Lawmakers Approve Payments to Parents of Children Who Died of Catastrophic Brain Injuries – By Carol Marbin Miller and Daniel Chang (Miami Herald) / March 15, 2022
A year after reforming a program for children who suffered devastating brain injuries at birth, Florida lawmakers voted to extend help to families whose children died.
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In a legislative session highlighted by culture war battles and redistricting, Florida lawmakers gave 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, or NICA, but had been dropped from the rolls when the children died.
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, even though some had spent themselves into poverty trying to keep their children alive.
