A bill to prevent family separations in cases of false child abuse accusations is headed to its House Committee stop with additional support from both sides of the dais.
The House Judiciary Committee voted unanimously for the measure (HB 47), which would change how Florida handles child abuse investigations involving certain conditions that can mimic abuse, such as brittle bone or connective tissue disorders.
This is the second straight Session lawmakers have considered the legislation, which was dubbed “Patterson’s Law” last year after a couple who lost custody of their twin sons to the Department of Children and Families (DCF).
And it addresses a real and disturbing fact about Florida’s child protective efforts: Sometimes the state gets it wrong and misattributes injuries to abuse, and under the current system, parents have little recourse.
Shalimar Republican Rep. Patt Maney, a former judge and one of the bill’s prime sponsors, cited his experience terminating parental rights from the bench in stressing how complex the issue is.
“Those are not only legally challenging cases, but they’re tremendously emotionally challenging. And if they’re challenging for the judge, imagine how challenging they are for the families who have their children in a posture of being taken away from them — visitation limited,” he said. “And once the wheel gets in spin, once the bureaucracy gets moving, it’s very difficult to slow it down.”
HB 47, if passed, would allow DCF to temporarily delay referring allegations to law enforcement while investigating claims of specified preexisting diagnoses, but requires referral once the investigation ends if criminal conduct is still alleged.
The measure also requires child protection teams to consult pediatric-experienced medical professionals in such cases. And importantly, it gives parents the right to request timely second opinions or alternative medical examinations at their own expense, with a mandatory case staffing if doctors disagree.
“This bill does not weaken protections for abused children. It strengthens our system by making sure we get it right,” said Weston Democratic Rep. Robin Bartleman, the bill’s other prime sponsor. “A child wrongfully removed from a loving home suffers real harm, and when resources are spent on unnecessary investigations, real cases of abuse may go unnoticed.”
Members of the panel heard several public testimonies supporting that assertion.
Christie Lee, who worked in foster care in Hillsborough County, said in her nearly two decades on the job, the cases HB 47 concerns represent “the most egregious abuses of power” she’d seen.
“Right now in Florida, a single medical opinion can set off a chain of events that permanently shatters an innocent family,” she said. “We can’t continue to accept a process where parents are presumed guilty, families are torn apart, and no meaningful check on power exists. A second medical opinion is not an obstacle to a child’s safety. It’s the bare minimum of fairness.”
Kim Young, a foster parent for almost 10 years who said she’s cared for more than 100 children, said that some of the kids in her care were clearly abused. But she called cases of misdiagnoses “not rare at all.”
“We’ve just been mussing it,” she said. “We’ve not been believing parents, and we’ve not been giving them the opportunity for a second opinion. They don’t have a fighting chance.”
Sarah Mischler shared how her oldest child was removed from her custody at just 7 months old based on a misdiagnosis from a Jacksonville doctor working 170 miles from where she lives, who never physically examined the boy. She said she and her partner were accused of shaken baby syndrome based on an old bleed caused by a vacuum-assisted birth, and they fought for 11 months to keep their son, spending more than $100,000 in the process.
“What ultimately saved our family was the ability to obtain a second medical opinion,” she said. “And with that opinion, DCF completely dropped its (termination of parental rights case) against us, and our son was returned home.”
The measure’s namesake, Michael and Tasha Patterson, lost their twin sons after DCF took custody of them in 2022, after broken bones the boys suffered raised alarms during an emergency room visit.
The couple took the matter to court, citing medical evidence showing that, like their mother, the boys — who have still not been returned — have a rare genetic disorder called Ehlers-Danlos syndrome that causes fragile bones and easy bruising.
Broward County Democratic Sen. Barbara Sharief, a doctor of nursing practice who is carrying the bill’s upper-chamber companion (SB 42) said various preexisting genetic conditions like Ehlers-Danlos, rickets, osteogenesis imperfecta and vitamin D deficiency can lead to signs of bodily harm that aren’t due to physical abuse, but the state’s process for determining whether that’s the case is faulty, and it’s hurting families.
Lawyer Valentina Villalobos said she has tried numerous cases in which DCF made false allegations of abuse against parents, many involving infants who can’t speak for themselves. DCF and court guardians have given her “a lot of pushback,” she said, when she sought additional time to seek expert medical review before the cases are “hastily tried.”
And while child protection teams currently do a basic bone fragility test, she said, it “does not come anywhere close to the full scope of the possible genetic conditions that can be tested for and can explain the so-called unexplainable injury.”
HB 47 will next go to the House Health and Human Services Committee, its last stop before a floor vote. SB 42, meanwhile, cleared the first of three Committees to which it was referred last month.