Florida Is Under Pressure To Send Kids Home

George Sheldon is a national leader in restructuring child welfare as we know it as he believes home based and community based services are more beneficial than improper and unnecessary removal of children.  


Whether you like it or not, foster care is changing.  Thank you, George.

George Sheldon: Sunshine Express sends foster kids home for holidays

You may recall the children's tale "The Polar Express," but have you heard about what we like to call the Sunshine Express?

Achieving "Home for the Holidays" would not happen without a lot of hard work. Beginning in August, busy Santa's elves otherwise known as judges, magistrates, guardians ad litem, Children's Legal Services attorneys and case managers at 20 community-based care agencies and additional local partners, plus Department of Children and Families' Interstate Compact for the Placement of Children staff, start the process. They plan the necessary judicial hearings and travel arrangements.family and friends are a really big deal if you're a kid.

Judge George Sarduy of Miami-Dade County, where 336 children are heading home for the holidays, shared his thoughts on why this is important: "We are so proud to be part of the effort that allows children in care to be with their families at this special time of the year. For our children to be able to feel the warmth of their own families during the holidays is the best gift we could give as a system."

We can't thank everyone enough for being our conductors and engineers on the Sunshine Express.

Santa Claus has reindeer, toys and a sleigh, but our state also is making hundreds of children and youth in foster care happy by sending them home for the holidays.