Last Friday was the last day that individual legislators could introduce bills at the General Assembly. We have been reading through proposals and working on our priority list.

Our focus this week, however, is on the Department of Children and Families (DCF) and an important hearing that will take place next week. Let´s get started. 

Spotlight: the Juan F. Settlement

In 1991, the state of Connecticut´s Department of Children and Youth Services (now the Department of Children and Families, DCF) entered into a consent decree that covers all children that are in the care, custody, or supervision of DCF due to abuse, neglect, or abandonment, as well as children the agency knows (by virtue of a report) are at risk of such maltreatment.

The consent decree was the result of the Juan F. case, a 1989 suit that challenged how Connecticut served children in state care. The consent decree established a series of benchmarks for DCF, trying to ensure that the needs of children and families under their supervision were being met. The agency has been operating under court oversight since.

In 2004, under the guidance of a Federal Court Monitor, the parties drafted a plan to exit federal oversight. This exit plan requires DCF to meet 22 measurable goals pertaining to the well-being of children in their care. Since then, DCF has slowly but steadily improved outcomes related to placement of children in care, discharging of children, disruptions in child placement, and reunification and adoption.

Last year, more than two decades later, the state of Connecticut reached an agreement to finally settle the case.

The agreement covers the following:

• Connecticut will agree not to cut DCF´s budget.
• The agency will still have to meet a series of goals (around items including investigations on abuse cases, social worker caseloads, case planning and outcomes, meeting the needs of children in care, and site visits) to protect and provide for children under state care.
• The full exit plan is available here.

Why are we talking about this today? First of all, because after a quarter of a century under federal monitoring, DCF is still struggling to hit many of the benchmarks on this settlement. If we want to ensure that vulnerable children and youth under state care receive the services they need, it will require both funding to ensure that there are enough social workers to manage these complex cases and accountability.

Second, the Juan F. settlement agreement must be approved by the General Assembly – and the Appropriations Committee will be holding a hearing on this very issue Monday next week. It is important to make our voices heard.

Hearing Alert: Juan F. at Appropriations, January 23

• The Appropriations Committee will hold a public hearing on Monday, January 23, 2017 at 10:00 A.M. in Room 2E of the Legislative Office Building (300 Capitol Avenue, Hartford.)
• Sign-up for the hearing will begin at 9:00 A.M. in Room 2700 of the LOB. 
• You must submit 60 copies of written testimony to Committee staff at the time of sign-up.
• You can email written testimony in MS Word or PDF format to APPtestimony@cga.ct.gov.
• Even if you are unable to attend the testimony in person, we encourage you to submit written testimony by email. Many legislators use this testimony when drafting arguments to present on the House and Senate floors.

Connecticut Voices for Children will testify at the hearing in favor of accepting the settlement. Although DCF still struggles to meet many of the goals set in the 2004 exit plan, the agreement will protect the agency´s funding from further cuts while maintaining oversight in key areas.

Of course, sheltering DCF from cuts could mean further service reductions in other social service agencies. We are watching to make sure this does not put children and families at further risk – like everything in the budget, it is a balancing act. We believe, however, that DCF's (slow, steady) progress and the chance to protect crucial state funding justifies our support.

If you are interested in testifying on this hearing or have any questions on the Juan F. settlement, e-mail us! Lauren Ruth, our Youth Policy Fellow, has been tracking this issue closely and will be happy to answer any questions.

This Week: Committee Meetings

Quite a bit of movement this week at the General Assembly. After the Friday rush of legislators introducing individual bills, committee members and chairs are starting to discuss what bills will be raised, and will begin to draft committee bills.

This means that this week we will see quite a few committee meetings: Public Safety today; Insurance, Labor, Higher Education, Children, and Human Services Thursday; and the Office of Early Childhood Cabinet Friday. The agenda for each meeting is usually posted the day before on the CGA website. This week, committees will be mostly voting on which bills will be drafted as committee bills and/or get public hearings.

The full schedule can be found here. We will keep you posted on any major decisions or bills to follow as we go along.

Still time to register: State Budget Forum

Next week we will convene at the State Capitol for Connecticut Voices for Children's 16th Annual State Budget Forum: "Building a Budget for Connecticut's Future."

• WHAT: 16th Annual State Budget Forum.
• WHEN: January 24th from 8:30 AM to 12:00 PM.
• WHERE: Old Judiciary Room, State Capitol, 210 Capitol Avenue, Hartford.
• REGISTRATION: please RSVP here. Seating is limited.

Participants will include Secretary Benjamin Barnes, Comptroller Kevin Lembo, and Representatives Toni Walker and Vincent Candelora, among others. Please visit our event page for more information, or e-mail Ray Noonan with any questions.

What we are reading:

• In case you missed it: our brand new, just released report on revenue options for Connecticut: "Revenue Options are Key to Tackling Budget Shortfalls and Supporting Thriving Communities."

With Congress taking the first steps towards repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a lot of reading on what this means both for Connecticut and the country as a whole:

• The Congressional Budget Office reports that repealing the ACA could increase the number of uninsured Americans by 32 million in 10 years, while causing insurance premiums to double over that time. Here is the report; here is the NYT article on this subject.
• The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimated the cost for each state of an ACA repeal. For Connecticut it would mean 248,000 people losing insurance coverage by 2019. Here is the report; here is a good overview at the CT Post on this issue.
• The ACA repeal could also have a significant impact in the economy. According to a Commonwealth Fund Study, Connecticut would lose 36,000 jobs and billions of dollars on economic output. Nationwide, the repeal would lead to the loss of 2.6 million jobs. Here is the full report.
• Silver lining: a majority of Americans now think that the ACA is a good idea.