Florida law imposes state-wide minimum standards on child care facilities. However,
Fla. Stat. Sec. 402.316 exempts from most of the state requirements any "child care facility which is an integral part of church or parochial schools ... or educational programs accredited by... an organization which publishes and requires compliance with its standards for health, safety, and sanitation." The
Tampa Bay Times, in an investigative article today, reports that nearly a dozen residential group homes for children which escape state supervision under this exemption have abused children in their care, and they continue to operate. Religious homes under the exemption are supposed to be supervised by the
Florida Association of Christian Child Caring Agencies, which says it has removed accreditation from at least 3 homes since 2005. Some of these nevertheless continue in violation of state law. According to the newspaper:
Today, virtually anyone can claim a list of religious ideals, take in children and subject them to punishment and isolation that verge on torture — so long as they quote chapter and verse to justify it....
Here are some of the findings that emerged from the paper's investigation:
• State authorities have responded to at least 165 allegations of abuse and neglect in the past decade, but homes have remained open even after the state found evidence of sex abuse and physical injury.
• The religious exemption has for decades allowed homes to avoid state restrictions on corporal punishment.....
• Children have been bruised, bloodied and choked to unconsciousness in the name of Christian discipline.....
• Teens have been denounced as sinners, called "faggots" and "whores," and humiliated in front of their peers for menstrual stains and suspicions of masturbation....
• Florida taxpayers have supported some unlicensed homes with hundreds of thousands of dollars in McKay scholarships — a government program to help special needs students pay tuition at private schools.
