But the monitoring report also identifies major challenges still facing the new administration — most significantly, the agency is only fully meeting the basic needs of abused and neglected children 60 percent of the time.

Under Commissioner Joette Katz, the agency achieved 16 of the 22 areas of court-ordered system-wide improvements to better serve children and families who are the subject of abuse or neglect. These reforms include minimizing traumatic multiple moves of foster children from one home or facility to another, promptly and safely reuniting foster children with their parents, and when that’s not possible, promptly finding them permanent adoptive homes.

“We continue to be extremely impressed with the Commissioner’s ability to take on remaining problems at DCF that are harmful to kids, especially in the first three quarters of her tenure,” said Ira Lustbader, Associate Director of Children’s Rights. “But there’s still a long way to go.”

On the positive side, the report (PDF) found that DCF significantly reduced the state’s historic over-reliance on institutional placements for young foster kids, cutting the number of children age 12 and younger housed in institutions and facilities from 201 in January 2011 to 105. The department also increased the use of relatives to care for abused and neglected kids, from 15 percent of foster children in January, to 19 percent by the end of September.

“Commissioner Katz is dismantling the agency’s expensive and often harmful overuse of institutions and facilities for foster kids, something prior administrations simply ignored,” said Lustbader.

Last January, Joette Katz stepped down from the bench as a State Supreme Court Justice to become the new head of the Connecticut Department of Children & Families. The prior DCF leadership engaged in an expensive and lengthy court battle to prematurely exit from the ongoing federal court order. The federal court firmly rejected those efforts because the state had not accomplished what it promised to do for kids and families.

Despite progress, the report makes clear that major problems remain. The report reviewed hundreds of children’s cases and ranked the overall quality of caseworkers’ visits with abused and neglected children. The results were dismal, with 24 percent of cases graded poor or adverse. Only 32 percent of children consistently received the required twice monthly visits.

Additionally, the report notes continued “service gaps” that include mental health services, substance abuse and domestic violence services, and critical life-skills training to allow older foster children to live independently when they are discharged from state custody. Without critical services and support before they leave DCF custody, many foster youths are unequipped to lead productive lives as adults. They are left vulnerable to high incidences of poor educational attainment, homelessness, deterioration and mental illness, incarceration, drug or alcohol dependency, and needing public assistance.

“With the overall statewide results of the agency’s ability to meet children’s needs scoring at only 60 percent compliance, much work needs to be done in 2012,” said Lustbader.

Children in the class action known as Juan F. v. Rell, originally filed in 1989, are represented by Children’s Rights and local co-counsel Steven Frederick of the Stamford law firm Wofsey Rosen Kweskin & Kuriansky. The case was filed against state officials on behalf of the approximately 6,000 children in the custody of the Connecticut child welfare system and thousands more at risk of entering custody.

For more information about Children’s Rights ongoing campaign to reform the Connecticut child welfare system, please visit www.childrensrights.org/connecticut.

HARTFORD, CT — The new leadership team at the Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF) has successfully maintained many improvements to the state foster care system, but has also inherited serious and persistent problems from the previous administration — specifically the continued failure to provide children and families with access to critical services — according to the latest report tracking a long-running, court-ordered reform effort spurred by Children’s Rights.

Today’s report (PDF) notes that DCF is still failing to meet the basic service needs of more than 40 percent of the children and families involved with the state child welfare system — a statistic that has remained dismally low for more than four years. Because of previously stalled reform efforts, too many children in foster care are still not receiving necessary medical, dental, behavioral, and mental health services. Additionally, families are not being regularly referred to critical counseling programs such as domestic violence assistance or in-home services that would help strengthen their ability to parent.

“The last administration wasted an extraordinary amount of time and resources trying to find a way to end court oversight before fixing persistent problems that harm vulnerable kids and families,” said Ira Lustbader, associate director for Children’s Rights. “While there is a lot of work to be done to make up for the time lost, we are extremely impressed by DCF Commissioner Joette Katz’s ownership of the system’s shortfalls and her commitment to tackle these issues during her tenure.”

Connecticut’s previous administration under Governor Jodi Rell attempted to end federal court oversight in April 2010 without achieving the required reforms for children in foster care — which a federal judge ultimately rejected in September 2010, ordering DCF to immediately renew its work to complete the court-ordered reform effort. The state had also made several failed attempts to cut Connecticut’s Voluntary Services Program, which offers specialized treatment for children at risk of entering state custody due to serious mental, emotional, or behavioral problems.

While Commissioner Katz has publicly pledged to catalyze the state’s reform efforts in many of these problem areas, the independent monitor notes additional significant challenges for DCF:

• DCF must reduce its reliance on out-of-state institutions and place more children, especially young children, with families instead of facilities and institutions. According to the monitor, Connecticut is continuing to misuse non-family settings, also known as congregate care — with nearly 150 children under the age of 12 still living institutions, shelters, group homes, and residential treatment centers. Twenty-five percent of all children in foster care currently reside in congregate care settings, showing virtually no progress since 2008 and falling far short of the promised 12-percent reduction the state had previously committed to hitting this summer.

• DCF must immediately find ways to better recruit, support, and retain foster homes. The state still lacks a sufficient pool of available relative, foster, and adoptive families for children in foster care. Despite committing to add over 850 new homes, DCF has experienced a net loss of 126 homes since 2008, making it much more likely a child will be inappropriately placed in an institution or with a family ill-equipped to meet his or needs.

• DCF must eliminate long waitlists for critical services. Today’s report notes that DCF still has a long way to go with respect to building in-state capacity for a number of services that either do not exist or aren’t widely enough available for youth and families. Among these critical services are substance abuse treatment programs, life skills and transitional living programs for youth aging-out of foster care, and specialized foster placements for children with unique needs.

However, in addition to outlining the challenges that lie ahead for DCF’s reform efforts, today’s report shows DCF has continued to maintain improvements in many important areas, including:

• Prompt and thorough investigations of child abuse and neglect allegations.
• Speedy and successful efforts at reunifying children with their parents or, if that’s not possible, matching children with new, permanent adoptive families or guardians.
• Minimizing the number of different places children are forced to live while in foster care.
• Reducing the instance of abuse and neglect while children are in state custody.
• Ensuring children in foster care receive regular visits from their caseworkers.
• Giving caseworkers manageable caseloads so they can properly monitor families and protect children.

Today’s report was released by court-appointed monitor Raymond Mancuso and monitors the state’s performance during the first quarter of 2011.

Children in the class action known as Juan F. v. Rell, originally filed in 1989, are represented by Children’s Rights and local co-counsel Steven Frederick of the Stamford law firm Wofsey Rosen Kweskin & Kuriansky. The case was filed against state officials on behalf of the approximately 6,000 children in the custody of the Connecticut child welfare system and thousands more at risk of entering custody.

For more information about Children’s Rights ongoing campaign to reform the Connecticut child welfare system, and complete archive of documents related to the Juan F. case including today’s report, please visit www.childrensrights.org/connecticut.

HARTFORD – While Connecticut’s child welfare system has successfully maintained a number of improvements accomplished years ago, the most recent quarterly progress report in the long-running, court-ordered reform effort spurred by national advocacy group Children’s Rights shows the state’s outgoing leadership made virtually no progress to better provide critical services to thousands of children in foster care.

Today’s report (PDF) shows that the state was still failing to meet vital service needs for more than 40 percent of all children in the child welfare system in the last quarter of 2010, leaving much work to be done for Governor Dannel Malloy’s new child welfare leadership. The many services Connecticut’s Department of Children and Families (DCF) failed to adequately provide for significant numbers of children include behavioral and mental health services, dental care, in-home preventive services for families, domestic violence services, and life skills and transitional services for teens at risk of aging out of foster care.

“For years the previous administration failed Connecticut’s most vulnerable kids and families by never improving the basic services necessary to improve their lives,” said Ira Lustbader, associate director for Children’s Rights. “Getting this reform effort back on track will not be an easy task, but we are encouraged by the commitment of Governor Malloy and DCF’s new Commissioner Joette Katz to immediately begin addressing the needs of vulnerable kids and families. We look forward to working with this new team and will continue to hold leadership accountable to their promises.”

In addition to the poor service delivery for children in state custody, the report notes that there is still a significant lack of foster and adoptive homes — with Connecticut experiencing a net loss of 116 licensed homes since 2008. Stemming from this failure to maintain a large pool of available foster placements, the state is still overusing institutions and group homes, as well as continuing its reliance on out-of-state residential facilities.

“These and other issues lead to delays in placement, discharge delays, children being placed in poorly matched and often more restrictive levels of care, multiple disruptions in treatment and placement, and significant delays in implementing essential services that might maintain children in their home or enable a timely reunification,” the report states.

DCF’s previous leadership under former Governor Jodi Rell made many attempts to stall the progress of reform in Connecticut, including failed efforts to cut Connecticut’s Voluntary Services Program, which for more than 18 years has offered specialized treatment for children at risk of entering state custody due to serious mental, emotional, or behavioral problems. Additionally, the state attempted to end federal court oversight in April 2010 without achieving the required reforms for children in foster care — which a federal judge ultimately rejected in September 2010, ordering DCF to immediately renew its work to complete the massive court-ordered reform effort.

Despite the remaining challenges, today’s report notes that DCF has hit 18 of 22 benchmarks — maintaining notable improvement in a variety of areas: reducing caseloads for child welfare staff, increasing caseworker visitation with children in state care, limiting the number of moves foster children experience, and improving the quality of abuse and neglect investigations.

Children’s Rights is scheduled to meet with the independent monitor and Commissioner Katz on April 6 to discuss the state’s plan to immediately catalyze the reform effort for these remaining critical areas.

Children in the class action known as Juan F. v. Rell, originally filed in 1989, are represented by Children�s Rights and local co-counsel Steven Frederick of the Stamford law firm Wofsey Rosen Kweskin & Kuriansky. The case was filed against the state on behalf of the approximately 6,000 children in the custody of the Connecticut child welfare system and thousands more at risk of entering custody.

For more information about Children’s Rights ongoing campaign to reform the Connecticut child welfare system, and complete archive of documents related to the Juan F. case including today’s report, please visit www.childrensrights.org/connecticut.

U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Droney wrote in his decision (PDF) that “children in the state’s care face unneeded delay and disruption, and continue to go without important services,” and “this case will not end until the state has fully met its responsibilities in addressing the needs of these children.”

“Today’s ruling is a huge victory for Connecticut’s most vulnerable kids and families. While DCF has indeed made notable improvements, the unavoidable fact remains that it is still routinely failing to provide services to abused and neglect kids and vulnerable families that are fundamental to a well-functioning child welfare system,” said Ira Lustbader, associate director for Children’s Rights. “The court has said in no uncertain terms that it is time DCF to focus on the hard work ahead to meet its obligations to these children and Children’s Rights will continue to fight to ensure they meet those obligations.”

According to the last several reports issued by the independent monitor charged with tracking the state’s performance — including a new report issued just last week — families and youth in Connecticut continue to experience longstanding shortages and waitlists for behavioral health and substance abuse services; dental services; life skills and transitional services for teens in foster care; and in-home preventive services. DCF has also been found to be unsuccessful in its efforts to recruit and retain new foster and adoptive families, and failing to reduce the state’s reliance on institutions and group homes for kids in foster care.

Children’s Rights and state officials had negotiated a new court-enforceable agreement in 2008, which averted contempt proceedings initiated by Children’s Rights to address DCF’s poor performance on these very same critical measures noted above.

Children in the class action known as Juan F. v. Rell, originally filed in 1989, are represented by Children’s Rights and local co-counsel Steven Frederick of the Stamford law firm Wofsey Rosen Kweskin & Kuriansky. The case was filed against the state on behalf of the approximately 6,000 children in the custody of the Connecticut child welfare system and thousands more at risk of entering custody.

For more information about Children’s Rights ongoing campaign to reform the Connecticut child welfare system, and complete archive of documents related to the Juan F. case, please visit www.childrensrights.org/connecticut.

Related Media:

Ruling Keeps DCF Under Federal Oversight (Hartford Courant, 9/22/2010)

Judge rejects to remove DCF from federal oversight (Courant Blog, 9/22/2010)

Oversight of Connecticut child welfare office continues (Associated Press, 9/22/2010)

Judge says DCF must remain under federal court supervision (Connecticut Mirror, 9/22/2010)

Children’s Rights and their Connecticut co-counsel asserted DCF’s violation of the court orders today in a letter (PDF) to DCF’s attorney and the independent monitor appointed by the court to track the ongoing reform effort. DCF consistently fails to adequately plan for and meet the basic needs of more than half the children in the Connecticut child welfare system, according to the latest monitoring report — and advocates say DCF must act swiftly to address the problems or risk further legal action.

“This is now and has been a leadership and management issue. While other states have made great progress in better meeting the needs of vulnerable kids and families and decreasing the use of institutions for kids, Connecticut has continued to backslide on reforms,” said Ira Lustbader, associate director of Children’s Rights. “These kids simply cannot wait another eight months for a new administration and for state officials to begin to make good on its promises.”

According to the most recent progress report issued by the court-appointed monitor (PDF), DCF continues to fall short of court-enforceable benchmarks for reform in several fundamental areas, including the recruitment of new foster families and the provision of vital treatment and services to vulnerable children and families.

Children and families in Connecticut continue to experience longstanding shortages and waitlists for behavioral health and substance abuse services; dental services; life skills and transitional services for teens in foster care; and in-home preventive services. Additionally, even where services are readily available, kids and families are frequently unable to access them due to a lack of “timely referrals, timely assessments, [and] follow up” by DCF, according to the monitor’s latest report.

Despite a court-enforceable agreement negotiated by Children’s Rights and state officials in 2008, which averted contempt proceedings initiated by Children’s Rights to address DCF’s poor performance on the same critical measures highlighted today, Connecticut continues to fail to meet benchmarks state officials helped to set. In addition to failing to meet the basic service needs of the families who depend on it, the state also continues to fall short in the following key areas:

• Unsuccessfully recruiting new foster and adoptive families. DCF had agreed to launch a massive effort to recruit 850 new foster families by June 2010, but according to the latest monitoring report, DCF has recruited only approximately 145 homes in the last two years.

• Failing to reduce the state’s reliance on institutions and group homes for children in foster care. DCF had previously negotiated an agreement to decrease the state’s use of institutional settings, shifting 10 percent of children in foster care out of institutions and into homes with foster families. But according to the latest monitoring data, the number of children placed in facilities and institutions has actually increased. Additionally, DCF still keeps over 230 kids age 12 and under in temporary facilities, group homes, and institutions.

Children’s Rights’ assertion of noncompliance with the federal court order and contempt triggers a mandatory 30-day period of negotiations aimed at resolving the issues identified by the advocates. If negotiations between Children’s Rights, DCF, and the monitor fail to produce a successful remedy for these problems, Children’s Rights can return to federal court and take further action.

Children in the class action known as Juan F. v. Rell, originally filed in 1991, are represented by Children’s Rights and local co-counsel Steven Frederick of the Stamford law firm Wofsey Rosen Kweskin & Kuriansky. The case was filed against the state on behalf of the approximately 6,000 children in the custody of the Connecticut child welfare system and thousands more at risk of entering custody.

For more information about Children’s Rights ongoing campaign to reform the Connecticut child welfare system, and complete archive of documents related to the Juan F. case, please visit www.childrensrights.org/connecticut.

Last week, we went back to court to ensure that the state does not succeed in shutting out the vulnerable children who depend on the critical services it provides.

The Voluntary Services Program offers specialized treatment to children with severe mental, emotional, and behavioral challenges. It was created as a part of the 1991 settlement of the class action that Children’s Rights and local advocates brought on behalf of abused and neglected children throughout the state, seeking the reform of the entire Connecticut child welfare system. Since then, the program has served thousands of families — and kept many troubled kids safely at home with their parents rather than leaving them at risk of being taken into foster care.

Last November, after preserving the Voluntary Services Programs in the state budget, Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell proposed deep budget cuts that would have closed the Voluntary Services Program to new participants — cutting off access for hundreds of kids and families each year. While we were initially successful in blocking the cuts and the state has agreed to keep the program intact for the time being, the battle is not yet over.

The state has now taken the position that children at risk of entering foster care are not protected by the class action settlement that created the Voluntary Services Programs, because the kids receiving these services have not been reported as victims of child abuse or neglect.

Their position raises a fairly obvious question: What good are preventive services if the only children who can access them have already been harmed?

“Families who are willing to proactively ask for assistance to get their kids the help they need should not be punished simply because they haven’t been accused of abusing or neglecting their children,” says Ira Lustbader, associate director of Children’s Rights. “Programs that prevent abuse, neglect, or abandonment before they occur are exactly what state systems should be protecting.”

It’s not hard to see the difference this program has made in the lives of the kids and families it serves. Take “Justin,” for example — a young boy whose parents couldn’t afford to treat his serious mental health disorders, including hallucinations, multiple personalities, and thoughts of suicide. With the help of the Voluntary Services Program, his parents were able to get Justin the counseling and therapy he needed while remaining safely at home with them. “Rosa,” a 17-year-old young woman with severe depression, was able to get the mental health care and medication she urgently needed through the Voluntary Services Program — even though her family lacked health insurance.

There are thousands of Justins and Rosas across the state of Connecticut with success stories just like these. “There is no question these families risked being broken apart and their children likely placed in state custody if these services had not been available to them,” Lustbader said.

The judge has not yet made a decision on Connecticut’s latest bid to undermine the Voluntary Services Program. But Children’s Rights remains committed to doing everything necessary to ensure that the state doesn’t leave its most vulnerable families out in the cold.

For more information about Children’s Rights’ campaign to reform Connecticut child welfare, please visit www.childrensrights.org/connecticut.

According to the report (PDF), covering the period from July 1 through September 30, 2009, and issued late Tuesday by the independent monitor appointed by a federal court to track the reforms, the Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF) is adequately planning for and meeting the basic service needs of only a little more than half the children who depend on it for protection and care.

DCF has also posted a precipitous drop in the percentage of eligible children it is quickly and safely returning home to their parents — from 71.9 percent of the cases studied during the previous review period to 56 percent during this one.

Additionally, despite a court-enforceable agreement negotiated by Children’s Rights and state officials in 2008 that required DCF to undertake a massive foster family recruitment campaign, DCF is currently showing a net loss of 41 foster homes off a baseline taken last year. The agreement, which averted contempt proceedings initiated by Children’s Rights to address DCF’s continued poor performance on this and other measures, called for the state to produce a net gain of 350 foster homes by the end of June 2009.

“DCF has broken one commitment after another to the federal court and to the children it is supposed to serve, promising dramatic improvements in the care and treatment it offers and failing to deliver time and again,” said Ira Lustbader, associate director of Children’s Rights. “The ongoing inability of DCF’s leadership to adequately meet the basic needs of Connecticut’s abused and neglected kids only underscores how deeply unwise it is for state officials to consider further service cuts.”

The reforms reported on by the independent monitor — and the quarterly reports themselves — are required under court orders secured by Children’s Rights and local co-counsel through a class action they brought against the state on behalf of the approximately 6,000 children in the custody of the Connecticut child welfare system and thousands more at risk of entering custody.

The current court orders under the 1991 settlement of that class action set 22 court-enforceable benchmarks for reform, including measures related to keeping children safe in foster care, quickly and safely reunifying kids with their families or finding them adoptive homes, providing for children’s basic service needs, avoiding overcrowding in foster homes, meeting standards for caseloads and visitation among child welfare workers who monitor kids, and improving outcomes for children who have left state custody.

Although DCF had previously achieved and sustained 17 of the 22 benchmarks, yesterday’s report finds the agency meeting just 15 — the state’s worst performance since Susan Hamilton was appointed commissioner of DCF in June 2007.

Children’s Rights took additional action against the agency on December 8, 2009, asking the federal judge in the ongoing case to block budget cuts ordered unilaterally by Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell that would have closed a successful and widely used family preservation and foster care prevention program to new participants — placing countless children at risk of serious harm.

Although the state agreed at a court hearing on December 16 not to stop intakes into the program for the moment, it has signaled that it will continue to challenge Children’s Rights’ move to keep it open. A hearing on that matter has been scheduled for January 28, 2010.

Steven Frederick of the Stamford law firm Wofsey Rosen Kweskin & Kuriansky serves as the children’s co-counsel on the case.

More information about Children’s Rights’ efforts to reform Connecticut child welfare — and a complete archive of documents related to the case — can be found at www.childrensrights.org/connecticut.

At first, it seemed that we had succeeded. The budget passed by the Connecticut legislature in August included full funding for the program. But then Governor Rell started issuing budget “rescissions” and “mitigation plans” — unilateral cuts allowed under Connecticut law after the legislature has approved the budget — including one that would have closed the program’s doors to new participants as of last week.

Once again, Children’s Rights took action — asking a federal judge to issue an emergency order blocking the budget cuts and allowing the program to remain open to new children and families.

And Wednesday, in a hearing in federal court, the state agreed to leave the program alone — at least for now.

This is an important victory for Connecticut’s vulnerable kids. The Voluntary Services Program, created as part of the settlement of the class action Children’s Rights and local advocates brought to reform the entire Connecticut child welfare system, has for more than 18 years offered specialized treatment for children at risk of entering state custody due to serious mental, emotional, or behavioral problems. It serves more than 1,000 children and families on any given day, and several hundred children enter the program for the first time each year. Suspending new intakes would leave many families with no other source for the services it provides — and the result, for many, would be dire.

“Countless families would be torn apart, and their children needlessly placed in foster care, just so they could get the services that the Voluntary Services Program already provides,” says Ira Lustbader, associate director of Children’s Rights. Ironically, Lustbader says, the long-term cost of providing these services to children in state custody would be much higher than the cost of maintaining the program.

“When children must be committed to state custody to get these services, and as their untreated problems worsen, not only does the financial cost to the state rise, but the human cost to children and families is absolutely devastating,” Lustbader says.

The battle over the Voluntary Services Program is not over. The state has argued that the children affected by these budget cuts are not protected by the court order we secured in our reform class action, and the judge has scheduled another hearing on this matter for January 28. In the meantime, though, the state has agreed to give us a week’s notice if it plans any further changes to the program — and the judge has left the door open for us to return to court immediately if we don’t like what we’re hearing.

“We remain committed to doing everything in our power to fight these cuts,” says Lustbader, “and making sure that Connecticut’s vulnerable children receive the services they need to keep them home safely with their families and out of foster care.”

Related press

Group Seeks to Cut Conn. Cuts to Children’s Aid (AP via Hartford Courant, December 9, 2009)

Children’s Advocacy Group Asks Court to Stop Conn. Budget Cut (WSHU Radio Fairfield, December 9, 2009)

Hundreds Protest Rell’s Budget Cuts (The Day, December 10, 2009)

Emergency Motion Filed to Retain Treatment Program for Kids (WNPR Radio, December 10, 2009)

Rell Backs Off on Cost-Saving Move (The Day, December 14, 2009)

Connecticut’s Voluntary Services Program, which for more than 18 years has offered specialized treatment for children at risk of entering state custody due to serious mental, emotional, or behavioral problems, was spared in the budget passed by the state legislature on August 31, 2009 — but has since been targeted in a budget rescission by Governor Rell that halted new intakes into the program as of this week.

According to attorneys representing Connecticut’s abused and neglected children, the move not only places countless children at risk of irreparable harm, but also violates the terms of the state’s 1991 settlement of a class action brought by Children’s Rights to reform Connecticut’s dysfunctional Department of Children and Families (DCF).

“For the sake of small, short-term cost savings, Governor Rell and DCF Commissioner Susan Hamilton are shutting down a critical program that has kept thousands of children together with their families since it was created by the settlement of the child welfare reform class action,” said Ira Lustbader, associate director of Children’s Rights. “When these children must be committed to state custody to get the same services, and as their untreated problems worsen, the financial cost to the state will rise and the human cost to the children and their families will be devastating.”

The issue is so important that the Connecticut state legislature passed a law in 1997 prohibiting the commitment of children to state custody just so they can receive mental health services.

“That’s exactly what’s going to happen if these services are not protected, and countless families will be torn apart as a result when their children are needlessly placed in foster care just so they can get the services that the Voluntary Services Program could have provided,” Lustbader said. “We are committed to fighting these cuts and ensuring that Connecticut’s vulnerable children receive the services they are guaranteed by law before commitment to state custody is the only option remaining.”

The Voluntary Services Program serves approximately 1,000 children on any given day, and several hundred new children enter the program each year. Suspending intakes will leave many families with no other source for the services it provides, according to Children’s Rights’ motion, denying vulnerable children access to vital services and supports when they need it most.

According to an affidavit filed in support of today’s legal action by Martha Stone, executive director of Connecticut’s Center for Children’s Advocacy, “Many children will go without desperately needed mental health services and will suffer severe deterioration as a result, placing the family at risk of not being able to properly care for the child and forcing some families to have to place their child into DCF custody just to the same services can be provided.”

Stone’s affidavit cites the stories of several children whose lives have been profoundly affected by the services provided through the Voluntary Services Program, including:

• Justin, a young boy who had been diagnosed by the age of seven with several severe mental health disorders that afflicted him with hallucinations, multiple personalities, and uncontrollable thoughts of suicide. Although his parents lacked the resources to get Justin the treatment he needed, the Voluntary Services Program provided counseling and therapy that have enabled him to remain safely at home with his family.

• Rosa, a 17-year-old girl who suffers from depression, has struggled for years socially and in school, and even attempted suicide. Her family, which is impoverished and has no health insurance, could not afford to pay for the services Rosa desperately needed. The Voluntary Services Program, however, was able not only to provide desperately needed mental health care and medication to treat Rosa’s depression — none of which she would have been able to get without it.

• Nicholas, a 12-year-old boy with ADHD and depression who had to repeat the seventh grade due to the severity of his mental health and behavioral problems. Through the Voluntary Services Program, Nicholas and his family received counseling in their home and connected with a psychiatrist who prescribed medication for his ADHD. Teachers and administrators at Nicholas’s school report a complete change in Nicholas’s behavior and academic performance; he has made immense progress in recovering a lost year of reading and writing lessons in a matter of months — and emerging as a leader among his peers in defusing fights and confrontations.

“Ironically, though it costs the state more to care for children in custody than to provide these services in their homes, Governor Rell’s so-called spending cuts guarantee that Connecticut will see a reversal of some of the gains it had made in safely reducing its foster care population,” said Lustbader. “And the cost in terms of families destroyed and children relegated to life as wards of the state will be incalculable.”

Children’s Rights filed the class action known as Juan F. v. Rell in 1989, seeking the reform of the Connecticut child welfare system on behalf of approximately 6,000 children in state custody and thousands more at risk of entering state custody. Although the state has made significant progress since the 1991 settlement, it has yet to meet some key requirements of the reform plan negotiated by Children’s Rights and state officials, and it remains under a federal court order to complete the reforms.

Steven Frederick of the Stamford law firm Wofsey Rosen Kweskin & Kuriansky serves as the children’s co-counsel on the case.

More information about Children’s Rights’ efforts to reform Connecticut child welfare — and a complete archive of documents related to the case — can be found at www.childrensrights.org/connecticut.

Related Press

Group Seeks to Cut Conn. Cuts to Children’s Aid (AP via Hartford Courant, December 9, 2009)

Children’s Advocacy Group Asks Court to Stop Conn. Budget Cut (WSHU Radio Fairfield, December 9, 2009)

Hundreds Protest Rell’s Budget Cuts (The Day, December 10, 2009)

Emergency Motion Filed to Retain Treatment Program for Kids (WNPR Radio, December 10, 2009)

Rell Backs Off on Cost-Saving Move (The Day, December 14, 2009)

The challenges are unquestionably daunting, and the decisions about what to cut and what to keep are agonizing. But there’s one program on the chopping block that plays such a vital role in keeping vulnerable families together, keeping children out of state custody, and saving taxpayers’ money in the process that it shouldn’t be negotiable. And we’re fighting hard to keep it intact.

It’s called the Voluntary Services Program, and it offers specialized treatment for children who have serious mental, emotional, behavioral, or substance abuse disorders when their families have nowhere else to turn. Created by the 1991 settlement of the class action lawsuit that Children’s Rights and Connecticut advocates brought to reform Connecticut’s child welfare system, the Voluntary Services Program has served thousands of families since its inception, providing services aimed at keeping troubled kids with their parents rather than leaving them at risk of being taken into foster care, the juvenile justice system, or other state institutions.

Governor Rell has proposed making this program unavailable to any and all new families at a projected cost savings of $1.5 million — just .001 percent of what she proposes to save in her budget for the next two fiscal years. This is miniscule in comparison to the cost in terms of both families destroyed and children relegated to state care if the program closes its doors.

Our friend and ally Martha Stone of the Center for Children’s Advocacy in Connecticut spoke out on this issue in yesterday’s Hartford Courant, writing in an op-ed of the potentially “devastating” effects of shuttering the Voluntary Services Program:

Many families simply will not survive intact. More children will enter state custody, endangering the sustained progress Connecticut has made in reducing its foster care population. Because children with emotional and behavioral problems are harder to place with foster and adoptive families, many will end up in the care of inpatient treatment facilities that are significantly more expensive to maintain than the Voluntary Services Program. And many will remain wards of the state until they age out of the system — without families, without homes and without any of the resources they will need to thrive as independent adults.

Connecticut’s child welfare system has come a long way since the settlement of our lawsuit, implementing a great many of the improvements required as part of the court-enforceable reform plan. Children in foster care are being moved less frequently between different foster homes. The caseworkers responsible for safeguarding their well-being are no longer overburdened with impossible caseloads, enabling them to visit children in their foster homes to make sure they’re safe and well-cared-for. Children are being more quickly reunified with their parents — or, if reunification proves impossible, moved into adoptive homes.

These are changes to be proud of. It is critically important that those children who must enter foster care get the care and protection they need and deserve. But the state must also do everything it can to keep families together and protect children who are at risk of being taken into foster care — or worse — before that drastic measure becomes necessary. And we are going to continue to do everything we can to ensure they do.

Be sure to give Martha Stone’s op-ed a look. If you’re in Connecticut, take a moment to write a letter to the editor of the Courant — or, better yet, Governor Rell. We already have, notifying her that if the Voluntary Services Program gets cut, we may very well take further legal action on behalf of Connecticut’s kids.

Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.