In a legislative session highlighted by culture war battles and redistricting, Florida lawmakers made time to to give a measure of mercy to a group of parents whose children died of catastrophic birth-related brain injuries.
Following up on action taken last year, the Legislature voted to give $150,000 stipends to parents whose children were once enrolled in a state program called the Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Association (NICA) but had been dropped from the rolls when the children succumbed to their birth injuries.
Families of surviving NICA children received identical stipends last year as part of a comprehensive slate of reforms, but the families of children who died were left out, despite sometimes spending themselves into poverty trying to keep their children alive.
Read more from our news partner at The Miami Herald.
