Fasano to DCF: Don’t Claim Victory Until Children are Actually Safe and their Needs are Actually Met

Hartford – Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano (R-North Haven) released the following statement regarding today’s press release from Governor Malloy’s office and Department of Children & Families Commissioner Joette Katz stating that the state has reached a milestone in nearing an end to decades of federal oversight of the agency failing to meet the needs of children in its care.

“While I applaud any progress made in child services and in freeing DCF from decades long court oversight, I cannot help but respond to the misleading rhetoric and statistics cited by the governor’s administration and DCF in what I consider to be a completely disingenuous and exaggerated claim of progress in child safety. DCF was already compliant with 16 of the 22 performance measurements made by the court monitor when Commissioner Katz took office. To try to create the impression that these measures are now close to being met as a result of the policies of the current administration is completely disingenuous. After promising to have DCF out from under the court monitor in her first year, Commissioner Katz has failed to move the ball forward. Instead, DCF has only continued to fail the same six quality measures that it was failing six years ago when she took over, in many cases failing those measures by a larger degree under her leadership,” said Fasano.

“To now celebrate barely getting the agency up to the level it was at before Commissioner Katz took office is ludicrous. The fact is the agency continues to fail more children today than it has prior to the current Democrat administration. While last month’s court monitor report did include the first uptick in children’s needs met, even that change still was not enough to improve DCF’s performance beyond what it already was before Katz was named Commissioner. While I recognize and applaud the small shift in direction in the last report, there is nothing here today to cheer about when so many children are still suffering, and when the current administration’s policies have worsened the situation for so many.

“Connecticut families cannot ignore that the six measures in which DCF continues to fail are critical elements that directly relate to child safety. For example, for the six years Commissioner Katz has been in charge DCF has failed in its core function to actually ‘meet children’s needs.’ The agency has also failed to engage in adequate case planning and failed to complete abuse investigations in a timely manner. For Democrat legislators to try to take credit for improvements just shows how out of touch they are with the reality of the issues confronted by children in the DCF system.”

Below is a closer look at how the latest court monitor report compares to measures before the current administration took office:

• For the Fourth Quarter 2015 and First Quarter 2016, the Department’s statewide result for Outcome Measure 3 (Case Plans), was 48.1% and 66.7% respectively. But in 2010 the Department reached 86.5% for this measure.
• The Department’s statewide result for Outcome Measure 15 (Needs Met), within the 54 case sample for the Fourth Quarter 2015 and First Quarter 2016 was 63.0% and 70.4% respectively. But in 2010 the Department was at 67.3% for Needs Met.
• There were 157 unmet needs service needs captured in the Fourth Quarter 2015 and 179 identified in the First Quarter 2016. But in 2010 there were only 136 identified unmet needs.