Overhaul Of State Child Welfare Agency Suggested

By Susan Haigh

Associated Press

HARTFORD — Connecticut’s child welfare agency came under fire Monday from two top critics who claim years of reorganizational plans haven’t worked and children are not receiving the best care possible.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal suggested to state lawmakers that the Department of Children and Families needs to be partially broken up and the management completely overhauled.

“The current organization consistently fails many of Connecticut’s children,” he told members of the Human Services and Children’s committees. “It is a sprawling, massive, mammoth behemoth.”

Lawmakers are holding a series of investigative hearings on DCF, hoping to come up with reforms that can be approved when the General Assembly reconvenes in January. The hearings were prompted by several disturbing reports, including the death of 7-month-old Michael Brown Jr last May while in foster care at the home of a DCF employee in Mansfield.

Legislators are also concerned about conditions and costs at Riverview Hospital, Connecticut’s only public psychiatric hospital for children.

State Child Advocate Jeanne Milstein said she doesn’t agree with breaking up the agency, but said DCF needs to be scrutinized at all levels to make sure the right people with the right skills are in the right jobs.

Milstein said reforms have only come when the agency is under threat of federal receivership or political pressure after tragic incidents or critical reports from her office and Blumenthal’s office.

“We have repeatedly seen reactive leadership rather than pro-active,” she said.

DCF Commissioner Susan Hamilton tried to assure legislators that her agency is not failing, despite the need for improvements in some areas. Rather, she said DCF has managed to meet or nearly meet 20 of 22 goals set by a federal court decree.

Hamilton said Blumenthal’s idea of breaking up the agency would likely create “unintended fragmentation” and more obstacles for families seeking services.