Florida's family services, DCF, having software problems affecting tracking of kids.

While Florida's Department of Children and Families said Thursday that a review of case files found 2,669 children on psychotropic medications, the supporting data are shaky.DCF's records include such unlikely scenarios as an eight-year delay between the time a court approved a drug and the date it was actually prescribed. In another case, a child started taking a drug for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder nine years before the judge gave consent.

And of more than 5,000 prescriptions, only one child was reportedly taking Symbyax, a combination antipsychotic and antidepressant that has been on the market since 2004. Symbyax was one of the psychotropic drugs being taken by a 7-year-old foster child who committed suicide in South Florida last month.

But in hundreds of cases in which a judge's consent reportedly was obtained, the date of that order came either long before — or long after — the prescription started.

For instance:

• In 10 cases around the state, DCF's records show judges signing consent orders for a variety of drugs in January 2001, but the children's prescriptions did not start until 2009.

• A 16-year-old in Marion County was approved for the antipsychotic Risperdal in August 2005, but the prescription didn't begin until May 2009.

• A 15-year-old in Duval County had a judge sign off on another antipsychotic, Abilify, in January 2007; state records show the prescription began in May 2009.

• A 14-year-old in Brevard County reportedly on the ADHD drug Adderall since 1999 received court approval in November 2008.

• A 16-year-old in Hillsborough County began taking Seroquel, an antipsychotic, in October 2005, with a judge's consent received this January.

TALLAHASSEE - Florida's child welfare agency has stalled trying to launch a once-heralded new computer software system for tracking abused or neglected children that was unveiled to much fanfare last year. Inspired by the mobile tracking devices that UPS carriers use to deliver packages, the idea was to equip caseworkers with mobile Blackberry-like devices to instantly document and upload data on their visits to Florida's abused, abandoned and neglected children. Gov. Charlie Crist even held up one of the palm-sized devices during his 2008 state of the state speech as a tool that "can revolutionize how we protect Florida's foster children."

But instead of saving lives, the $9.8 million project has become mired in a nasty turf-fight between two companies with high-powered lobbyists, one of which has alleged the Florida Department of Children and Families botched the bidding process and broke the state's Sunshine law.

The company that submitted the lowest bid, New York-based CMA Consulting Services, has filed a formal legal challenge to the process, and two weeks ago asked State Attorney Willie Meggs to investigate -- and the company's president even threatened to buy ads in the capital city "to identify those government officials and lobbyists who we believe are acting against the public's interest and in violation of Florida state law."

The impetus for the project was the 2007 case where 2-year-old Courtney Clark went missing from a foster home in Tavares for four months before police began searching for her. She was found in a home in Wisconsin, where she had apparently been taken by her mother in violation of a court order rescinding her custody. The mother and others were charged with killing another woman whose body was buried in the yard.