November 30, 2021

Secretary Shevaun Harris

Office of the Secretary
Florida Department of Children and Families Services
1317 Winewood Boulevard
Building 1, Room 202
Tallahassee, FL 32399

Dear Secretary Harris,

As unaccompanied children care providers from across the state of Florida, we write in response
to Executive Order 21-223. Signed on September 28, 2021, this order requires the Florida
Department of Children and Families (DCF) to determine if there is “evidence of need” for the
state to serve unaccompanied children by keeping them safe and reuniting them with their
families. We are deeply concerned about the impact this order could have on the vulnerable
children and families our organizations are dedicated to serving in Florida.

We believe there is evidence of need to continue caring for unaccompanied children in the State
of Florida. All children deserve safe placements and connection to family. We know that
children are safer and best cared for in state-licensed shelters. Even more, the Florida child
welfare system is strengthened by unaccompanied children care providers.

The Unaccompanied Children Program

Unaccompanied migrant children arrive in the United States without legal guardians and are
afforded special protections by U.S. law. Under the terms of the William Wilberforce Trafficking
Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) — a bipartisan federal law signed by President
George W. Bush in 2008 — unaccompanied children from non-contiguous countries who
encounter U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) must be transferred to the custody of the
Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS). ORR relies upon a network of childcare providers that keep children safe in temporary
shelters or with foster families until a sponsor can be identified and vetted. Under the Flores
Settlement Agreement, shelters are required to be licensed by state officials, which ensures
proper state oversight and the wellbeing of children. Approximately 85% of children are unified
with close family members already present in the United States—and in 40% of cases, with a
parent.

We share DCF’s desire to keep unaccompanied children safe, as do the American people. In a
poll published in April, the majority of Americans agreed that the federal government’s highest
immigration priority should be to provide safe treatment for unaccompanied children. The
American people also agree that every policy should be governed by a “best interest of the child”
standard. While we firmly believe that our organizations and your office share the same goal,
failing to find evidence of need under E.O. 21-223 could lead to substantial harm for children
and families in Florida.

Evidence of Need to Continue Care for Unaccompanied Children in Florida

For decades, our organizations have partnered with ORR and the state of Florida to keep
unaccompanied children safe and reunite them with their families. In fiscal year 2021 alone,
around 10,000 Florida families reunited with their children through this program. Historically,
approximately 10% of all unaccompanied children in the United States are reunited with Florida
families — 35,000 children in Florida since 2015, a time period that spans the Obama, Trump,
and Biden administrations. In addition to child-placing agencies, Florida licenses 15 shelters to
provide around 700 beds to care for unaccompanied children in the state as of the date of the
Executive Order. We appreciate the relationships we have with the professional staff at DCF as
we work together to ensure children are safe and well cared for through this program.

Children are safest in state-licensed shelters. If DCF determines “evidence of need” is absent, the
Executive Order directs DCF to “not grant or renew any license for any family foster home,
residential child-caring agency, or child-placing agency that applies to house unaccompanied
alien children in Florida and shall prohibit family foster homes, residential child-caring agencies,
or child-placing agencies that already house unaccompanied alien children in Florida from
accepting additional unaccompanied alien children.” Failing to find evidence of need could
threaten the health, safety, and well-being of children in government custody and undermine
efforts to ensure all children have access to child-appropriate placements.

Innocent children, regardless of their immigration status, deserve and require safe placements
and connection to family.

Unaccompanied children arrive in the United States from all over the world without a parent or
legal guardian. Many have experienced persecution, trafficking, and abuse in their home
countries and had no choice but to flee and find safety in the United States. Children’s best
interests are served when trained, professional staff looks after children’s needs until families can
reunify with their children. State-licensed facilities exist to consolidate the many services and the
deep care that these children require until they are reunited with family. As care providers, we
also know that proximity to family is beneficial for children’s mental-health and emotional needs
while in care, for expediting reunification, and for providing continuity post-release.

Children are safer when they are in state-licensed shelters

State regulation and oversight of residential care facilities are critical elements for child safety
and proper care. State licensing standards exist to ensure the physical site, staffing levels, and
services are safe for children. Further, licensing standards provide benchmarks for the state’s
continued evaluation of a facility’s compliance with legal requirements for children’s well-being.
The alternatives to licensed care are unlicensed facilities (influx or emergency intake sites),
which have long had problems and are far from children’s families. When children are in
unlicensed facilities, the lack of licensing safeguards may result in threats to their health and
safety, such as insufficient staffing levels, poorly trained and vetted staff, inadequate services,
harmful disciplinary actions, and risks of physical/sexual abuse and trafficking. Indeed, there is
documentation of such harms to children in unlicensed facilities, including in Florida. This order
would make the situation worse by ending the State of Florida’s oversight of care providers in
their own state. Our fundamental point is this: children deserve to be safe and cared for in
licensed facilities.

For some organizations and many foster parents who provide temporary care for children, the
decision to do so is motivated by their faith.

Some of our signees belong to faith communities, all of which affirm the fundamental dignity of
children because they are made in God’s image. Faith communities have long traditions of
welcoming the stranger, loving their neighbors from around the world, and caring for children.
These convictions are why many faith communities, institutions, and individuals are on the
forefront of providing care for vulnerable children, whether they are born in the United States or
abroad. We ask that you not prevent their ability to live out their faith through their actions.

The Florida child welfare system is strengthened by the presence of unaccompanied children
care providers.

We believe that children are children. Florida social-welfare organizations are strengthened by
the federal money and support that funds the care of unaccompanied children. Florida children
benefit from an increased number of agencies, and larger labor pools of professional staff. Our
organizations have demonstrated we can successfully serve both foreign-born and U.S.-born
children. Indeed, Florida licensure implicitly recognizes that children are children because the
license from the State of Florida that allows an organization to provide domestic child-welfare
services – like foster care and adoption – is the very same license required to provide shelter or
temporary foster care for unaccompanied migrant children. Removing licensure from all
unaccompanied children’s care will prevent our agencies from coordinating care for Florida-born
children in need of foster or adoptive families and prevent families from serving as foster parents
for migrant children. We ought not to be restricted, nor should we be required to choose only one
category of vulnerable child to serve.

For all the reasons above, we urge you to support the health and safety of children by finding
evidence of need for the continued care of unaccompanied children in Florida. Thank you for
your consideration, and we look forward to working with you for the best interests of all children
in Florida.
Sincerely,

Laurie Anne Spagnola

President & CEO
Board of Child Care

Chris Palusky
President & CEO
Bethany Christian Services

Loryn Smith
CEO
Finally Home

Dr. Sandra Braham

President & CEO
Gulf Coast JFCS

Silvia Smith-Torres
Chief Executive Director
His House Children’s Home

Lorie Davidson
Director for Children and Family Services
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services

Marvena Twigg
President & CEO
National Youth Advocate Program

Eskinder Negash
President & CEO
U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants

CC: Jessica Tharpe, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Child Welfare