Under Fire, Florida Chief of Child Welfare Resigns
The latest embarrassing episode occurred on Sunday, when The Sun-Sentinel newspaper of Fort Lauderdale published a report detailing its efforts to find children in state custody for whom the child welfare agency had said it could not account. The agency admitted last month that there were more than 500 such children in its care. But using public records, phone books and information from children's relatives and caregivers, Sun-Sentinel reporters searched for 24 South Florida children on the missing list and turned up nine, including two in under three hours, the newspaper reported.

In response, Governor Bush said on Monday that the findings, "suggest that we need a new approach." Ms. Kearney resigned less than a day later.

Child welfare advocates and Mr. Bush's political foes said the resignation was long overdue. "I don't know if the governor finally realized how bad the situation is or how important the issue is among voters," said David Bazerman, a lawyer and child advocate in Fort Lauderdale. "How many isolated cases add up to a systemic failure?"
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/14/national/14CHIL.html