Lawmakers on Thursday questioned Gov. Ned Lamont’s nominee to lead Connecticut’s child welfare agency about whether the state is doing enough to protect children from harm and make sure they’re well cared for when they enter the foster system.

Interim Department of Children and Families Commissioner Susan Hamilton had a public hearing on Thursday before the Executive and Legislative Nominations Committee. It was the first step in the legislative approval process for Hamilton to become the official agency commissioner.

Hamilton faced criticism on Thursday, mostly directed at the department, as lawmakers asked about issues such as caseworker turnover, mental health support for children, homeschooling and two high-profile cases that have brought the agency under scrutiny in recent months. One was a case in which a Waterbury man was allegedly locked away for decades, and the other was the death of 11-year-old Jaquelyn “Mimi” Torres-García. Her body was found in New Britain last year.

In both cases, the victims were pulled out of the public school system to be homeschooled but the alleged abuse they endured from their caregivers was not discovered by DCF despite the department’s previous involvement with the families.

“It’s about outcomes. We need to be able to measure what we’re all doing, what are we collectively setting as the goal for all of us. When we’re saying we want to see things improve, we need to have ways of measuring that, and that’s something that’s really important to me,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton said during her opening remarks that she wants to focus on making sure foster children are placed with family whenever possible, improving the foster care system and transparency in the agency, among other measures.

Lamont appointed Hamilton in September after her predecessor, Jodi Hill-Lilly, left the agency for a job with the Doris Duke Foundation. At the time, Hamilton served as legal counsel for DCF. Previously, she had been the undersecretary of the Office of Policy and Management. She also served as commissioner of DCF from 2007 to 2011 under Gov. M. Jodi Rell. During that time, the agency saw some slippage in progress toward meeting children’s basic service needs, according to reports.

Lamont in a statement Thursday said “Sue’s decades of service at DCF give her a deep understanding of the agency and the mission of protecting vulnerable children and families. I’m confident in her leadership at DCF and that she will continue the important work this agency does every day.”

But Children’s Committee co-Chair Sen. Ceci Maher, D-Wilton, questioned whether Hamilton is too entrenched in the system to see clearly where DCF needs to improve. Maher also said that during other conversations with Hamilton, she’s felt that the interim commissioner lacks a sense of vision for the agency.

Maher referenced Hamilton’s opening statements during which Hamilton said that her time at OPM helped her understand the budget process and how to use data to make decisions about spending money.

“I’m not seeing the passion or the vision for what you see the future could be. And that, to me, is very, very concerning,” Maher said.

“I would say that understanding them often is tantamount to accepting them as opposed to pushing for what you might need from the governor’s budget or from the legislature,” Maher said. “So that’s part of the vision piece that I am significantly concerned about.”

Hamilton said her past experiences have helped her learn and be better equipped to advocate for what the agency needs to help children.

Maher said she was also concerned about children’s mental health care, and particularly care at the Specialized, Trauma-Informed, Treatment, Assessment and Reunification, or STTAR homes. The homes have faced challenges as children with more complex needs enter them.

She also said the rollout of a new casework management system had been mismanaged, and although it occurred before Hamilton’s tenure as leader, it was still a concern. She also said the agency needs to improve its transparency and report out more data markers because promised improvements to transparency haven’t come through.

Hamilton said the agency is working on more training on the case management system and that transparency is one of her top priorities.

Maher and others also brought up recent high-profile cases, particularly the Torres-García case. Months after the girl had died, a DCF worker investigating a complaint related to Torres-García’s younger sister was deceived by the children’s mother during a video chat with a person the child’s mother asked to impersonate the child, according to the agency.

Concern about the agency’s performance stretched across the aisle.

“There’s got to be something specific, like targeted. Why are these incidents happening?” said Dave Yaccarino, R-North Haven. Yaccarino also said he was concerned about caseworker turnover. Hamilton said that number can be as high as 50% in the first two years of work.

Hamilton said she thought it was important to look at the totality of the work. Most cases the agency is involved in are neglect cases and don’t result in deaths. She said they review many cases, not just those that end in fatalities.

“I wish all adverse outcomes on child protection cases could be prevented,” Hamilton said. “We all want that. But we look at the cases to determine what went wrong, if anything, that would have been able to prevent that outcome.”

The committee will next vote on Hamilton’s nomination before it can move forward.