September 9, 2020
The Court Monitor in the ongoing federal child welfare reform lawsuit known as Juan F. v. Lamont (formerly Juan F. v. Malloy) released the latest report on the progress of the Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF) in meeting the remaining improvement requirements in that lawsuit. The report covers the Fourth Quarter of 2019 (October-December 2019) and the First Quarter of 2020 (January-April 2020), with an additional focus on their efforts during the COVID-19 crisis (March-August 2020).
The following statement was issued by Ira Lustbader, Litigation Director at Children’s Rights, and Steven Frederick, Partner at Wofsey, Rosen, Kweskin & Kuriansky, who are co-counsel for the plaintiff children in the Juan F. case.
“We are encouraged by the Administration’s continued progress toward full compliance and exit with court-ordered improvements at DCF because it means more children and families are receiving better care and support. DCF Commissioner Dorantes has also made racial equity a top priority for DCF, which we fully support. As the state navigates through the COVID-19 pandemic and its many challenging impacts in the coming months, we look forward to working with agency leadership so that these hard-earned improvements for kids and families at DCF are both maintained and accelerated where needed.”