Senate panel OKs Taylor Hatch to lead DCF as Senate confirmation process begins
By Christine Sexton | Florida Phoenix
February 11, 2026 at 7:30 AM EST
The 2026 Senate confirmation journey has begun for acting Department of Children and Families Secretary Taylor Hatch.
After failing to be confirmed by the full Senate during the 2025 session, Hatcher stood before members of the Senate Children, Families, and Elder Affairs Committee Tuesday recalling a message her pastor delivered as part of a sermon:
“Anchor yourself to who you want to be, and when it comes to work, anchor your identity before you analyze your circumstances.”
With that in mind, Hatch told the panel she’s a “daughter, a wife, a mom, and a leader who aims to honor God and the people I get to serve every single moment.”
As acting secretary, Hatch said, she’s “humble enough to never represent I have it figured out on my own and someone that intentionally works to not just hear others along the way, but to stop and to listen.”
By a near-unanimous vote, the Senate committee recommended that Hatch be confirmed to the state agency charged with an array of responsibilities, from protecting children to determining eligibility for Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
The lone “no” vote was from the committee’s chair, Fort Pierce Republican Sen. Erin Grall. Unlike other committee members Grall, hadn’t ask Hatch any questions.
“I think I will see you in Ethics and Elections and there will be opportunity for questions there,” Grall said.
Mum on Hope Florida Foundation
None of the committee members asked Hatch about the Hope Florida Foundation and a $10 million “one-time” investment health care giant and contracted Medicaid managed care plan Centene made to it in September 2024.
The funds, part of a $67 million settlement reached with the state, were diverted to the anti-drug Save Our Society from Drugs and Secure Florida’s Future Inc., which directed $8.5 million to Keep Florida Clean, a political action committee that worked to defeat 2024’s Amendment 3, a proposal that would have made recreational marijuana use legal for adults.
The House’s investigation into the $10 million payment played a role in the Senate’s decision last year — first reported by the Florida Phoenix — not to confirm Hatch as DCF secretary or Shevaun Harris as Agency for Health Care Administration secretary.
Meanwhile, The Floridian reported that the U.S. Department of Justice won’t pursue criminal case in the incident. However, a Leon County grand jury was convened last year to consider the merits of the allegations and whether the DeSantis administration that engineered that transfer of the funds broke any laws.
‘A brokenness to the system’
Hatch did, though, field questions from Sen. Barbara Sharief, a Democrat from Davie and an advanced registered nurse who holds a doctorate in nursing.
Sharief told Hatch she has worked in the DCF system for more than 34 years.
“I see there is a brokenness to the system in terms of the ability to process families’ cases and reunify those children with their families on a consistent and more fast-paced basis,” she said.
She said the system is bedeviled by changes in executive leadership and staff, lack of child protection investigators, and an inadequate number of child protective teams.
“I think it puts the agency at a deficit all the time, and I just think that with this position and your ability to lead, if you could make a commitment to really focusing in and honing in on those problems and changing something that has been a problem for 34 years of my being in health care,” she said.
Hatch said she was “absolutely focused and committed” to the “preservation of childhoods and the reduction of trauma.” She said the agency is committed to delivering services and supporting families “as if the person on the other end was our own loved one.”
‘The most troubling misuse of authority I’ve seen’
Sharief for the second year has filed legislation (SB 42) that would amend existing statutes to allow parents and guardians suspected by protection investigators to have engaged in criminal behavior to request the child be examined by a doctor or advanced practice nurse and that DCF not immediately forward its investigative findings to law enforcement.
The bill would create a new statute making it clear that DCF child protection investigators must consult with a physician or advanced nurse when evaluating a report of medical neglect and assessing the needs of a child with a medically complex condition, or one with a reported diagnosis of rickets, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, osteogenesis imperfecta, vitamin D deficiency, or “any other medical condition known to appear to be caused by, or known to be misdiagnosed as, abuse.”
While Sharief didn’t mention SB 42 during her questioning of Hatch, Christy Lee, executive director at Advocates for Family Justice, who worked in the foster care system in Hillsborough County for 19 years, did.
“In the nearly two decades of work in the system the cases involving medical misdiagnosis, it’s the most troubling misuse of authority I’ve seen. And it’s really part of the reason why I left, because it’s just hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that this is happening to families,” she testified.
“As someone who knows their way around the system, I know how to make things work and who to call, and these cases are nearly impossible to get justice for these families.”
Lee tried, but wasn’t allowed to directly question Hatch. So, she wrapped her testimony by saying she hopes Hatch “puts some meaningful protections in place for these families.”
Hatch told the committee she’d meet with Lee.
Meanwhile, Sen. Darryl Rousson, D-St. Petersburg, praised Hatch for her work on implementing SB 282, which he championed in 2022 and was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The bill promotes the use of “peer specialists” for recovery from substance use disorder (SUD) or mental illness. Peer specialists are persons who have recovered from a substance use disorder or mental illness who support a person with an existing disorder or illness.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.
After failing to be confirmed by the full Senate during the 2025 session, Hatcher stood before members of the Senate Children, Families, and Elder Affairs Committee Tuesday recalling a message her pastor delivered as part of a sermon:
“Anchor yourself to who you want to be, and when it comes to work, anchor your identity before you analyze your circumstances.”
With that in mind, Hatch told the panel she’s a “daughter, a wife, a mom, and a leader who aims to honor God and the people I get to serve every single moment.”
As acting secretary, Hatch said, she’s “humble enough to never represent I have it figured out on my own and someone that intentionally works to not just hear others along the way, but to stop and to listen.”
By a near-unanimous vote, the Senate committee recommended that Hatch be confirmed to the state agency charged with an array of responsibilities, from protecting children to determining eligibility for Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
The lone “no” vote was from the committee’s chair, Fort Pierce Republican Sen. Erin Grall. Unlike other committee members Grall, hadn’t ask Hatch any questions.
“I think I will see you in Ethics and Elections and there will be opportunity for questions there,” Grall said.
Mum on Hope Florida Foundation
None of the committee members asked Hatch about the Hope Florida Foundation and a $10 million “one-time” investment health care giant and contracted Medicaid managed care plan Centene made to it in September 2024.
The funds, part of a $67 million settlement reached with the state, were diverted to the anti-drug Save Our Society from Drugs and Secure Florida’s Future Inc., which directed $8.5 million to Keep Florida Clean, a political action committee that worked to defeat 2024’s Amendment 3, a proposal that would have made recreational marijuana use legal for adults.
The House’s investigation into the $10 million payment played a role in the Senate’s decision last year — first reported by the Florida Phoenix — not to confirm Hatch as DCF secretary or Shevaun Harris as Agency for Health Care Administration secretary.
Meanwhile, The Floridian reported that the U.S. Department of Justice won’t pursue criminal case in the incident. However, a Leon County grand jury was convened last year to consider the merits of the allegations and whether the DeSantis administration that engineered that transfer of the funds broke any laws.
‘A brokenness to the system’
Hatch did, though, field questions from Sen. Barbara Sharief, a Democrat from Davie and an advanced registered nurse who holds a doctorate in nursing.
Sharief told Hatch she has worked in the DCF system for more than 34 years.
“I see there is a brokenness to the system in terms of the ability to process families’ cases and reunify those children with their families on a consistent and more fast-paced basis,” she said.
She said the system is bedeviled by changes in executive leadership and staff, lack of child protection investigators, and an inadequate number of child protective teams.
“I think it puts the agency at a deficit all the time, and I just think that with this position and your ability to lead, if you could make a commitment to really focusing in and honing in on those problems and changing something that has been a problem for 34 years of my being in health care,” she said.
Hatch said she was “absolutely focused and committed” to the “preservation of childhoods and the reduction of trauma.” She said the agency is committed to delivering services and supporting families “as if the person on the other end was our own loved one.”
‘The most troubling misuse of authority I’ve seen’
Sharief for the second year has filed legislation (SB 42) that would amend existing statutes to allow parents and guardians suspected by protection investigators to have engaged in criminal behavior to request the child be examined by a doctor or advanced practice nurse and that DCF not immediately forward its investigative findings to law enforcement.
The bill would create a new statute making it clear that DCF child protection investigators must consult with a physician or advanced nurse when evaluating a report of medical neglect and assessing the needs of a child with a medically complex condition, or one with a reported diagnosis of rickets, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, osteogenesis imperfecta, vitamin D deficiency, or “any other medical condition known to appear to be caused by, or known to be misdiagnosed as, abuse.”
While Sharief didn’t mention SB 42 during her questioning of Hatch, Christy Lee, executive director at Advocates for Family Justice, who worked in the foster care system in Hillsborough County for 19 years, did.
“In the nearly two decades of work in the system the cases involving medical misdiagnosis, it’s the most troubling misuse of authority I’ve seen. And it’s really part of the reason why I left, because it’s just hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that this is happening to families,” she testified.
“As someone who knows their way around the system, I know how to make things work and who to call, and these cases are nearly impossible to get justice for these families.”
Lee tried, but wasn’t allowed to directly question Hatch. So, she wrapped her testimony by saying she hopes Hatch “puts some meaningful protections in place for these families.”
Hatch told the committee she’d meet with Lee.
Meanwhile, Sen. Darryl Rousson, D-St. Petersburg, praised Hatch for her work on implementing SB 282, which he championed in 2022 and was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The bill promotes the use of “peer specialists” for recovery from substance use disorder (SUD) or mental illness. Peer specialists are persons who have recovered from a substance use disorder or mental illness who support a person with an existing disorder or illness.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.