Dep't of Children & Families v. S.B.

Summary

The Florida Fifth District Court of Appeal reviewed a petition for certiorari challenging orders placing a dependent child with a relative in Alabama before completion of the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children process. The court held that the trial court could not disregard the ICPC, quashed the challenged orders, and remanded for proceedings addressing the child's best interests pending completion of the ICPC process.

Holdings

1. A trial court may not disregard the ICPC or send a child to a receiving state without complying with the ICPC's requirements, even when the court believes that compliance conflicts with the child's best interests or creates delay.
2. Although the trial court must comply with the ICPC, an out-of-state placement need not be immediately terminated if the child's best interests support allowing the child to remain there during completion of the ICPC process.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the trial court departed from the essential requirements of law by placing the child in Alabama before completion of the ICPC requirements.
2. Whether the child could remain with the maternal grandfather during the ICPC process if that placement was in the child's best interests.

Disposition

quashed