October 22, 2026
When Connecticut’s General Assembly adjourns each spring, the work of protecting children’s rights does not stop. In many ways, the months between legislative sessions are when some of the most important work happens.
CCA attorneys continue representing individual children and families, seeing firsthand where systems are falling short. Staff meet with young people, parents, community organizations, legal partners, state agencies, and policymakers. We track how new laws are being implemented, identify emerging problems, develop potential solutions, and build the partnerships needed to turn those solutions into meaningful change. And we work to build on the successes of our partner-driven work with state policymakers. Transformation of the systems that shape children’s right to safety, opportunity, and justice often takes persistent year after year strategic work.
CCA’s ongoing systemic policy advocacy is well underway as we look toward the next legislative session and identify what is needed to enforce children’s civil rights to education, healthcare, community support, and safety.
Building Accountability into Connecticut’s Child Welfare System
Earlier this year, Connecticut enacted Public Act 26-26, An Act Concerning Child Welfare Accountability and Transparency, a landmark reform package designed to strengthen oversight, transparency, and accountability of the state’s child welfare system. The law establishes new oversight structures and reporting requirements intended to make it easier to understand how children are being served and where essential service gaps remain.
CCA is now working with partners to help build on this foundational reform, while continuing to advocate for:
- stronger supports for children in foster care and their caregivers
- greater investment in family preservation and wraparound services, and
- expanded access to legal advocacy for children involved with the child welfare system
The focus is both accountability and prevention: making sure systems respond when children need help while also investing in the supports that can keep families stable and children safe.
Supporting Young People Returning from Incarceration
For a young person returning home from incarceration, release is not the end of the process.
Young people may need to reconnect with school, secure identification, find employment, access behavioral health care, arrange transportation, rebuild family and community relationships, and navigate multiple agencies at once. Without coordinated support, those barriers can make an already difficult transition significantly harder.
CCA is working with young people and community partners to identify gaps in Connecticut’s re-entry system and strengthen the supports available to youth returning to their communities.
That work starts by listening to young people themselves.
Their experiences can show where communication breaks down, where services are difficult to access, and what resources could make the difference between a successful return home and another encounter with the justice system.
CCA will continue bringing youth perspectives into policy discussions and advocating for a re-entry system that gives young people a meaningful opportunity to move forward.
Investing in Community-Based Alternatives to Arrest
CCA is also continuing its work to keep children from entering or becoming more deeply involved in the justice system in the first place.
Connecticut has made significant progress in creating alternatives that allow young people to be held accountable while connecting them with services and supports in their own communities.
CCA is working with partners to build on that progress through strategic investment in community-based youth diversion teams.
Effective diversion can connect children and families with educational supports, behavioral health services, mentoring, family assistance, and other resources that address the underlying issues contributing to a young person’s behavior.
For many children, an arrest does not solve the problem that brought them into contact with the justice system. The stronger response is often to identify what the young person and family need and make those supports accessible early.
CCA will continue advocating for a system that reserves deeper justice-system involvement for situations in which it is truly necessary while strengthening local resources that help children succeed at home, in school, and in their communities.
Protecting the Right to a Meaningful Education
Connecticut children have a right to an education. But having a seat in a classroom is not enough if a student cannot meaningfully access instruction, appropriate supports, or a safe learning environment.
CCA is increasingly seeing the consequences of staffing shortages and other systemic challenges in schools. When districts lack sufficient teachers, special education professionals, behavioral health staff, paraprofessionals, or other essential personnel, children can lose access to instruction and services.
For students with significant disabilities and other highly vulnerable children, those shortages can also create serious safety concerns.
CCA is working to advance stronger protections for children’s rights to a meaningful educational opportunity, including:
- More equitable funding for local schools
- Stronger oversight of the education provided to children with disabilities
- Reduced reliance on restraint and seclusion
- Greater accountability for the treatment and education of children in self-contained and other segregated settings
CCA’s education advocacy is informed every day by individual students and families trying to secure appropriate instruction, services, placements, and supports.
Those cases help identify problems that extend beyond a single classroom or school district—and where stronger statewide protections may be needed.
Strengthening Civil Rights Enforcement in Connecticut
Federal civil rights protections have long provided an important avenue for children and people with disabilities to challenge discrimination and enforce their rights.
As federal civil rights enforcement retreats in several areas, the question of how Connecticut protects those rights at the state level has become increasingly urgent.
CCA is working with legal rights organizations and other partners to examine ways Connecticut can strengthen its own infrastructure for civil rights monitoring, enforcement, and accountability.
That work is broader than any one population or system.
Children with disabilities, immigrant children, LGBTQ+ youth, students facing discrimination, and other young people whose rights are threatened need meaningful ways to seek protection when institutions do not comply with the law.
Strong rights are only meaningful when there is also a way to enforce them.
CCA’s work in the coming months will focus on identifying gaps in Connecticut’s current enforcement structure and developing strategies that give children and families stronger avenues for accountability.
Preventing Homelessness Among Older Youth
For older youth, the transition toward adulthood can expose significant gaps between systems. A young person may be leaving foster care, returning from incarceration, experiencing conflict at home, disconnected from school, or trying to navigate adulthood without a stable support network. When those systems do not coordinate effectively, young people can quickly become housing insecure or homeless.
CCA continues to work with youth and community partners to strengthen Connecticut’s response to youth homelessness and, importantly, to prevent homelessness before it occurs. That means looking beyond emergency shelter.
Effective prevention requires attention to housing, education, employment, transportation, identification and documentation, behavioral health, family relationships, and access to legal advocacy.
It also requires listening to young people about where existing systems break down.
CCA will continue working toward policies and services that help older youth maintain stable housing, remain connected to education and employment, and transition into adulthood with meaningful support.
Protecting the Rights of People with Disabilities
CCA’s disability rights work is grounded in a basic principle: people with disabilities have the right to live safely in their communities with access to the care and supports they need.
For many families, however, accessing those supports can require navigating complicated eligibility rules, long waits, fragmented services, and systems that do not always reflect an individual’s actual needs.
CCA is continuing to advocate for policies that strengthen access to appropriate community-based services and protect the safety and rights of people who rely on state-funded care.
That includes ongoing work around eligibility for Department of Developmental Services supports, stronger oversight and accountability, and ensuring that decisions about services reflect the whole person rather than a single test score or narrow measure, while also ensuring a legislative focus on how the state ensures access to safety, services, and healthcare for people with disabilities dependent on the state.
CCA is also continuing its legal advocacy on behalf of young people and families who have been denied services they need to live safely and as independently as possible.
Read more about CCA’s work to reform Connecticut’s DDS eligibility system.
The Work Between Sessions Matters
Legislation is often the most visible part of policy advocacy. But by the time a bill reaches a public hearing or a vote, months—or sometimes years—of work may already have happened.
CCA is grateful to the young people, families, legal partners, community organizations, advocates, and other partners who share their experiences, expertise, and ideas and work alongside us to identify problems and develop solutions.
That collaboration continues throughout the year—and helps lay the groundwork for meaningful change when the legislature returns.
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