Department Of Children And Families Ct

An infant dies, and a new DCF commissioner is tested

As Joette Katz manages the high-profile case of a five-month old Ansonia boy dying under her agency's supervision, child advocates are waiting to see if the new commissioner of Children and Families has the resolve to avoid the mistakes of some predecessors, who hastily removed children from their homes.

"What has happened in the past is this tendency that whenever there's a problem the decision is to just automatically remove a child from their home," said Jeanne Milstein, the state's child advocate. "It's sometimes been an overreaction by the agency."

Milstein said after high-profile fatalities in previous years, records often show DCF investigations lead to more children being removed from their homes. On Wednesday, it was determined that the death of an infant, whom DCF had twice declined to remove from his home in recent months, was a homicide.

Katz's plans for the troubled agency are to keep more children with their families, and the commissioner says she will stay the course.

The agency has been under federal court supervision for two decades, following a class-action  lawsuit filed by child advocates alleging that the state took children from their families too often, among other complaints. On any given day there are about 4,300 children in state custody and thousands more living at home being supervised by DCF.

Martha Stone, one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said after Katz took office four months ago it was inevitable that a child would die during her tenure, as is the case with the leader of every child-protection agency. The challenge, Stone said, would be to stay focused on broader reforms.

"There will always be crisis. There will always be a death, unfortunately," Stone said. "You have to keep your eyes on the prize."

In an interview Wednesday, Katz said the death will not deter her from implementing a sweeping package of changes for the agency, nor will it result in any immediate policy changes.

"I think in the past that's been exactly the mistake, frankly," Katz said. "A child dies and the next thing you know workers are getting thrown under the bus and 500 children get removed [from their homes] the next day because it's a reaction to a tragedy. I think that's the exact wrong way to behave."

Advocates said how Katz, who resigned as a justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court to accept Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's appointment to DCF, responds to crisis will be revealing about the commissioner's leadership and where the agency is headed.

To The CT Department Of Children and Families….. | Corrupt CT

Why is it so hard for you to do your job properly? Why must you insist on ruining good families? You lie to parent’s you scare them, you lie to children, you withhold information, you lie on paper, on the stand, you just lie. You give false hope, and attack innocent families. There are people out  there that are actually in need  of your help. It seems that the innocent family’s are an easier target, less paperwork, who knows. You are not doing the job you were hired to do. Parent’s, United States citizens, are very aware of what you do. You are “supposed” to PROTECT children, but you do not. You cause much more harm then good. As I have said, the THOUSANDS of people are not keeping quiet. You seem to be quite a topic on the web. With all of the watch groups out there,do you really thing that nothing will be done as your actions get worse? I don’t think so. I am glad to see that the employees of Ct Department Of Children And Families look to see if their name and number is listed on this site. But that seems to be your only care, is my name there… why yes indeed it is. Never taking the time to see the damage that you have done, the true story’s of what has been done by YOUR agency. How can you be so vein? You have surely made a name for yourself, and it is so far from being a good one. My belief…. to be rid of The Department of Children and Families, and have a private agency do the job you cannot. It makes me sick that the money you make, is made by destroying families. The things you do, the things you have done, the things you continue to do are in humane. And how anyone of you could do the dirty work that you do….remains a mystery to me.

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