Florida child welfare chief resigns

Kearney, who resigned Tuesday, stands in front of a photo of missing 5-year-old Rilya Wilson.

TALLAHASSEE, Florida (CNN) -- Gov. Jeb Bush accepted the resignation of his child welfare chief Tuesday amid a scandal involving children who have been misplaced, lost, endangered or killed in state care.

Bush -- the president's brother and a candidate for re-election in a race that could pit him against former Attorney Gen. Janet Reno -- made only a passing reference to "the recent tragedies" in making the announcement and thanking Kathleen Kearney for "her tireless devotion to the protection of Florida's children."

Bush appointed Kearney secretary of the Department of Children and Families three years ago. Earlier in the day, he denied suggestions that her resignation may be imminent.

Kearney's departure takes effect September 3.

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The scandal started last April, when the agency disclosed that it had lost track of a 5-year-old girl, Rilya Wilson, thought to be in the its care. The girl had been missing for more than a year and still has not been found.

Kearney mentioned Rilya's "tragic loss" halfway through her six-page letter of resignation and said her agency responded to that incident by "aggressively implementing and tracking the recommendations of the Governor's Blue Ribbon Panel and ... working closely with law enforcement officials to find her."

She added that "great strides have been made by forging a more collaborative working relationship" between DCF and state law enforcement "to establish a stronger safety net for children."

But since the Wilson disappearance became public, the DCF also has been jolted by revelations that:

Rilya Wilson is missing, and Alfredo Montez was killed. Both were monitored by child welfare caseworkers who failed to check on them.

In her letter of resignation, Kearney quoted Father Theodore Hesburgh, president emeritus of Notre Dame: "We all suffer doses of discouragement and disillusionment, but those are distractions for the most part, not driving forces.

"I believe that with faith in God and in our fellow humans, we can aim for the heights of human endeavor, and that we can reach them, too. Optimism is often thwarted, hopes dashed and faith threatened but we will never know the heights we can achieve unless we try."

"Like Father Hesburgh," Kearney told the governor, "I would like to believe that during my stay here it can be said that: She believed, she hoped, she tried, she failed often enough, but with God's grace, she often accomplished more than she rationally could have dreamed."