TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Rick Scott and members of the cabinet are letting university researchers identify human remains at a defunct reform school site.

They approved a permit Tuesday that will allow University of South Florida researchers to exhume bodies buried at the Dozier School for Boys in the Panhandle.

The vote drew a round of applause from former students of the school in the audience.

State officials said in July that they lacked the legal authority to grant the excavation of the site about 60 miles west of Tallahassee.

Attorney General Pam Bondi pushed to get the cabinet to take up the permit request.

USF researchers have said remains of children who died at the school have not been located.