A Miami appeals court rebuked the state child-welfare agency Wednesday for removing a 12-year-old boy from his mother because she was homeless, ruling that not having a home for a child does not by itself constitute abuse.

A three-judge panel of the Third District Court of Appeal, in an opinion reversing a ruling by Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Valerie R. Manno Schurr, said being homeless is not sufficient cause to take children from their parents. Under Florida law, children can be taken from parents by the Department of Children & Families if there's evidence of abuse, neglect, or abandonment.

''Homelessness, derived solely from a custodian's financial inability, does not constitute the kind or level of abuse, neglect or abandonment necessary to justify removal of a child, unless [the state] offers services to the homeless custodian and those services are rejected,'' the court wrote.

Alan Abramowitz, who took over as head of DCF's Miami operations last year with a reputation for preserving troubled families and reducing foster-care caseloads, hailed the ruling.

''If we removed a child because of homelessness we should be reversed,'' Abramowitz said. ``We are obligated to offer services to keep families together.''

Abramowitz said he intends to use the appeals-court opinion as a teaching aid as the agency refines the way it trains child-abuse investigators. ''The opinion is basically what I've been preaching,'' he said. ``This is an important case for us in training.''

Under the ruling, DCF will have to return the boy to his mother unless a new investigation turns up any evidence that would justify keeping him in state care.

DCF is continuing to investigate the case of the mother, identified in court papers only as M.B., and agency administrators are ''reviewing our options'' before deciding how to proceed, Abramowitz said, adding that new information about the family emerged after the hearing that was presided over by Judge Manno Schurr in April.

''These investigations are complex and change as we are able to gather more information,'' he said. ``We agree with the ruling and will be sure that future petitions give just cause for removal, not citing poverty or homelessness alone.''

Mark Graham Hanson, an assistant regional counsel for the state's court-appointed defense program who represented the mother, also praised the decision, which was signed by Judges Richard Suarez, Alan Schwartz and Juan Ramirez Jr.

''The law says that just being homeless doesn't rise to the level where you can take someone's kids away,'' Hanson said. ``The court seems to have agreed with us on that.''

`GREAT CONCERNS'

According to Wednesday's opinion, M.B. moved from New York to Miami earlier this year ``without any money and without any place to go.''

''M.B. said that she had been told that if she moved to Florida, she would be given funds to move into an apartment, and that this was why she came to Florida,'' the appeals-court opinion states.

In a petition to the judge, DCF said it had ''great concerns for the child as the mother has no means to support her child and cannot provide shelter as well.'' The 12-year-old boy, identified as D.B., ``faced imminent danger and could not be protected from this danger.''

`DRAGGED AROUND'

Hanson, the mother's lawyer, said M.B. called 911 in the middle of the night after realizing she had nowhere to stay after arriving from New York with only $300 in her purse. ''She called for help,'' Hanson said. Instead, a police dispatcher turned the mother over to DCF, which almost immediately took custody of the boy.

At a hearing on April 30, Manno Schurr agreed with DCF's lawyer and ordered the state to shelter the boy. ''We're not going to have 12-year-old children sleeping, not sleeping, getting dragged around the city of Miami,'' she said during the hearing, according to court records.

MONEY AVAILABLE

With an eye toward reducing the number of children in state care, DCF received approval from the federal government in 2006 to use millions of dollars in foster-care money to improve services for struggling families that remain together.

The money can be used for rent or mortgage payments, utility bills, car payments, child-care bills, groceries -- virtually anything to help keep a struggling family together if the alternative would be foster care, and the children can be kept safe.

Since the program began on Oct. 1, 2006, DCF has reduced the number of children in state care from close to 30,000 to almost 24,000 as of May, according to DCF records. Administrators insist that at-risk children have remained safe as the agency has maintained oversight of the families.

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