A 1-month-old baby girl who died on Christmas; a 6-year-old boy who drowned last August; a 16-year-old boy who died of a drug overdose on New Year’s Day. In all of these cases and dozens more over the past year and a half, children with both open and closed cases with the Department of Children a nd Families died tragically — from suicide, homicide, accidents or medical issues. There were 28 such cases in all from January 2025 through May of 2026. The cases, as well as data detailing excessive caseloads among a large share of DCF workers, add dimension to an emerging portrait of an agency struggling to meet the needs of the state’s most vulnerable children, resulting at times in the worst possible outcomes. Though it’s not clear that DCF acted negligently in these cases, the deaths highlight known staffing issues and substantiated data on declining casework quality. These revelations, first reported by CT Insider, have rattled child advocates in the state and heightened fears about declining quality at the agency in the four years since the end of federal monitoring that resulted from a lawsuit and subsequent consent decree. That monitoring began as the result of a 1989 lawsuit known as Juan F., named after the anonymous 10-year-old boy who was the lawsuit’s lead plaintiff in a case that documented the state’s failure to protect children in its care. That case resulted in years of reform at the department and decades of federal oversight. Since federal oversight ended in 2022, lawmakers and advocates have grown increasingly concerned about the erosion of services at DCF. In a statement issued Thursday, DCF Commissioner Susan Hamilton said that the agency is committed to improvement and the safety of children. “We can, and must, learn from our case practice and refocus on strengthening critical decision-making, improving consistency in safety assessment, deepening supervisory oversight and reinforcing a culture of transparency and continuous quality improvement across the agency,” she wrote in part. Some of the cases in the data set — such as the death of 12-year-old Eve Rogers — have made headlines due to the role of DCF and homeschooling in the cases. But dozens of others — such as the 16-year-old boy who died of an accidental overdose after DCF had received 62 reports about his guardians, and a 14-year-old girl who died in a car accident with a parent who was driving while intoxicated after being reported eight times to the department — were invisible to the public. The data set also includes children who experienced a “life threatening condition” but survived, like a 1-year-old who nearly drowned and a 4-year-old who ingested an unknown amount of THC gummies. Child Advocate Christina Ghio, who is the watchdog of the agency, said that while it would take another lawsuit to return to federal monitoring, there’s no reason DCF has to wait to increase transparency and diligence in the way it reviews cases. “Having ongoing regular independent oversight is absolutely necessary,” she said. Ghio published a rare public letter in April to draw attention to the declining quality of DCF casework. The letter was spurred by the apparent suicide of a teen who died within an hour of asking to be moved into foster care. In that case, according to the letter, “DCF made a decision to leave the child with the parent, indicating that coming into care was not an option.” Ghio said she published the letter because she could not allow the child’s death to go unnoticed. The data released by DCF this week shows that there are many other child deaths that have escaped public view over the last year and a half. Ghio’s letter detailed alarming declines in the quality of casework at the agency, including a decline in how often child welfare workers make home visits, supervision of workers and how quickly work on a case begins. On Wednesday, Committee on Children co-chair Rep. Corey Paris, D-Stamford, who passed a sweeping bill this session aimed at reforming the agency and providing more oversight, called the conditions at DCF a “grossly unfortunate reality.” Paris said that he’s been dismayed to see a tepid response from DCF in light of such tragedies, many of which he said were preventable. “The institutional response as it appears to the public, my fellow legislators and to me, is a rather nonchalant,” Paris said in an interview. “It’s never the agency’s fault. There’s always some external circumstance to contribute to these fatalities. But the buck must stop somewhere.” Ghio was more measured in the response she sent to questions from The Connecticut Mirror. “Fatality data alone is not sufficient to understand the quality of DCF’s work. The absence of a fatality is not necessarily an indicator of good case practice,” she said. “As we discussed in our April 30 letter, the state must monitor the foundational aspects of case practice — visits, collateral contacts, and supervision. The data shared in our letter showed serious concerns and a significant lack of adherence to policy in those foundational aspects of case practice. The public and policy makers need that information on an ongoing basis to understand whether that foundational work — visits, collateral contacts and supervision — is happening with the quantity and quality required by DCF policy.” DCF is also experiencing a workforce recruitment and retention crisis. Up to half of workers leaving the agency within the first two years, and workers who remain are working extraordinary amounts of overtime. About 50 workers made about half of their salaries in overtime, with one social worker earning $125,775 in overtime — more than doubling her salary. Two other workers crossed this milestone, earning more than 100% of their regular salaries in overtime. Almost all DCF social workers and their supervisors — 96% — earned overtime in 2024 and 2025. The data released by DCF this week also reveals that caseloads in many cases far exceed DCF’s guidelines, as high as triple the recommended caseload in one instance (a DCF spokesman said that intake worker likely had a high caseload because they receive new cases and then quickly pass them along). Workers in the Hartford, New Britain and Waterbury offices were especially strained. That issue — of overburdened employees struggling to keep up under punishing workloads — ties back into what Paris sees as the agency’s core struggle: recruitment and retention. “They are not doing a good enough job with recruiting people, they’re not showing people they can trust this agency to ensure they have their backs in an honorable and genuine fashion and also keep and maintain their own mental health and emotional state. We’re not retaining folks,” he said. When workers burn out, Paris added, it puts children at risk. Cathryn Vaulman, a spokesperson for Gov. Ned Lamont, said on Thursday that the responsibility of DCF’s social workers is “profound” and said he stands by Commissioner Hamilton. “The Governor commends the agency’s devoted staff, who show up for these kids and their families every single day — often under immense strain. He recognizes that current caseload statistics underscore the urgent need to strengthen recruitment pipelines and improve staff retention, and he has emphasized in-person casework, greater mentorship and ensuring the state’s social workers feel appreciated and supported as essential steps,” the statement reads. “The death of any child is a tragedy. When DCF has had prior contact with a family, a thorough investigation is owed to that child, and its findings must be disclosed transparently.” In a statement, Hamilton also affirmed the department’s commitments: “Every policy decision, placement strategy, and operational improvement should ultimately support safer outcomes for children. Our goal is earlier identification of needs, stronger prevention efforts and enhancements to our continuous quality improvement processes. Our own internal review of fatality and other statewide data and quality assurance information confirm the need to enhance and elevate our safety practice to ensure accountability to our mission of protecting children and strengthening families,” she wrote as part of a lengthy statement. ...read more read less