On this week’s “Florida NewsMakers” program, Florida Department of Children and Families Secretary David Wilkins sits down with Sachs Media Group’s Trimmel Gomes to discuss upcoming changes to Florida’s foster care system.

Wilkins says Florida is about to see the most significant changes to its foster care system thanks to two measures that passed out of the 2013 legislative session, the Independent Living bill and the “Let Kids Be Kids” law. “Some of the rules that we have in foster care, to the average person are just ridiculous,” Wilkins tells Gomes. “So what we basically said is, let’s start with a clean slate and let’s start with a premise that all children in foster care should have all the rights and privileges that other kids have.”

Wilkins also outlines new steps the department is taking to crackdown on food stamp and welfare fraud and says, “We are the national pilot to implement new technologies that are going right after those criminals who are trying to steal identities and trying to get federal benefits when they are not authorized.” Wilkins addresses those issues and more on Florida “NewsMakers.”