From The Post‘s Kathleen Chapman:

When former Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth took over the Department of Children and Families in January 2007, he vowed that the state would stop paying attorneys to fight lawsuits filed by families with valid claims against his agency.

Since then, DCF has settled with 104 plaintiffs, paying a total of more than $6.1 million. Butterworth’s successor at DCF, former state legislator George Sheldon, has continued that approach. In some cases, Sheldon said, it is better to help children who truly have been harmed by the agency’s mistakes than to continue racking up legal fees.

But the settlements are increasingly putting DCF’s commitments in conflict with a state legislature that often has been unwilling to pay.

More here.

Florida Children & Families Department Secretary George Sheldon told Post reporter Kathleen Chapman that he’ll find $1 million in his budget for Jorge and Debbie Garcia-Bengochea, a couple formerly of Boynton Beach who adopted a set of brothers who had been raped, caged, and starved while in foster care. Read today’s front-page story here.

The department admitted hiding the boys’ histories from the family, but the couple agreed to forgo a jury trial in return for DCF’s support for a claims bill in the legislature that would pay the family $10 million over a decade.

Their fate now hinges on House Speaker Larry Cretul, R-Ocala, who spoke with the family Friday, and Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, who sponsored the claims bill on their behalf last year.

Their staffs warn that the state budget has never been tighter and say that they can’t make any promises.

Debbie and Jorge say they understand that, but by next year, when their oldest son is 18, it will be too late.

More than a decade ago, one of the boys “begged for help – he held on to the social worker’s leg, begging her not to leave him,” Debbie said. “Here it is, all these years later, and we are still begging for help.”