It has been nearly a year since Nubia Barahona, a beautiful 10-year-old girl from Miami, was found dead in her father’s truck off of I-95 in Palm Beach County on Valentine’s Day. It’s difficult to describe the impact her death has had on so many.

Every time an innocent child dies, we all suffer from the loss of dreams and wishes that will never be pursued. However, this death highlighted numerous issues in our child welfare system that needed to be addressed in order to drastically improve the overall child protection program. The governor and I pledged we would deliver an improvement plan that would address these issues quickly and thoroughly with an appropriate redesign of the investigative process.

Over the past 10 months, the Department of Children & Families implemented recommendations developed both by an independent task force as well as the Miami-Dade grand jury. A complete legislative package was prepared to establish a true front-end capability for the child protection investigation function that we believe will be a national standard.

The legislative package has two components: To improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the investigative process through changes to our child protection law and to redesign the career model and operating processes including performance management of the child protective investigators.

HB 803 and its companion bill, SB 2044, clarify language to provide for a family safety framework for investigators that will improve and standardize our processes statewide.

To address professionalization and retention of investigators, the department seeks an increase in salaries, establishment of a career ladder and approved credentialing, training and implementation of law enforcement best practices. Funding is requested for 120 additional investigative staff and supervisors along with appropriate salary increases and performance definitions for career advancement. We’re also seeking an appropriation to implement critical training and technology efficiencies that will improve the delivery of services to our children and families.

We’re not asking lawmakers for a handout. In the past year, we have shifted time, money and resources to lower administrative costs and to afford these investments while increasing our focus on the most critical job we face – saving lives and making futures brighter.

Implementation of these recommendations will dramatically improve the child protection system and provide a more seamless and focused system to allow investigators to make the critical, real-time decisions necessary to save children’s lives. To do anything less would only compound the tragedy of Nubia’s death.

We encourage everyone to review the steps we are taking to ensure family safety. Go to ww.dcf.state.fl.us and click on the “Protecting Children” button for more information

David Wilkins, secretary, DCF, Tallahassee