The Connecticut Department of Children and Families is responsible for the most vulnerable kids in our state, making sure they are in safe situations if they cannot stay at home. However, for 32 years, DCF had been under court oversight: until now.
The Juan F. Consent Decree was originally filed against what was called a broken system, but there was a very different tone in the courtroom when the judge terminated the case recently.
At the U.S. Federal Court in Bridgeport, scenes played out that are not always seen in a courtroom: a standing ovation, and hugs all around.
Twenty minutes into the hearing, Judge Stefan Underhill terminated a 32-year-old case, saying, “It has been 11,782 days since this case was filed, and the clock has now stopped.”
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The Juan F Consent Decree, filed in 1989, put DCF under judicial oversight until recently, when Judge Underhill ruled that the department has met all conditions and terminated the case.
“This is a historic moment for the children and families of Connecticut, three decades worth of federal court oversight just ended, and we are ecstatic,” DCF Commissioner Vanessa Dorantes said.
The praise the judge gave DCF was echoed by the original plaintiff.
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“It really came down to leadership. You know, we had commissioners who took on the charge,” Brian Lynch, CEO of Children’s Community Programs of Connecticut, said.
Lynch said the department was very different when the lawsuit was filed.
“Broken, it was underfunded, children were languishing in foster care,” he said.
A dozen plaintiffs went to court to raise concerns about understaffing, congregate care facilities, and kids not being reunited with their families.
“We saw children who were 10 years old in the system having 10 placements by the time they were 10 and 12 years old, just bounced from home to home to home,” Lynch said. “The whole system was in crisis, and kids and families were suffering for it.”
Now Lynch, Judge Underhill, and Commissioner Dorantes credit a three-decade turnaround to several factors. Those include hiring an adequate workforce, caseload limits for DCF’s 3,200 staff, placing more children with kin, and racial justice work.
"Whenever there are situations that involve children who are unsafe, or that have been maltreat, or maltreated, we want to make sure that there are standards of practice that are consistent from case to case and from family to family,” Dorantes said. “That's what we see when we measure our work."
DCF data illuminates the transformation.
In 2006, more than 6,000 kids were placed into DCF care. Today that number is about half at 3,400.
More than 300 children were placed out-of-state in 2006, making it unlikely that they would reunite with their families. In 2022, only five children are out of state.
In 2006, fewer than 20 percent of kids were placed with kin. Now 44 percent are being cared for by family members.
The court and DCF also both see the end of this case as a new beginning.
“The end of this case represents a milestone, but it's also the beginning of thinking about how we engage with kids and families and how children and families have their needs met when they're in crisis,” Dorantes said.
They said funding is crucial in successfully continuing these reforms.
“The funding levels that currently exist have to be sustained by the legislature if this can, if this is really going to sustain the work that we've done,” Lynch said.
The court reviewed roadmaps for future funding as part of DCF’s exit plan from the case.
At the state Capitol, the governor and attorney general applauded the department’s success.
“It’s a landmark case for this state for a generation, Attorney General William Tong said.
“We're moving away from institutionalization, we’re moving away from kids not being with family,” Gov. Ned Lamont added.
It’s a transformation that the judge and plaintiffs said in court makes Connecticut a model now for child welfare systems across the country.
“I think it's time that the court step away, and I do I have faith in the department and the people that run the department,” Margaret Doherty, a plaintiff and Connecticut Alliance of Foster and Adoptive Families Executive Director, said.
It is something the plaintiffs gladly acknowledge.
“It took 32 years, because this was a case that was to revolutionize the whole child welfare system from beginning to end,” Lynch said.
