Essence Wright is 26 years old and lives in Tampa, Florida. Nearly three years ago, her daughter was removed from her care not through a foster care court proceeding, but through what’s known as a temporary custody transfer — an informal arrangement that kept mother and daughter apart for almost three years.
Wright’s case is one piece of a much larger pattern uncovered by a Tampa Bay Times investigation, which found that Hillsborough County’s lead foster care agency, Children’s Network of Hillsborough, pushed hundreds of parents and children apart outside of the county’s usual foster care system. The investigation was reported by health reporter Lauren Peace and data reporter Teghan Simonton, who detailed how families like Wright’s were separated through informal arrangements that bypassed the courts, formal case files, and the oversight that comes with the traditional foster care process.
A System Rebuilt After Scandal
Children’s Network took over Hillsborough County’s foster care system on July 1, 2022, stepping in after the county’s previous provider, Eckerd Connects, collapsed under scrutiny. The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office had opened a criminal investigation into Eckerd Connects in November 2021 after finding foster children sleeping on cots and under desks in unlicensed offices, according to WTSP. State officials ended Eckerd’s contracts across Pinellas, Pasco, and Hillsborough counties by July 2022 in response.
Before that collapse, the scale of the crisis was staggering. In February 2022, the Tampa Bay Times reported that Eckerd Connects had assigned up to 154 foster children to a single caseworker — more than nine times the maximum workload recommended by the Child Welfare League of America. That overload contributed to the systemic breakdowns that led children to sleep in offices rather than licensed homes.
A Program Credited With Cutting Foster Numbers In Half
After taking over, Children’s Network launched what it called an Intensive Family Services Team, a program the agency credited with reducing formal foster care placements by half and serving more than 6,000 families, per the Times investigation. The drop in foster care numbers drew praise from local institutions; in December 2025, the DeBartolo Family Foundation awarded Children’s Network its $25,000 Spirit of Humanity Award, citing the agency’s success in keeping families intact and reducing foster removals…