MIAMI -- Gov. Jeb Bush showed up at Miami-Dade Community College today to hear the findings of the Blue Ribbon Panel, which he appointed to find answers after a 5-year-old South Florida girl vanished from state care.

While Jeb Bush (pictured, right) calls the disappearance of Rilya Wilson a tragedy, he hopes some good can come from it. Some of those on the panel felt positive about their findings and recommendations.

"After having sat here and heard the testimony and listened to all of you, and to be as open and inclusive as we have been, I've got to say I'm awfully optimistic about the future," said panel member Carol Licko.

"The Rilya Wilson case has been a catalyst for us to pause and to ... reflect on this not from a public policy point of view but from the perspective but as human beings. How is it that a child could probably live her entire life without any love," Bush said.

Bush endorsed a low-cost approach Tuesday to solving some of the child-welfare problems cited in a report he commissioned, and he promised to work with lawmakers on costlier, long-term issues.

Bush was reacting to a 28-page report by a committee assigned to investigate the state's handling of Wilson (pictured, left), a 5-year-old girl whose disappearance went unnoticed for 15 months while she was in state care. She is still missing more than a month later.

In response, the governor issued an executive order to name a new group to pursue changes that don't need legislative approval and report back in late September.

"We know that we can do better and we have work to do," he said. "We have made significant progress in a very difficult, challenging, complicated area of public policy."

Bush called the wide-ranging report "a good solid blueprint" for change in the state Department of Children & Families and endorsed its leadership by Kathleen Kearney despite calls by others for her resignation.

But he said he was "wary" of the panel's call for a special session to address the needs of Florida's abused and neglected children.

When asked if he supported a recommendation for higher base pay for DCF caseworkers and supervisors, he said, "I've got to go. I've got to go."

State Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami, said she realistically expected "nothing" to happen in response to the panel's report.

"There's a child missing who could possibly be dead," she said. "I don't even think that the community awareness has been heightened. You can tell by the attendance in this room." Most seats were empty at seven sessions.

The review panel blamed two low-level state workers and Rilya's caretakers for the girl's long-unnoticed disappearance but also said DCF shortcomings were "manifest."

Bush said he hopes to see criminal charges come out of police investigations of allegedly fraudulent reports filed by state employees and the caretakers.

The panel's report listed 21 priorities to be accomplished by Sept. 1 with department agreement and 28 long-term objectives, many of which would require legislative approval.