Department of Children and Families

At a Glance

DARLENE DUNBAR, MSW, Commissioner

Heidi McIntosh, Deputy Commissioner

Karen L. Snyder, MA, Chief of Program Operations

Brian Mattiello, MA, Chief of Staff

Established - 1970

Statutory authority - CGS Chapter 319

Central office - 505 Hudson Street,

Hartford, CT 06106

Average number of full-time employees – 3,489

Recurring operational expenses - $729,741,569

Capital outlay - $2,660,183

Mission

The mission of the Connecticut Department of Children and Families is to protect children, improve child and family well-being and support and preserve families. These efforts are accomplished by respecting and working within individual cultures and communities in Connecticut, and in partnership with others.

Organizational structure - Office of the Commissioner, Finance and Information Systems, Bureau of Continuous Quality Improvement, Bureau of Child Welfare, Bureau of Behavioral Health and Medicine, Bureau of Juvenile Services, Bureau of Adoption and Interstate Compact Services, Division of Multi-Cultural Affairs, Bureau of External Affairs, Prevention, Early Intervention and the Office of the Ombudsman, and the Bureau of Adolescent and Transitional Services.

Area Offices

Bridgeport

Danbury

Greater New Haven

Hartford

Manchester

Meriden

Metro New Haven

Middletown

New Britain

Norwalk/Stamford

Norwich

Torrington

Waterbury

Willimantic

Facilities

Connecticut Children’s Place (CCP)

Connecticut Juvenile Training School (CJTS)

High Meadows

Riverview Hospital for Children

Wilderness School

Improvements/Achievements 2005-06

The Department took advantage of fiscal year 2006 to make unprecedented progress in improving the quality of services for Connecticut children and families while staff continued to make strides in achieving the goals contained in the Juan F. Consent Decree and Exit Plan. During the first quarter of 2006 (the last for which the Federal Court Monitor issued a report as of this writing), Department staff reached their highest performance over the nine quarters of the Exit Plan. Of 20 measures captured, staff attained goals in 15 – two more than achieved at any previous point.

Three outcomes were achieved for the first time. Four outcomes have been achieved consistently over a two-year span and six outcomes have been achieved consistently for 18 months or more. For two of the five outcomes that the Department did not meet, staff came within less than a single percent, specifically placement within licensed capacity and reducing reliance on residential placements. In a third, the Department has doubled the percentage of appropriate referrals for continuing services beyond the point of discharge from care for children with mental illness or mental retardation.

Overall, the most recent quarterly report filed with the federal court shows staff met the following outcomes:

• Commencement Of Investigations: The goal of 90 percent was exceeded for the sixth quarter in a row with a current achievement of 96.2 percent, tying the highest ever since measurement began in the Fourth Quarter of 2004.

• Completion Of Investigations: Workers completed investigations in a timely manner in 94.2 percent of cases, also exceeding the goal of 85 percent for the sixth consecutive quarter and also tying the highest level ever under the Exit Plan.
• Search For Relatives: For the second time, staff achieved the 85 percent goal for relative searches and met this requirement for 89.9 percent of children.
• Repeat Maltreatment: For the first time under the Exit Plan, the goal of seven percent was achieved with 6.3 percent of children experiencing repeat maltreatment.
• Maltreatment Of Children In Out-of-Home Care: The Department sustained achievement of the goal of two percent or less for the ninth consecutive quarter with an actual measure of 0.4 percent, the lowest ever under the Exit Plan.
• Timely Reunification: For the third consecutive quarter, this measure exceeded the 60 percent goal with a mark of 66.4 percent, the highest recorded.
• Timely Adoption: For the second time in the last three quarters and the third time overall, staff exceeded the 32 percent goal for the timely completion of adoptions within 24 months by meeting the timeline for 40.8 percent of the children, the highest recorded under the Exit Plan.
• Re-entry Into Care: For the first time, the Department met the seven percent goal for re-entry into care by recording a measure of 6.7 percent.
• Multiple Placements: For the eighth consecutive quarter, the Department exceeded the 85 percent goal with a rate of 96.2 percent.
• Foster Parent Training: For the eighth consecutive quarter, the Department met the 100 percent goal.
• Worker-To-Child Visitation In Out Of Home Cases: For the second consecutive quarter and three of the last four, the Department met the 85 percent goal for maintaining regular visits by meeting requirements in 86.8 percent of out of home cases, the highest to date.
• Worker To Child Visitation In In-Home Cases: For the second consecutive quarter, workers met required visitation frequency in 96.5 percent of cases, thereby exceeding the 85 percent standard and reaching the highest level to date. The percent of in-home cases where visitation standards were met has more than doubled since the Exit Plan began at the start of 2004.
• Caseload Standards: For the eighth consecutive quarter, no Department social worker carried more cases than the standard under the Exit Plan.
• Discharge Measures: For the third consecutive quarter and the fourth time overall under the Exit Plan, staff met the 85 percent goal for ensuring children discharged at age 18 from state care had attained either educational and/or employment goals.
• Multi-disciplinary Exams: For the first time, Department staff met the 85 percent goal by ensuring that 91.1 percent of children entering care received a timely multi-disciplinary exam.

In addition to areas where staff met the goals, other measures are now close and/or show tremendous improvements since the Exit Plan began in early 2004. For the quarter, reducing reliance on residential placements came within 0.3 percent of attaining the 11 percent goal. Progress is carrying forward into the second quarter of 2006. As of July 24, 10.7 percent of children in care are in a residential placement – meeting the goal for the first time. As a result, 247 additional children are in a more appropriate and less restrictive level of care compared to April 11, 2004. That translates to a 27 percent reduction in 28 months. Although not an outcome measure itself, the State has made even more dramatic improvements in reducing reliance on out-of-state care. In only 21 months, 194 fewer children are in an out of state residential program for behavioral health treatment. That is a 39.5 percent reduction since September 2004.

Child Protection

• The Department received more than 93,000 calls to the hotline. These included 43,562 reports of suspected abuse or neglect, of which 36,361 were accepted for investigation.
• At any point in time, the Department provided child protection treatment services to more than 3,000 families whose children were living at home after a Department finding of abuse or neglect.
• In addition, more than 6,300 children in the Department’s custody because of abuse or neglect also received services.

Foster Care/ Adoption and Interstate Compact

Interstate Compact

• Connecticut administers four distinct interstate compacts through the Bureau of Adoption and Interstate Compact Services to facilitate the placement and movement of children across state lines. The most frequently used is the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children, which monitors the placement of children crossing state lines for the purposes of foster care, relative care, adoption, and residential care. The Bureau also administers the Interstate Compact on Juveniles, the Interstate Compact on Mental Health and the Interstate Compact on Adoption and Medical Assistance.

Adoption and Subsidized Guardianship

• Connecticut supports the adoption of children from the public child welfare system by providing a financial and medical subsidy to those children deemed "special needs." Connecticut also supports the permanent placement of children with relatives by providing a financial and medical subsidy to relatives willing to provide a home to their relative children in the public child welfare system.
• Timely permanency has become a primary focus for the Department. In particular, the timeliness of adoptions through the Department has improved dramatically with the percentage of adoptions finalized in two years or less having nearly quadrupled from only 10.7 percent in the first quarter of 2004 to 40.8 percent in the first quarter of 2006. The timeliness of subsidized guardianships also has met the Exit Plan standards in two of the last four quarters of the period ending in the first quarter of 2006. The timeliness of family reunifications has met the standards for three consecutive quarters ending in the first quarter of 2006.
• The Department finalized 498 adoptions and 308 subsidized guardianships in FY2006.There are currently on the books approximately 5,000 children in subsidized adoptive homes and over 1,600 in subsidized guardianship homes.
• One of the most successful recruitment tools used by the Department to recruit adoptive homes for waiting children is the Heart Gallery. Every year professional photographers take professional pictures of children who are "waiting to be adopted." and their pictures are displayed in an art gallery or a similar venue. During the FY 2005-06 there have been five Heart Galleries in Connecticut.
• The Department licensed new “resource” homes licensed to provide temporary or permanent care for children. DCF licensed 160 new foster homes, 113 adoptive homes, 297 relative homes, 55 independent foster homes, 124 Special Study homes for a total of 749 in the first three quarters of FY2005-06.

Voluntary Services

• Voluntary Services were provided to approximately 1,100 children at any one time. These children received residential and community based services to address complex behavioral health needs. Parents whose children qualify can ask for assistance and receive services from DCF funded programs without relinquishing guardianship to the Department.

Behavioral Health and Medicine

Therapeutic Group homes

• During FY2005, the Department began a major initiative developing therapeutic group homes in local communities. Three existed at the beginning of this expansion. From April 2005 through June 2006, 26 new homes opened. An additional 24 are anticipated to open during FY2007. These homes, each caring for five to six children, allow children and adolescents who are either not ready or appropriate for foster homes to be served in small home-like settings, thereby reducing the dependence on larger residential placements. The youth served have a wide variety of behavioral health and or developmental disabilities. Virtually all youth have a history of some sort of trauma. These therapeutic group homes have helped to reduce the number of children in residential placement by 247 or 27 percent in the 28 months since April 2004.

Connecticut Community KidCare

• Over the past six years, Connecticut Community Kidcare, the Department’s mental health service delivery system for children with complex behavioral health needs, has developed and enhanced the state’s community-based service infrastructure. KidCare has supported the development of a statewide emergency mobile crisis service for children and adolescents and a variety of other services, including care coordination, extended day treatment, and intensive home based services. Based on the federally endorsed “system of care” model, Kidcare is designed to promote collaboration between service providers and families/caregivers and to offer culturally competent services within an individualized, child-specific treatment-planning model.
• During the first three quarters of fiscal year FY2006, more than 6,000 calls were made to the 16 mobile crisis teams that provide statewide coverage to children experiencing a mental health crisis. The majority of calls continue to be initiated by caregivers or school personnel. Calls result in phone consultation, on-site intervention with follow-up care provided or arranged, or triage to hospital emergency departments or crisis stabilization units. Coverage is 24/7, 365 days a year, and phone response is within 15 minutes. Approximately 1,350 children received care coordination services and utilized the variety of community-based service options that KidCare funded programs provide. At any one time, 432 children receive extended day treatment and 180 families receive intensive in-home services as well as care coordination services.

• In October 2005, Connecticut was one of seven states awarded a federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) mental health “transformation” grant. The grant application was based on a cooperative agreement developed between 15 state agencies, including the Department and the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services acting as the lead agency. The goals of the “transformation” grant are entirely consistent with the Department’s KidCare initiative.

The Connecticut Behavioral Health Partnership

• Governor Rell and the 2005 General Assembly enacted legislation establishing the Connecticut Behavioral Health Partnership (CT BHP) as a joint initiative of the Department and the Department of Social Services (DSS). This partnership, which enables the two departments to procure and jointly direct an Administrative Services Organization (ASO), represents the final stage of the KidCare reform.

· The ASO is a state-contracted entity designed to help DCF and DSS develop a common administrative infrastructure and enhance the quality and delivery of state-funded behavioral health care. It replaces the managed care organizations that have historically authorized, monitored, and paid for behavioral health services for enrolled members, as well as the DCF grant-funded system. The ASO is a single organization that operates under guidelines developed by DSS and DCF with input from consumers and providers. Value Options is the Connecticut ASO Agency.

· Value Options staff answers approximately 2,000 calls a month from consumers addressing questions about the ASO. They are referred to service providers within the network and local community support networks. The provider relation’s staff has been averaging 1,800 calls per month from providers seeking help or information. Also to date, more than 1,500 children in out-of-home care are known to the partnership.

· Through contractual agreement, the ASO enrolls members (HUSKY A children and adults, HUSKY B children and non-HUSKY eligible children who are DCF involved and who have specialized behavioral health needs), guides them to appropriate levels of care, tracks and monitors care throughout the system, provides feedback to DCF and DSS on the quality of care being provided and offers technical assistance to consumers and providers. Additional information about the Connecticut Behavioral Health Partnership, (BHP) and the services provided by the Administrative Services Organization can be accessed by going to the CT BHP website at www.ctbhp.com.

PARK Project:

• In 2002, the Department, in collaboration with parents, the Bridgeport schools and local community providers, received a six-year, $9.5 million grant to build a community-based service “system of care” in the city of Bridgeport. The initiative, called the Partnership For Kids or PARK Project, is now in its fourth year of funding and has helped over 180 families with behavioral and mental health challenges get needed services that allow children and youth to remain in school and in their own community. It is a school-based system of care with staff located in the schools targeted. The project has reduced problem behaviors, increasing functioning, increased utilization of strengths for the youth, and a decrease in internal strain for themselves. The schools report that the program reduces office referrals for students and enables clearer identification of students with severe emotional and behavioral difficulties.

Bureau of Adolescent and Transitional Services

• Mentoring: Mentoring provides youth with a contact to their community other than the DCF Social Worker. Mentors and youth work together on a one to one basis to resolve issues identified by the youth. Approximately 250 youths benefit from a mentor in this program.

• Independent Living College Program: The program supports foster care/adoptive youth in continuing education programs including, four-year and two-year colleges and universities, as well as in vocational and technical programs. Youth are required to obtain grants and scholarships, contribute $500 per year of their own funds, and remain in good academic standing. The program currently serves 482 full-time and part-time students.
• Jim Casey Initiative: This program, which assisted 75 youths in FY06, is designed to insure that youth “aging out” of foster care have increased opportunities for a successful transition to adulthood by offering assistance in employment, housing, physical and mental health, youth leadership and youth engagement.
• Life Skills Program: DCF offers community-based life skills education and training programs for youth in foster care and community settings. There are now thirteen contracted Life Skills Programs across Connecticut, offering services to approximately 239 youths.
• Other programs include the Youth Advisory Boards, CHAP program that assists with subsidized housing, the re-entry into care program, and the Safe Harbors program which provides training and services on issues regarding Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender youth and foster/adoptive parents.

Bureau of Juvenile Services

Connecticut Juvenile Training School: (CJTS)

• CJTS has established a Positive Peer Culture program and significantly reduced the number of restrictive measures.
• CJTS has launched an innovative Boys and Girls Club program to assist boys returning to Hartford and New Britain successfully re-integrate into their communities. The Boys and Girls Club also offers regular programming to all the boys at CJTS.
• A mentoring program stocked with volunteer CJTS staff and other caring adults offers the boys an opportunity to create relationships that have a positive impact on their lives even after the boys leave CJTS.
• A re-entry initiative has begun with the Department of Labor and Trade unions to link boys to career opportunities in painting, carpentry and masonry.
• CJTS continues efforts to prepare boys for successful community re-entry through innovative educational, treatment and rehabilitative services. The facility is nearing completion of the FY2006 strategic plan that includes the following goals:

o Create, cultivate and maintain a therapeutic environment;

o Develop and implement a comprehensive re-entry system that builds upon each child’s unique strengths and needs;

o Promote family partnerships and enhance family participation;

o Promote a commitment to continuous quality improvement through the implementation of a comprehensive quality improvement program: and

o Develop, implement and maintain a comprehensive staff development program.

• Of the 218 admissions in 2005, 37 percent were admitted directly from court, 31 percent from residential placement, 18 percent from home, 8 percent from AWOL status (either from a pass from CJTS or from residential placement), 6 percent from an adult correctional facility, and less than 1 percent from a hospital. The average length of stay for boys discharged from CJTS in 2005 was 4.9 months.

Coordinating Services with Judicial Branch

· The Emily J. settlement agreement has resulted in the development and implementation of $6 million in new or expanded community-based services over the next two years. These services began as a pilot in Hartford in FY 2006 and are expanding statewide in FY 2007. Services include:

o Multidimensional treatment foster care;

o A gender-specific therapeutic group home for girls;

o Family based substance abuse treatment;

o Therapeutic mentoring: and

o Flexible funding.

· The Department has been working steadily on a joint juvenile justice strategy plan with Court Support Services Division (CSSD) of the Judicial Branch, and numerous stakeholders including parents, advocates, providers, and other state agencies. DCF and CSSD continue cooperative work as outlined in the protocol for Families with Service Needs (FWSN) cases. DCF has created a team that includes management and liaison staff to work with the juvenile court system at all levels, to provide a coordinated response and earlier services to families with service needs.

Girls’ Programs and Services

· The Department has continued to work with private providers to ensure that girls receive gender-specific services. In addition to case consultation and program monitoring, the focus has been on the implementation of standards for residential treatment providers, the development of alternatives to residential care through the opening of group homes, the use of Multidimensional Family Therapy, and continued work to address the need for a secure program for a small number of delinquent girls.

Reintegration Services

· The “STEP” (Support Teams for Educational Progress) Program provides comprehensive transition and reintegration services for committed delinquent children and for Family with Service Needs (FWSN) involved children. Key components include a reintegration team with case management, educational re-entry assistance, and delinquency prevention. The goals of the program include reducing recidivism, school suspensions, expulsions and truancy, as well as improving school attendance and achievement. The program is designed to increase the number of children on parole who are serviced in the community and reducing the need for secure treatment. The program will increase collaboration between local community schools and providers in the Juvenile Justice System as well as increase support and services to engage families in treatment. The outcome will be an increase in pro-social behaviors and positive goal attainment activities by delinquent and FWSN children in the program. The program is slated to begin in Hartford in August 2006.

Parole Services

· Parole services reorganized to provide an array of services that are child-centered, community-oriented, and that will enhance children’s ability to successfully and safely re-integrate within their families and comminitues. The reorganization will enable social workers to concentrate in specific geographical areas, and each of the nine parole units will have a gender-specific social worker. In an effort to maintain children in the least restrictive setting, in-home therapy and counseling services are being incorporated to allow more children on parole to remain in the community. Additionally, parole is implementing an evidence-based risk and needs assessment system to ensure that children on parole receive appropriate services that take into considernation their strengths and needs. This will guide parole services from initial commitment through treatment planning, and will allow improved tracking of the rate of recidivism and success.

Continuous Quality Improvement

· The Department’s Quality Improvement Division collaborated on a comprehensive qualitative case review to determine the extent to which the agency is meeting its performance mandates as outlined by the consent decree exit plan. Areas of strength and those needing improvement were identified and utilized to help govern the agency’s practices and resource allocations.

• Quality Improvement staff conducted case study reviews to evaluate specific child welfare outcomes as required by the Exit Plan.
• The Department established procedures for an implemented consultation and technical assistance to residential service providers regarding compliance with the federal private non-medical insurance initiative.

• Development efforts and activities continued to enhance the structure, action plans, learning forums, and goals of the quality improvement teams previously established in each area office and facility.

• The Department continued to meet the requirement of the six-month periodic review of the status of each child through the treatment planning conference (TPC) and administrative case review (ACR) process. Enhancements were made to the process to increase participation and make it more family friendly. Improvements include the introduction of audio conferencing services and enhanced efforts to reach out to parents, foster parents, service providers and others to gain greater participation.
• The Department began collecting restraint and seclusion data from out-of-state providers. This involves collecting data on the frequency of restraints for Connecticut children and for all children in out-of-state facilities we utilize. Comparisons will be made on frequencies of restraints and seclusions for all programs, in and out of state, that serve Connecticut children. We continue to collect performance-based contracting data on in-state residential facilities and post this information to the DCF website.
• A quality improvement study was completed to examine the factors related to the repeat occurrence of child abuse and neglect, including the impact of visitation and substance abuse in these cases. Results were utilized in an effort to reduce repeat maltreatment of children.
• A qualitative review of fair hearing decisions which was conducted to ensure a greater understanding of the process and the reasons for upholding or reversing agency findings of abuse or neglect.
• In collaboration with other state agencies, the Bureau has developed and refined statewide behavioral health response teams to provide disaster and trauma recovery to communities following critical events and emergencies resulting from natural disasters or from acts of terrorism.
• The Bureau’s licensing unit collaborated with other Department sectors to open 27 therapeutic group homes last fiscal year.
• The Bureau played a major role in the drafting and implementation of Public Act 05-207, which established criteria and a formal hearing process for the management of the Child Abuse and Neglect Central Registry.

Affirmative Action:

• The Department is committed to an aggressive and comprehensive affirmative action plan to assure equal employment opportunity as well as to provide services and programs to the public in a fair and culturally competent manner. The plan provides quality assurance to DCF by ensuring a culturally competent and diverse workforce needed to provide the best quality services to our children and families. Affirmative action and equal employment are immediate and priority objectives and they play an important and necessary role in all stages of the employment process. Currently 46 percent of our full-time workforce and 33 percent of top managers are persons of color.
• The Department fully supports the state code of Fair Practices and federal and constitutional mandates concerning affirmative action and equal employment opportunity

Bureau of External Affairs

Office of the Ombudsman

· The Office of the Ombudsman continues to track and respond to requests for information from private citizens, the Office of the Child Advocate, and other state officials. The total number of inquiries responded to in SFY06 was approximately 4,000.

· The office has assigned staff to each of the DCF-operated facilities to listen and respond to concerns of residents.

· Each of the DCF area office and facility appointed representatives are working with central office staff to develop a five -year prevention plan. Representatives from other public and private service providers, parents, youths, and legislators will be invited to participate in the planning process.

Prevention Division

· In April 2006, parents in the New Haven area were taught baby-soothing techniques by an expert pediatrician to prevent child abuse and shaken baby syndrome. In addition to the teaching session, participants received educational teaching DVD’s. Approximately 100 parents attended. A public education campaign was supported by broadcast and print media.

Early Childhood Program

• Early Childhood programs currently offered through the Department support the social and emotional health of families and children age’s birth through six. These programs include the Early Childhood Consultation Partnership and the Parents in Partnership programs.
• The Early Childhood Consultation Partnership: It is estimated that ten percent to 20 percent of the preschool population is in need of social or emotional support. In Connecticut, over 400 children were expelled or suspended from preschool during the past three years. The Early Childhood Consultation Partnership (ECCP), begun in 2003, is a successful and nationally recognized statewide program funded by the Department and managed by a private service provider. ECCP is one of the first statewide data-driven systems of mental health consultation designed specifically to meet the social and emotional needs of children from birth to five years of age by building the capacity of those caring for young children through the provision of on-site education and consultation in early care settings. Early childhood mental health consultants promote and facilitate early identification of young children's needs and respond with appropriate social and emotional services, community-based collaboration, and referrals to other service providers. The goal of the program is to enhance the development of social and emotional resiliency and to prevent children from disrupting from their early care settings. To date, 887 children in 333 early care settings have been served with a 98 percent success rate of maintaining the child in their current childcare setting.
• The Parent in Partnership Programs: Implemented in the early 1990's, these programs have served close to 2,000 families who have been identified as neglecting or abusing their children or to be at-risk of neglect or abuse. Participants have included parents with mental illness, parents with cognitive challenges, teen parents and substance abusing parents. Children are between the ages of birth and six years old. The Parent in Partnership model is able to offer center-based playgroups, home visits, social activities and parent education as well as to link families to community providers. Supports are provided several times a week through a combination of these options. These programs are able to offer long-term supports to families. Families participate for an average of 18 months. The success rate for families is judged to be an absence of re-referral or referral to the Department of Children and Families. The success rate of these programs is 96 percent.

Legislative Division:

• On December 1, 2005, the Department implemented provisions of Public Act 05-207, which establishes notice, hearing, and appeals procedures for people that the Department finds reasonable cause to believe are responsible for neglecting or abusing a child. It prohibits the Commissioner from placing the name of a suspected abuser on its registry unless it is determined that the person poses a risk to children.

Division of Multicultural Affairs:

· The demands for the development of culturally and linguistically competent services is a major challenge facing human services and behavioral health providers today.  The shifts in racial, ethnic, linguistic, religious, special needs, disability, and gender-orientation diversity have required that the Department discover approaches and skills that will enable us to effectively work with people from diverse backgrounds.

The Division of Multicultural Affairs was created for the purpose of developing, implementing, and sustaining diversity initiatives and policies designed to support the diverse needs of staff and clients regardless of their race, religion, color, national origin, gender, disability, sexual orientation, age, social economic status, or language.