They might have had run-ins with the law and wound up in delinquency court. They could have chronic medical problems. Some are teenagers.

There are more than 3,000 such children in Florida, and what they have in common is that their morn and dad have had their parental rights terminated, and they are stuck in foster care hoping to become part of a real family someday.

In a unique, budding partnership between The Florida Bar and the Department of Children and Families, the goal is to work together to find people willing to adopt such special needs children and give them permanent homes--sooner than later.

The idea is still in the conceptual stages and will eventually be launched with one or two pilot projects called "From Foster Care to Family Care."

"Our goal is to look at the barriers we have, remove them, and put these children in adoptive homes," DCF General Counsel Josie Tamayo told the Bar's Legal Needs of Children Committee, in introducing the project in June.

"It's about moving children into adoptive homes and assisting us in recruiting homes. You all, as professionals in the community, can assist us."

The way the laws are written, the state doesn't make a good parent, Kent Spuhler, executive director of Florida Legal Services, told the group.

"You can only be a parent when the child is harmed. And you've got to quit being a parent when the child turns 18. That doesn't work," Spuhler said.

Instead of lawyers and DCF officials blaming each other, Spuhler said, the primary focus would be on the child who needs a home. Then, perhaps, the historical friction between lawyers and DCF could become secondary, he said.

"I am hopeful, but it's been difficult," Spuhler said two months later in August, after several meetings with DCF officials and Bar members.

"From the lawyers' side, they said it well could involve a lot of things that are not strictly lawyer work. Yes, you have to take an expansive view of being a lawyer for this child. The goal is for the child to be in a family, and we will give you support services around that," Spuhler said. "It's just a shorter, smaller client, with a clear goal."

From DCF's perspective, Spuhler said, "They often feel shell-shocked. Inviting lawyers into their...