The Case Against DCF - Part II

Ordinary people really can make a difference.

The Juan F. case was brought on by “phone calls from foster parents, from birth parents, from DCF staff, talking about that the foster care system was broken…”

(Shelley Geballe, JD, MPH President, Connecticut Voices for Children; Lead Counsel, Juan F. v O’Neill.
Connecticut Public Television, 2006. http://www.cpbn.org/files/Consent_Order.pdf )

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The Case Against DCF - Part I

Here’s a Statistic: It would take every single one of your fingers and toes to count the number of years that DCF has been failing while under the watch of a Federal monitor.

In December, 1989 a class action law suit (Juan F. v O'Neill) was filed in the United States District Court challenging DCF’s management, policies, practices, operations, and funding regarding children in its custody. Just over a year later the state entered into a court ordered consent decree which required specific changes in each of the areas that had been identified as deficient. A court monitor was appointed who would be charged with facilitating and periodically reviewing the Department’s compliance.

“In February 2002, the court approved a plan that would allow DCF to exit from the consent decree [in November, 2006]. The plan set performance and outcome measures DCF had to achieve. In 2003, the plaintiffs returned to court arguing that DCF had failed to comply with the terms of the exit plan.” (Spigel, 2004. http://www.cga.ct.gov/2004/rpt/2004-R-0352.htm ).

Clearly, the reasons for the agency's failure are multifaceted and the solutions are not necessarily simple...but 20 years! Come on! The fact of the matter is that if we look at DCF as a collective parent, it is failing so extremely that its (collective) child should be removed from its “care.”

Callous Embrace

The process of attempting to establish a network of foster/adoptive parents and professionals who work within and around the foster care system and who are willing to share their stories out loud is interesting. Interesting is a euphemism for often futile, damn frustrating, and only occasionally productive. Just call me Sisyphus!

There are a number of well justified reasons for choosing not to come forward; perhaps chief among them is fear of retribution by the behemoth DCF. Many of those who have stories to tell have ongoing ties to the agency and speaking out is not an option. Instead, the conversations take place in private – in living rooms and back yards, after support group meetings, among therapists and patients, attorneys and clients. Nearly everyone has a story that bespeaks apathy, callousness, or the abuse of institutional power. To DCF stakeholders, such abasements are simply – and sadly – the norm.

I recently heard about a comment that illustrates the ugliness that oozes from the very core of this system of festering wrong. The comment was made by a supervisory staff member during a meeting that was held to determine the ultimate placement of a sibling group of two. A foster parent, discussing his wish to adopt the children who had been with his family for three years, suggested that it would be harmful to move them from the only home that they had ever known. The DCF staff member responded (and I am paraphrasing) that the children are already damaged when they come into the system; what difference does it make when we damage them a little more. I would say it’s unbelievable, but this is just business as usual at DCF.

If you have a story to tell; we would like to hear it. Please contact us.

What a Difference a Year Makes

April 2, 2009: Packing for our first family trip to Disney World.

April 2, 2010: Packing for our final goodbye.

Parents pack up their children’s belongings for sleepovers, vacations, camp, and college. These are milestone events that remind us to look forward when we are immersed in the demands of everyday. They give us respite, wonder and pride. They become the laughter that we share around the Thanksgiving table.

Our children are two and five, what can we possibly pack that will let them remember? What can we possibly pack that will protect them as we would have protected them or that will encourage them as we would have encouraged? What can we possibly…

Devastating Children and Families