Connecticut lawmakers question Lamont’s DCF nominee Susan Hamilton

Connecticut lawmakers on Thursday questioned Gov. Ned Lamont’s nominee to lead Connecticut’s child welfare agency about whether the state is doing enough to protect children from harm and ensure they are well cared for when they enter the foster system.

Interim Department of Children and Families Commissioner Susan Hamilton appeared at a public hearing before the Executive and Legislative Nominations Committee, the first step in the legislative approval process for Hamilton to become the agency’s official commissioner.

Hamilton faced criticism during the hearing, with lawmakers raising concerns about caseworker turnover, mental health support for children, homeschooling, and two high-profile cases that have brought the agency under scrutiny in recent months.

In both high-profile cases discussed by lawmakers, the victims were pulled from the public school system to be homeschooled, but alleged abuse by their caregivers was not discovered by DCF despite the agency’s previous involvement with the families. One case involves a Waterbury man who was allegedly locked away for decades. The other involved the death of 11-year-old Jaquelyn “Mimi” Torres-García, whose body was found in New Britain last year.

Hamilton told committee members that she wants to focus on outcomes, including how the state measures whether its efforts are improving. “It’s about outcomes. We need to be able to measure what we’re all doing, what are we collectively setting as the goal for all of us. When we’re saying we want to see things improve, we need to have ways of measuring that, and that’s something that’s really important to me,” she said.

Hamilton also said she wants to prioritize placing foster children with family members whenever possible, improving the foster care system and increasing transparency at the agency. In remarks described as part of her opening, she said her background would help her advocate for what the agency needs.

Lamont, in a statement issued Thursday, said Hamilton’s “decades of service at DCF give her a deep understanding of the agency and the mission of protecting vulnerable children and families” and that he is confident in her leadership.

Sen. Ceci Maher, D-Wilton and co-chair of the Children’s Committee, questioned whether Hamilton is too entrenched in the system to see clearly where DCF needs to improve, and said she believes Hamilton lacked a sense of vision for the agency. “I’m not seeing the passion or the vision for what you see the future could be. And that, to me, is very, very concerning,” Maher said.

Maher also said she was concerned about children’s mental health care, particularly services at the Specialized, Trauma-Informed, Treatment, Assessment and Reunification, or STTAR, homes. She said the homes have faced challenges as children with more complex needs enter them, and she raised concerns that the rollout of a new casework management system had been mismanaged, though it occurred before Hamilton’s tenure as leader. Maher said DCF needs to improve transparency and report additional data markers because promised improvements have not come through.

Hamilton said the agency is working on more training related to the case management system and that transparency is among her top priorities. Maher and others also continued to press questions about the Torres-García case, including the agency’s account that months after the girl died, a DCF worker investigating a complaint connected to Torres-García’s younger sister was deceived during a video chat.

Dave Yaccarino, R-North Haven, said he wants targeted answers about why incidents are happening and also raised concerns about caseworker turnover. Hamilton said the turnover rate can be as high as 50% in the first two years of work.

Hamilton said she believes it is important to look at the totality of the work DCF does, saying most cases involve neglect and do not end in deaths, and that the department reviews cases beyond those that have fatal outcomes. She said, “I wish all adverse outcomes on child protection cases could be prevented,” and that DCF reviews cases to determine what went wrong, if anything, that could have prevented a given outcome.

After the hearing, the committee is scheduled to vote on Hamilton’s nomination before it can move forward.