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The Florida Senate

2025 Florida Statutes

Title XLVII CRIMINAL PROCEDURE AND CORRECTIONS
Chapter 984 CHILDREN AND FAMILIES IN NEED OF SERVICES; PREVENTION AND INTERVENTION FOR SCHOOL TRUANCY AND UNGOVERNABLE AND RUNAWAY CHILDREN Entire Chapter
SECTION 02
Legislative intent for prevention and intervention under this chapter.
F.S. 984.02
984.02 Legislative intent for prevention and intervention under this chapter.—
(1) GENERAL PROTECTIONS FOR CHILDREN.—It is a purpose of the Legislature that the children of this state be provided with the following protections:
(a) Protection from abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
(b) A permanent and stable home.
(c) A safe and nurturing environment which will preserve a sense of personal dignity and integrity.
(d) Adequate nutrition, shelter, and clothing.
(e) Effective services or treatment to address physical, social, and emotional needs.
(f) Equal opportunity and access to quality and effective education which will meet the individual needs of each child and prepare the child for future employment, and to recreation and other community resources to develop individual abilities.
(g) Access to preventive services to provide the child and family the support of community resources to address the needs of the child and reduce the risk of harm or engaging in delinquent behavior.
(h) Court intervention only when necessary to address at-risk behavior before the behavior escalates into harm to the child or to the community through delinquent behavior.
(i) Access to representation by a trained advocate when court proceedings are initiated under this chapter.
(j) Supervision and services by skilled staff when temporary out-of-home placement is necessary.
(2) SUBSTANCE ABUSE SERVICES.—The Legislature finds that children in the care of the state’s juvenile justice and intervention systems need appropriate health care services and that the impact of substance abuse on health requires the need for health care services to include substance abuse services when appropriate. It is in the state’s best interest that children be provided the services they need to enable them to become and remain independent of state care. In order to provide these services, the state’s juvenile justice and intervention systems must have the ability to identify and make referrals to experts capable of providing intervention and treatment for children with personal or family-related substance abuse problems. It is therefore the purpose of the Legislature to provide authority for the state to contract with community substance abuse treatment providers for the development and operation of specialized support and overlay services for the juvenile justice and intervention systems, subject to legislative appropriation, which will be fully implemented and utilized as resources permit. This section does not prevent agencies from referring children and families to privately operated community service providers to the extent the families have funding or insurance to provide care.
(3) JUVENILE JUSTICE AND INTERVENTION.—It is the policy of the state regarding juvenile justice and intervention to first protect the public from acts of delinquency. In addition, it is the policy of the state to:
(a) Develop and implement effective methods of preventing and reducing acts of delinquency, with a focus on maintaining and strengthening the family so that children may remain in their homes or communities.
(b) Develop and implement effective programs to prevent delinquency, to divert children from the traditional juvenile justice system, to intervene at an early stage of delinquency, and to provide critically needed alternatives to institutionalization and deep-end commitment.
(c) Provide well-trained personnel, high-quality services, and cost-effective programs within the juvenile justice system.
(d) Increase the capacity of local governments and public and private agencies to conduct rehabilitative treatment programs and to provide research, evaluation, and training services for juvenile delinquency prevention.
(e) Develop and implement effective early prevention programs to address truancy and ungovernable and runaway behavior of children which places the child at risk of harm, and allow for intervention before the child engages in a delinquent act.

The Legislature intends that temporary shelter care, in addition to providing safe care, will promote the health and well-being of the children placed therein and provide an environment that fosters their social, emotional, intellectual, and physical development.

(4) PARENTAL, CUSTODIAL, AND GUARDIAN RESPONSIBILITIES.—Parents, custodians, and guardians are deemed by the state to be responsible for providing their children with sufficient support, guidance, and supervision to deter their participation in delinquent acts, and ensure their children attend school and engage in education to prepare their child for their future. The state further recognizes that the ability of parents, custodians, and guardians to fulfill those responsibilities can be greatly impaired by economic, social, behavioral, emotional, and related problems. It is therefore the policy of the Legislature that it is the state’s responsibility to ensure that factors impeding the ability of caretakers to fulfill their responsibilities are identified and appropriate recommendations are provided to address those impediments through the provision of nonjudicial voluntary family services for families in need of services and through the child in need of services court processes.
(5) PROVISION OF SERVICES.—Services to families shall be provided on a continuum of increasing intensity and participation by the parent, legal guardian, or custodian and child. Judicial intervention to resolve the problems and conflicts that exist within a family shall be limited to situations in which a resolution to the problem or conflict has not been achieved through individual and family services after all available less restrictive resources have been exhausted. In creating this chapter, the Legislature recognizes the need to distinguish the problems of truants, runaways, and children beyond the control of their parents, and the services provided to these children, from the problems and services designed to meet the needs of abandoned, abused, neglected, and delinquent children. In achieving this distinction, it is the policy of the state to develop short-term services using the least restrictive method for children and families, early truancy intervention, and children in need of services.
History.—s. 88, ch. 97-238; s. 3, ch. 2025-153.