CCA response to audit showing Connecticut is not meeting basic needs of vulnerable children in state care

The Center for Children’s Advocacy is dismayed by yet another governmental audit showing that Connecticut is not meeting the most basic needs of vulnerable children in state care. While federal authorities may focus on the obligation of DCF to commit to a performance improvement plan, it should really be state government as a whole committing to the plan. This federal report shows the results of the state’s continued failure to invest adequately in support services for children and families. From outpatient services to home-based treatment, foster care, and even lawyers for abused and neglected children, almost every aspect of support for these children is grossly underfunded, making the help that kids and families need harder and harder to find. 

This underinvestment predictably leads to the alarming findings of successive state and federal audits in the last year alone: hundreds of children missing from state care; more than a thousand children stuck in hospital Emergency Departments waiting for appropriate mental health services, hundreds of them involved with the child welfare system; children with significant treatment needs living in shelter settings; and the recent federal audit finding the state does not meet the permanency or mental health needs of abused and neglected children in over half of all cases reviewed. For these kids’ sake, we must confront the harsh reality that too many children experience – daily lives marked by fear, trauma, instability, and loss – and we must commit to a real system of care and support for families. And we must do this work transparently, holding ourselves and the state collectively accountable for improved outcomes for children.