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A new report from a Texas think tank has found Florida ranks in the top half of the states in some area’s of foster care such as finding forever families fast and in not shuffling kids from one home to another, but the report also suggests too many kids are being kept in dorms instead of having their own bedroom.

The Right for Kids Ranking judges state foster care programs on seven criteria, ranging from funding to the number of kids in care.

“Many of those data points are quite frankly related to inputs. Things like case loads, funding levels, and foster parent recruitment levels,” said Andrew Brown with Texas Public Policy.

But it also a tale of two foster care systems.

The state is 32nd nationally in finding safe permeant homes.

“There are instances and there are parts of Florida that are struggling,” said Florida DCF Secretary Chad Poppel.

Poppel said part of the state’s problem is that there is no relationship between case loads and funding.

“There’s no lever to pull to say, oh my goodness, the number of children is up thirty percent; you need more money. That’s not how it works today. That’s the way we’d like to make it work,” said Poppel.

Legislation filed by the incoming Senate President would change the funding formula.

It also would extend the timeline from investigating child abuse reports from 24 to 72 hours.

The reports found Florida ranks forty-second nationally when it comes to finding bedrooms over dorm rooms.

Advocates believe it’s because the state has a no eject, no reject policy.

“That means if we do not have enough placements, we still take them anyhow. We have to find them. We have to find places to put children,” said Kurt Kelly with the Florida Coalition for Children.

Not having enough foster placements has led some community based care agencies to drive kids around or house them in office buildings when no beds are available.

DCF has asked for $100 million more over the next four years.

The money would be used to hire more people and upgrade technology.