Connecticut: Decades of Neglect and a Systemic Child Welfare Crisis

Connecticut’s child welfare system has been in and out of crisis for decades, failing to protect some of its most vulnerable residents. While foster care systems are charged with protecting children across the state, they are instead subjecting these children to victimization with horrifying rates of sexual abuse and physical abuse. Connecticut’s systemic issues that allow foster children to be sexually and physically abused demonstrate a broader national reality: foster care is a failed human experiment on these kids, and Connecticut’s historical legal battles highlight these ongoing, active dangers. As one of the states entangled in class-action litigation for many years, Connecticut’s Juan F. v. Lamont lawsuit highlights these ongoing, active dangers. Children should not be removed from their natural parents who are their main source of safety, stability, and protection without a significant, compelling reason.

As Harriet Beecher Stowe once said, “It’s a matter of taking the side of the weak against the strong, something the best people have always done.”

As child welfare advocates, Justice for Kids® continues to protect foster children in Connecticut by filing personal injury and damage claims throughout the state with qualified, licensed co-counsel.

Every case below is part of one continuous legal fight: holding  Connecticut’s child welfare system to the constitutional standard it has repeatedly failed to meet.

We connect families with licensed Connecticut attorneys who handle personal injury and damage claims on behalf of children abused in state custody — at no upfront cost to you.

Despite the Juan F. litigation ending, the fight for Connecticut’s foster children remains a pressing issue. As shown in national analyses of child welfare failures, litigation in Connecticut reveals a system that is so overburdened and poorly maintained that it frequently failed to secure timely permanency, protect children from abuse, or provide safe placements. Since the case closed in 2022, several systemic failures have persisted or worsened in Connecticut. One of the main goals of Juan F. was to stop placing children in institutional group care, but because Connecticut failed to build a strong enough community-based mental health support system, new problems arose. Highly vulnerable children with behavioral health challenges are left in hospital emergency departments (ED boarding) for weeks or months because there are no psychiatric residential beds available and they cannot be safely returned to foster homes. Another unfortunate problem is the fact that a Black child in Connecticut is still 2.4 times more likely to be removed from their family than a White child, disproportionately punishing families of color for not having resources rather than abusing their children. This systemic disregard for foster children’s basic rights in Connecticut further evidences the country’s national crisis, where temporary placements put our youth in danger rather than peace.

Instead of fighting to save Matthew, DCF’s response shows a failure to use their existing legal resources to help a child in need. His mother refused to allow DCF caseworkers into her apartment or let them see her children, but the agency did not seek emergency custody, request police welfare checks, or medical evaluations. Instead, they returned to juvenile court and closed the family’s case.

Less than two months later, Matthew was dead.

Matthew’s death was entirely preventable. The state’s lack of assessing risk and acting upon it continues to leave children stuck in deadly environments, which can be avoided by supporting and strengthening families caring for intellectually disabled children. The expanded provision of Medicaid waiver services offers financial and caregiving assistance required to safely raise a disabled child, ensuring they stay safe in their home.