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.”