U.S. Court To Hear DCF Plea

U.S. Court To Hear DCF Plea
February 9, 2004 By COLIN POITRAS, Courant Staff Writer
State officials looking to renegotiate tens of millions of dollars'
worth of federally ordered improvements to the Department of Children
and Families are getting their day in court.
U.S. District Judge Alan H. Nevas has agreed to listen to the state's
argument that his court-ordered improvements are unfair at a hearing
scheduled for noon Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport.
The hearing has huge significance to the state as the legislature
begins preparing a budget for the coming fiscal year.
The 28-page order Nevas handed down in December compelled the
department to meet 22 specific standards of care for foster children
in order for the agency to remove itself from federal oversight. The
improvements range from reducing workers' caseloads to speeding
adoptions and providing better medical, dental and mental health care.
The agency has until November 2006 to get the job done. The 22
standards Nevas adopted were recommended by federal court monitor D.
Ray Sirry as part of a plan for the agency to avoid federal
receivership and end a 12-year-old federal consent decree.
State officials say some of the standards are unreasonable and
excessive. Office of Policy and Management Secretary Marc Ryan, the
state's budget czar, has said that making such a massive investment of
resources requires full legislative approval and could violate the
state's spending cap. Ryan, Sirry and DCF Commissioner Darlene Dunbar
are managing the department as part of a special task force overseeing
the sweeping changes.
Attorneys representing thousands of abused and neglected children who
rely on the department for foster care have called the state's
arguments frivolous and say they have no basis in law.
The attorneys, who represent the children in the federal class-action
lawsuit that led to the consent decree, say the latest move is another
attempt by the state to avoid its responsibilities.
Under an earlier agreement, the lawyers say, the court-ordered
improvements are supposed to be binding and nonnegotiable.
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