DCF Fails Children: Acting Child Advocate Slams Department

It's May 1st. This is Hartford News today, your AI-powered local news.

Connecticut's acting child advocate just dropped a bombshell letter slamming the department

of children and families for major policy slip-ups after A.

Kids' tragic suicide. The family had a long DCF history, unstable housing, kids not

in school and kept bouncing in and out of state, but DCF still left the child at home.

Instead of stepping in, on top of that, reviews show DCF workers only hit all key info

gathering steps, like contacting kids, doctors, schools, and checking home risks less than

25% of the time from July to December 2024 and January to June 2025.

Supervisor chats on cases under 20% leaving new staff without guidance amid high turnover.

This hits hard with recent child deaths in open DCF cases, like Tava's from fentanyl

and a two-year-old found in a park grave. Kids face unstable placements, untreated needs,

and long stays in short-term homes with no plan, trapping everyone in crisis mode.

DCF commissioners Susan Hamilton called it tragic and launched a full review of decisions,

oversight, and policies. She backs the advocate's push for better staffing support, more foster

care options, extra supervision for rookies, and public data dashboards.

Bottom line, without bold leadership, real oversight, and transparency, more kids suffer

in silence. These systemic fixes can wait to keep families safe.