Connecticut Health Investigative Team (http://c-hit.org/tag/uncared-for-petition/)
uncared for petition
Task Force To Examine So-Called 'Custody For Care' Controversy
By Lisa Chedekel | June 29, 2017
A task force created by state lawmakers will examine whether the Department of Children and Families (DCF) should be prohibited from requiring that parents give up custody of their children in order to access mental health and other services, under legislation signed by the governor. The newly formed panel, which is charged with reporting its recommendations by Feb. 1, 2018, will study whether state statutes should be amended to prohibit DCF from requiring or requesting that a parent or guardian of a youth admitted to DCF on a voluntary basis terminate his or parental rights or transfer custody in order to obtain services. The task force also will study ways of increasing families' access to voluntary services without making parents relinquish custody of their children. The legislation creating the task force was prompted by recent stories by C-HIT that detailed a practice known as 'trading custody for care,' in which parents who cannot meet their children's severe behavioral health needs in a home setting are subject to "uncared for" petitions that turn their children over to DCF custody.
Proposed Bill Would End 'Custody For Care'
By Lisa Chedekel | February 7, 2017
State officials and parent advocates gave different versions Tuesday of how often, and why, the Department of Children and Families (DCF) takes custody of children with severe behavioral health problems – and whether the practice should continue. Advocates, including a group of adoptive parents, told the legislature's Committee on Children that a proposed bill that would prohibit DCF from "requesting, recommending or requiring" that parents relinquish their custodial rights when seeking mental health treatment for their children is needed to stop a practice known as 'trading custody for care.' The bill, drafted by state Rep. Rosa Rebimbas, R-Naugatuck, was prompted by an October C-HIT story that described DCF's use of "uncared for" custody petitions against parents who could not manage their children at home and insisted on specialized residential care. In testimony Tuesday, DCF Commissioner Joette Katz said the agency resorts to taking over custody only in rare cases in which parents refuse to take their children home from inpatient settings or "will not cooperate" with clinician-recommended in-home or community-based treatment services. "We disagree with the notion that DCF requires parents to completely relinquish custody of their children" to receive suitable behavioral health care, Katz said. She acknowledged that the agency has sharply reduced the number of children it places in residential treatment.