State Rolls Out Program to Improve Child Welfare Services

The state Department of Children and Families is launching a new program aimed at improving child welfare services in Connecticut and they will be announcing what it entails today.

The announcement comes during Child Abuse Prevention Month.

It also comes just days after two Children and Families program managers were fired, accused of “egregious misconduct,” after leaving two Willimantic children in the care of a couple who are on sex-offender and child-abuse registries. 

State officials said they will implement “the nation's most comprehensive plan to improve child welfare assessments and services to meet the special needs and vulnerabilities of very young children.”

It will include improvements to the state's child abuse and neglect prevention activities, public education efforts and enhanced use of data to identify and help the most at-risk families and children.

"Challenging problems often require simple, elegant strategies to achieve solutions, and that’s why we believe so strongly in collaboration and partnerships. We all have the responsibility to make our families stronger and more capable of caring for their children,” Malloy said in a statement.

Part of the plan includes am “Early Childhood Practice Guide” to help social workers develop specialized assessments and services targeted to the "heightened vulnerabilities of these very young children."

Another part of the plan is to educate parents to maintain a safe sleep environment.

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