DCF Commissioner Describes The Continuing Campaign Against Child Abuse

By Jan Howard

There were 43,000 reports of abuse or neglect of children in Connecticut last year. Of these reports, 28,387 were accepted for investigation and 11,377 of them were substantiated, affecting 14,003 children.

Of these substantiated cases, 12,599 were for physical neglect, 7,433 for emotional neglect, 2,402 for physical abuse, and 739 for educational neglect. Of these, there were 649 for medical neglect, 613 for sexual abuse, and 411 high-risk newborns. A child may be substantiated as abused or neglected in more than one category.

Kristine D. Ragaglia, commissioner of the state Department of Children and Families (DCF), quoted these statistics during the third annual Child Abuse Conference held recently at Danbury Hospital.

“Nationally, reported abuse or neglect has grown four percent over the past five years,” Ms Ragaglia said. “Every minute in America a child is abused or neglected.”

Nationally, an estimated 3.2 million children are reported as having been abused or neglected, with an estimated one million substantiated. Forty-six percent of the substantiations are for neglect, she noted. Eighteen percent of the children were physically abused, nine percent sexually abused, four percent were victims of domestic violence or emotional abuse, and nearly 23 percent included a combination of abuse/neglect, threatening harm, and abandonment.

“We look at ways to provide services to families,” Ms Ragaglia said of her department.

Ms Ragaglia outlined the following ways to recognize child abuse.

In the child:

• Shows sudden changes in behavior or school performance.

• Has not received help for physical or medical problems brought to parents’ or caregiver’s attention.

• Has learning problems that cannot be attributed to specific causes.

• Is always watchful, as though preparing for something bad to happen.

• Lacks adult supervision.

• Is overly compliant, is an overachiever, or too responsible.

• Comes to school early, stays late, and does not want to go home.

The Parent:

• Shows little concern for the child, rarely responding to the school’s requests for information, for conferences, or for home visits.

• Denies the existence of or blames the child for the child’s problems in school or at home.

• Asks the classroom teacher to use harsh physical discipline if the child misbehaves.

• Sees the child as entirely bad, worthless, or burdensome.

• Demands perfection or a level of physical or academic performance the child cannot achieve.

• Looks primarily to the child for care, attention, and satisfaction of emotional needs.

Parent and Child:

• Rarely touch or look at each other.

• Consider their relationship entirely negative.

• State that they do not like each other.

None of the above signs prove that child abuse is present in a family, and any of them may be found in any parent or child at one time or another, Ms Ragaglia said.

“Look for warning flags,” Ms Ragaglia said. When the signs appear repeatedly or in combination, take a second look and consider the possibility of child abuse.

There are contributing factors to child abuse, she noted, including the following:

• More than 70 percent of cases involve alcohol or substance abuse by the perpetrator.

• Parental history of abuse in family (ongoing cycle of abuse).

• Parental stress such as marital strain, lack of a support system, lack of knowledge about children, and financial problems.

Ms Ragaglia said when looking at fatalities of children under five, the major factors are a single parent home, financial strain, and domestic violence.

“The majority of abusers are male, usually a boyfriend,” she said.

She noted the following long-term effects of abuse and neglect.

Younger Children:

• Difficulty forming relationships (attachment disorder).

• Developmental/language delays.

• Learning difficulties/disorders.

• Increased mental health needs.

• Poor peer relationships.

Adolescents/Young Adults:

• Increased mental health needs.

• Three to four times more likely to experience depressive disorder and/or attempt suicide.

• Highest incidence of attempted suicide among adolescents and young adults occurs among those who have been sexually abused.

Childhood maltreatment increases the likelihood of arrest as a juvenile by 53 percent, as an adult by 38 percent, and for violent crime by 30 percent.

Children who were sexually abused were 28 times more likely to be arrested for prostitution as an adult, she said. Seventy percent of the youth at Long Lane School have been abused or neglected, and 90 percent of females at Long Lane have reported sexual abuse as children, she added.

Ms Ragaglia outlined the DCF referral process. Calls to its hotline, 800-842-2288, are referred to a regional office where an investigation unit decides to investigate the complaint or not. Response time can be from two hours if a child is in eminent danger, to 72 hours for neglect or for ongoing service. During that time, she said, “More information is sought by the investigators from doctors and schools to see if they saw anything.

“It can be intrusive into the family unit,” she said.

The investigators continue to talk to other people. If the complaint is substantiated, ongoing services are arranged. The investigation must be completed in 30 days.

“We require a lot of information, and documentation is required,” Ms Ragaglia said.

“In cases where there is a danger of eminent harm, the child can be removed from the home and placed in a safe home, where they will feel comfortable,” she said. The safe house is usually close to the child’s home so the child is close to his/her school.

Thirty percent of the children go back home if it can be safe. If not, a child may be placed with a relative or a foster family. “You have to go to court to remove the child from home care,” Ms Ragaglia said.

On any given day, there are 3,500 children in foster care, 1,500 children in relative care, and 1,500 children in residential placement.

Children may be placed in safe homes, or Connecticut Children’s Place, High Meadows, and Riverview Hospital, which are run by the state. There are also private providers who work with DCF.

“Our philosophy focuses on safety and permanence over reunification. We focus on the child to ensure safety,” Ms Ragaglia said. A permanent home may be with the child’s biological family, a relative, or adoptive family.

Ms Ragaglia said DCF now moves faster to terminate parental rights, freeing more children for adoption. “Connecticut adoptions have quadrupled over the last five years,” she said. Subsidized guardianship with a relative is another path to a permanent home for a child, she noted.

Over 600 children were adopted last year.