Foster care in Connecticut: Will you-know-who undermine real reform?

Richard Wexler

Monday, March 7, 2011
Foster care in Connecticut: Will you-know-who undermine real reform?

Connecticut is the great underachiever in child welfare. Year after year, the state spends on child welfare at one of the highest rates in the country, and year after year the system produces lousy results for kids.

That’s because Connecticut spends the money in all the wrong ways. First of all, as is discussed in detail in our report on Connecticut child welfare, the state takes away children at a rate 40 percent above the national average and more than double the rates in states widely-recognized as, relatively speaking, models for keeping children safe.

The problem is compounded by what happens after children are taken away. Connecticut uses the worst form of care (and the most expensive), group homes and institutions, at one of the highest rates in the nation. At the same time, it uses the least harmful form of substitute care, placing children with relatives instead of strangers, at one of the lowest rates. FULL STORY