Committee recommends confirmation of Taylor Hatch as Florida DCF secretary
February 10, 2026 | 2026 Legislature FL, Florida
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The Senate Committee on Children, Families and Elder Affairs voted to recommend the confirmation of Taylor Hatch as Secretary of the Department of Children and Families after Hatch gave an overview of her background, department priorities and recent data on child‑welfare outcomes.
Hatch described nearly eight years of service at DCF in several leadership roles and framed her priorities around preserving childhoods, supporting families, improving data use and strengthening service delivery. She cited department data she said show a 47% reduction since 2019 in children entering out‑of‑home care, 7,144 children moving to permanency in the prior year, a greater than 20% statewide decrease in involuntary Baker Acts, a one‑third drop in opioid‑related deaths, a roughly 140% increase in licensed bed capacity for certain residential treatment through the BQRTP initiative, and a 40% increase in peer support specialists statewide.
Senators questioned Hatch on a range of issues, including staffing for protective investigations, improving parent notification of rights and resources (Sen. Sharif sought a commitment to improved materials within one to two months), the funding model and use of opioid abatement funds (Sen. Harrell), enterprise‑wide IT and interoperability (CCWIS and ACCESS), and workforce development for peer specialists (Sen. Russon). Hatch said the department had collaborated with CBCs and other partners to design a funding model using two years of expenditure data and third‑party sources and that the department would use insights from managing entities to shape proposals for therapeutic supports, housing and peer support expansion. For IT, she described multiyear investments to consolidate screens, add data sources and enhance identity management to improve decision‑making capacity.
After public comments (including a foster‑care worker who raised concerns about medical misdiagnosis), Senator Garcia moved to recommend confirmation. The clerk called the roll; the chair recorded a No vote but the majority voted to recommend Hatch favorably.
Next steps: The committee recommended confirmation favorably; the nomination will proceed through the Senate confirmation process.
Hatch described nearly eight years of service at DCF in several leadership roles and framed her priorities around preserving childhoods, supporting families, improving data use and strengthening service delivery. She cited department data she said show a 47% reduction since 2019 in children entering out‑of‑home care, 7,144 children moving to permanency in the prior year, a greater than 20% statewide decrease in involuntary Baker Acts, a one‑third drop in opioid‑related deaths, a roughly 140% increase in licensed bed capacity for certain residential treatment through the BQRTP initiative, and a 40% increase in peer support specialists statewide.
Senators questioned Hatch on a range of issues, including staffing for protective investigations, improving parent notification of rights and resources (Sen. Sharif sought a commitment to improved materials within one to two months), the funding model and use of opioid abatement funds (Sen. Harrell), enterprise‑wide IT and interoperability (CCWIS and ACCESS), and workforce development for peer specialists (Sen. Russon). Hatch said the department had collaborated with CBCs and other partners to design a funding model using two years of expenditure data and third‑party sources and that the department would use insights from managing entities to shape proposals for therapeutic supports, housing and peer support expansion. For IT, she described multiyear investments to consolidate screens, add data sources and enhance identity management to improve decision‑making capacity.
After public comments (including a foster‑care worker who raised concerns about medical misdiagnosis), Senator Garcia moved to recommend confirmation. The clerk called the roll; the chair recorded a No vote but the majority voted to recommend Hatch favorably.
Next steps: The committee recommended confirmation favorably; the nomination will proceed through the Senate confirmation process.
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