Florida's Gov. Bush OK's looser confidentiality to help find missing kids

By The Associated Press

08.30.02

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ORLANDO, Fla. — Gov. Jeb Bush gave the troubled Department of Children & Families approval yesterday to try loosening confidentiality restrictions that hinder finding missing children.

The governor directed the agency to file a request in state court seeking an end to restrictions that forbid the state's child welfare agency from publicizing information about youths missing from its care.

"We should provide all the information that will help the children be found," Bush said at the Dependency Court Improvement Summit in Orlando. "It is important to regain the confidence of the people of the state and one of the ways to do it is to be much more transparent."

The governor said his request, which will be filed in Leon County Circuit Court, will hasten the search for hundreds of missing children in state care.

"It seemed illogical to me that if a child is missing from their natural parenting home, [then] we can put out an all-points bulletin," said Jack Levine, president of the Center for Florida's Children. "But if the child is under the legal jurisdiction of the department, we couldn't."

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