Report on Foster Care Children in Connecticut Shows State Not Monitoring Children's Needs

PRESS RELEASE

Review of 400 children's files shows widespread failure to keep basic information on their status and needs in foster care.

The Court-Appointed Monitor in the federal class action lawsuit, Juan F. v. Rowland, issued a new report today on the results of an initial review of almost 400 files of children who are in the custody of Connecticut's Department of Children and Families (DCF). In evaluating how well DCF is caring for these children, the report concluded that the "largest and most significant obstacle encountered in the review was that 40-60% of the treatment plans [for children] were incomplete; making it difficult, if not impossible, to accurately score many questions."

The review is the first in a series of large scale reviews of DCF's performance and outcomes for children to be conducted under an agreement reached in January 2002 between the state and advocates for Connecticut's abused and neglect children, Children's Rights, a national non-profit organization, and The Center for Children's Advocacy, based in Hartford, Connecticut. The monitor's review assessed the children's files on a wide range of issues involving their safety and well being. The report states that, "some responses, such as those relating to unmet service needs, are not considered to be even approximately correct." The report further states that, "many treatment plans lack information relative to the status of the case, progress of the case, prior history of the case, services needed or offered, and medical or legal information."

"Children's treatment plans are an essential guide to the care and protection of foster children- they outline their goals in detail, and the services the children need and are entitled to receive," said attorney Martha Stone of the Center for Children's Advocacy, which is co-counsel on the Juan F. case along with Children's Rights. "So many files with incomplete plans raise critical questions about the quality of care children are receiving."

"Many critical measures tied directly to treatment plans-including the delivery of services to keep families together and an evaluation of unmet medical, dental or mental health needs of foster children in state custody-now must be re-evaluated once the treatment plan problem is corrected," said Ira Lustbader, an attorney at Children's Rights. "The last court order we obtained led to real progress in getting children adopted, so it is disappointing to discover that the Department is failing to maintain key information about children."

Numerous additional measures unaffected by the treatment plan issue highlight many other problems, such as the failure to aggressively search for relatives to care for children upon their entry into the system, the failure of workers at private agencies to participate in planning conferences for children in their care, and the failure to ensure that foster parents receive required training. A few areas seem to show some promise, yet data problems continue. For example, DCF appeared to meet the measurement goal for minimizing incidents of children abused while in foster care, although the Monitor's findings were almost three times the rate reported by DCF. "This Department has a long way to go toward meeting their legal obligations to these children," said Lustbader.

The monitor's report was presented this morning in federal court to Judge Alan H. Nevas in United States District Court in Bridgeport. Meetings about the findings were held among the Court Monitor, DCF officials and the children's attorneys immediately following the court hearing.

The Center for Children's Advocacy is a non-profit organization based at the University of Connecticut School of Law which provides holistic legal representation to poor children in their communities and seeks to improve the quality of lawyering for poor children.

Children's Rights is a national non-profit organization working throughout the United States in partnership with advocates, experts, policy analysts and government officials to address the needs of children dependent on failing child welfare systems for protection and care. Children's Rights develops realistic solutions and, where necessary, uses the power of the courts to make sure the rights of these children are recognized and that reform takes place.

Children's Rights works throughout the United States in partnership with national and local experts, advocates and government officials to document the needs of children in the care of child welfare systems. Children's Rights helps develop realistic solutions and, where necessary, uses the power of litigation to ensure that reform takes place.