As the number of foster children who ran away and went missing increased, the state Department of Children and Families didn’t do enough to make sure it didn’t happen again or make sure the kids were safe, according to a new audit.
The Connecticut Auditors of Public Accounts on Wednesday released a report about children who went missing from foster care from fiscal years 2021 to 2023.
Children went missing from DCF care about 3,700 times from fiscal years 2021 to 2023. Over that time period, the number of incidents increased by 42%, the audit found.
The audit also found that DCF hadn’t followed the law in some cases and had failed to implement internal controls to make sure children stayed safe.
“The findings in this audit, in my opinion, are serious, and I think they deserve serious attention, and no child in the care of our state should ever fall through the cracks,” said Children’s Committee co-chair Rep. Corey Paris, D-Stamford.
In the audit documents, DCF said that it had implemented several measures to treat the needs of the kids who go missing and to reduce the number who run away from care. Many of the children have trauma and complicated needs, and one of the responses may be to run away.
The report says that running away can expose children to other adverse consequences like human trafficking, involvement with the criminal justice system, substance use and falling behind in school.
The kids who go missing from care tend to do so multiple times. Less than 5% of the total number of foster children go missing, and one child went missing 100 times. Most of the kids who went missing were teenagers, and they were more often girls.
On average, they were missing for eight days, although the longest period was more than two years. Two of the children were still missing when auditors received data from DCF. One was still missing as recently as April. A DCF spokesman said all the children in the report are now accounted for and safe.
Auditors found that DCF didn’t properly analyze the instances of children going missing and had squandered an opportunity to ensure it didn’t happen again.
“Given that over 50% of the youth who are missing from care are older youth being served in congregate care settings, many with high acuity and complex needs, the Department has implemented several enhancements to its continuum of care for this population,” the agency’s response said.
DCF has since added new guidance and protocols to keep kids safe and is doing further research on the topic.
“It’s also important to understand that some youth are coming into care in their late teen years without any prior/current DCF involvement following an arrest when placement by the court in a juvenile residential center (detention) or return home is not an option,” the agency’s response said. “However, unlike detention, DCF does not (and should not) operate or contract for locked placement settings for children.”
Paris agreed that DCF is making progress.
“I truly think that this isn’t necessarily a story of inaction, that this is a story of a system under strain and trying to evolve, and trying to evolve in the 21st century, and making some meaningful strides in doing so,” Paris said.
The report also examined the cases of six teenage girls and said DCF hadn’t met their needs. Social workers and service providers said they needed more care to stay safe and that the appropriate level of care wasn’t available.
The six girls went missing a total of 341 times over three years.
Most of the children who ran away were also in congregate care settings, according to the report.
In 2023, allegations of abuse and neglect emerged from a congregate care home in Harwinton that served teenage girls. After the reports, DCF announced reforms to the Short Term Assessment and Respite Homes to ensure kids were getting more trauma-informed treatment.
Service providers said what happened at the Harwinton house was, in part, the result of a strained mental health care system for children. Increased need left the state without enough placements for kids with complicated therapeutic needs.
The audit also found that in 94% of the cases auditors examined closely, DCF didn’t document whether they screened children for sex trafficking after they’d been returned to care. This violates federal laws around foster care programs for states.
In the audit documents, DCF disagreed with the finding, saying they had developed protocols for screening.
Auditors said that DCF should establish clear protocols for reviewing cases of missing children to ensure they get the treatment they need after the incident and prevent these types of incidents from occurring. The report included more than a dozen recommendations.
Paris said there needs to be more placement options for kids who have been through trauma, especially in smaller settings like therapeutic foster care.
“We talk a big game in our state about kids being our priority and kids being the future,” Paris said. “If we want to combat poverty, if we want to combat challenges and generational traumas, the only way that we can do that for this key demographic of marginalized folks, is by actually giving more resources to agencies like DCF.”
Children’s Committee co-chair Sen. Ceci Maher, D-Wilton, said she needs to check in with DCF to learn more about their current practices, pointing out that the data is about two years old.
“I know from my work with them that they are addressing what were failures, and they’re working to be more proactive,” Maher said.
Children’s Committee ranking member Sen. Jason Perillo, R-Shelton, and Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield, issued a statement Wednesday calling for DCF officials’ “immediate attention” to the issue.
“The audit points the way toward corrective measures which can prevent future tragedies involving vulnerable Connecticut children,” the statement said.
Children’s Committee ranking member Rep. Anne Dauphinais, R-Killingly, said in a written statement that although some of the findings were already known, they are troubling.
“Children in these situations are among the most vulnerable in our state and deserve nothing less than a system that intervenes swiftly and effectively,” Dauphinais said. “The commissioner must take these findings seriously and act on the recommendations without delay. We cannot allow this to become another case where auditors return years later with the same findings.”
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