Florida GOP Rejects Money To Fight Child Abuse And Neglect | ThinkProgress
"Healthy Families is a program to help prevent child abuse with education and early intervention. They support at risk families thereby helping families stay together and keep children out of child protection custody. A five year study shows that 98% of the children in the program are abuse free. A child in child protection costs taxpayers around $64,377 a year, while the Healthy Families only costs about "$1,671 a year per child, saving taxpayers millions of dollars."
Florida has turned down up to "$52 million in federal funding — $3.4 million of which Scott (R-FL) turned down this year and millions more in grants available under Section 2951 of the Affordable Care Act for home health visits. The money is sorely needed. In 2010, the state legislature cut a staggering 43 percent of the budget for its Healthy Families Florida program, which provides home visitation services to both expecting parents and parents with newborn children in order to prevent future instances of abuse. As a result, Healthy Families was forced to scale back, dropping services for 5,800 children in 3,500 high-risk families.
"Healthy Families is a program to help prevent child abuse with education and early intervention. They support at risk families thereby helping families stay together and keep children out of child protection custody. A five year study shows that 98% of the children in the program are abuse free. A child in child protection costs taxpayers around $64,377 a year, while the Healthy Families only costs about "$1,671 a year per child, saving taxpayers millions of dollars."
Florida has turned down up to "$52 million in federal funding — $3.4 million of which Scott (R-FL) turned down this year and millions more in grants available under Section 2951 of the Affordable Care Act for home health visits. The money is sorely needed. In 2010, the state legislature cut a staggering 43 percent of the budget for its Healthy Families Florida program, which provides home visitation services to both expecting parents and parents with newborn children in order to prevent future instances of abuse. As a result, Healthy Families was forced to scale back, dropping services for 5,800 children in 3,500 high-risk families.
By refusing to provide, pursue, or even accept funding for child-abuse prevention programs, Scott and his GOP allies are sacrificing Florida’s children in order to cling to a partisan talking point.
– Sarah Bufkin
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