Connecticut’s child welfare system isn’t hitting federal markers for success, particularly in areas related to ensuring children’s safety, access to services for families and finding a permanent place for foster children to live, according to a new federal report.

The report, from a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services focused on children, found that Connecticut was not in “substantial conformity” with any of the outcome measurements for foster kids’ well-being that the federal government examines regularly. The state was only in conformity with two of seven factors the federal government reviewed.

“We have a very serious problem in terms of being unable to meet the needs of the most vulnerable children in our state,” said Sarah Eagan, executive director of the Center for Children’s Advocacy.

Many of the problems addressed in the report were tied to a lack of resources, Eagan said. She questioned whether DCF has been seeking enough funding from the state.

HHS conducts regular audits of states’ child welfare agencies, including the Connecticut Department of Children and Families. This latest report, known as the Child and Family Services Reviews, or CFSR, was based on information gathered from July 2024 to March 2025.

The agency also found that Connecticut does well at placing siblings together, relocating kids removed from their homes into relatives’ homes, meeting the educational needs of children in foster care, and assessing kids’ needs.

Still, the report concluded that Connecticut should be placed on a performance improvement plan until the state makes progress toward meeting federal markers. It’s difficult to meet those markers, which have high standards. Most states missed markers in their audits.

“The CFSR sends a clear message that Connecticut has a lot of work to do to improve outcomes for children and families served by the Department,” said Christina Ghio, the state’s acting child advocate, in a statement.

Ghio said the Office of the Child Advocate is primarily concerned with inconsistent safety practices, lack of mental health services, permanent stability for children in foster care and delays in reunifications.

Interim DCF Commissioner Susan Hamilton said in a statement that her department has successfully completed performance improvement plans in the past, adding, “one will be submitted in the near future in collaboration with other system partners to address the highlighted areas consistent with all states across the country.” She said the state’s child welfare system “remains committed to continuous learning and reform to strengthen outcomes for the children and families we collectively serve.”

Hamilton went on to note that the CFSR had highlighted some of Connecticut’s strengths, “such as kinship care, sibling placements, thorough behavioral health assessments, and strong community engagement— which are a direct reflection of our core values of family-centered practice, partnership, and a robust Quality Assurance System that drives continuous improvement.” She said the department had already “identified areas of focus to enhance our work.”

The report’s findings

The federal analysts found that DCF workers weren’t consistent with their safety-related practices, especially with in-home services. In-person contacts with children involved in investigations weren’t always timely, and there weren’t adequate services provided for homes with risk factors such as domestic violence or substance abuse.

The agency also had limited ability to meet behavioral health needs, the report said.

The federal auditors conducted interviews with people involved in the system who said there were problems with long waitlists, a limited workforce and transportation availability to and from service providers.

Eagan said inadequate funding has affected access to many aspects of the state’s social safety net. Providers of those services say the problem stems, in part, from the state’s adherence to a slate of “fiscal guardrails,” which have constrained what they see as necessary state spending.

“None of these agencies are operating with enough funds to serve the people that depend on them,” Eagan said. “And that’s a big part of this here.”

Ghio said many of the problems mentioned in the report have also come up in investigations her office conducts. “The state must work to develop an adequate service array to ensure that families receive the services they need, both to prevent removal and support reunification whenever removal is necessary,” she said in a statement.

Connecticut also had challenges with finding permanent places for children in foster care to live, whether the goal was adoption or reunification with their parents. Those plans weren’t enacted as quickly as the federal government wanted, which is typically within 15 months.

Some of this was due to delays in court, either because of the time it took DCF to provide paperwork, or due to rescheduled hearings or judge availability, the report said.

“The ‘delays’ are much more complicated than how it is written and captured in the report,” Judge Tammy Nguyen-O’Dowd, chief administrative judge of juvenile matters, said in a statement.

Nguyen-O’Dowd said many people, including at least four attorneys, have to coordinate on court dates and that the number of attorneys working on juvenile matters with the Office of the Chief Public Defender is limited. She also said that DCF makes decisions on when to file petitions for the termination of parental rights.

The rate of children being mistreated in foster care also increased between fiscal years 2020 and 2022. The rate of maltreatment victims aged 1 to 5 and 6 to 10 doubled, and those ages 11 to 16 increased fivefold, according to the report.

“With regard to placement stability, there is no question that moving from place to place is harmful to children,” Ghio, the acting child advocate, said. “While Connecticut may still be within the national performance expectation, we are trending in the wrong direction. We do not have enough foster homes to meet the need.”

The federal agency also reported issues with access to services, particularly for biological families and fathers. The report said it was a “significant area of concern,” to ensure that “parents have enhanced capacity to provide for their children.”

The report also said DCF has a good quality assurance system and does good work planning for multiple goals for children and families.

Advocates said the results of this study and other reports such as a recent audit about kids missing from care and OCA reports are worthy of attention.

“That’s the core problem that we’re dealing with in this state is an ever-eroding capacity to meet the needs of vulnerable people, and nobody pays the price worse for that than children,” Eagan said.