When Teresa turned 10 years old, she knew the one wish she wanted to make. And it wasn’t for a party at the trampoline park, or new barbies, or a bike. It was something bigger. She said, all I want for my birthday is a family. She didn’t wish for it silently over a cake, blowing out her candles in front of a dozen other young children, in a breathless and sweaty smiling celebration. Teresa said it out loud, sitting quietly with her visitor in a community hospital–a lawyer appointed by the state to advocate for children who are abused and neglected and can’t live at home.
It was over a year since Teresa had lived with any member of her biological family, and many years since she had been removed from her parents because of their inability to take care of her. But instead of finding stability and warmth and protection with a foster or adoptive family, Teresa had shuttled from temporary care to institutions to foster care to hospitals, each move straining her faith and trust to the breaking point, each loss teaching her that adults in her life cannot be trusted to keep her safe and keep their promises.
Because Teresa has permanently packed her few belongings more times than any little child ever should, she is beginning to lose hope. Turning to her attorney, a steady and warm constant, she shares her biggest fear and her biggest wish:
I feel like I will never leave here.
All I want is a family.
There are hundreds of children like Teresa, if not more, who are stuck in state care, living without a family. Children who are entirely dependent on the state for the most basic of human needs: safety, protection, and love. And though Teresa’s lawyer turns over every rock, and makes every call, the answers do not come, and the family is not yet to be found, in no small part because the services to help heal Teresa’s shattered (splintered) faith are not available, and sadly, as many in the child protection and mental health world know, love and willingness alone are not enough.
So what are we going to do about it?
A week ago state lawmakers from two legislative committees heard from auditors and the Department of Children and Families officials about the problem of “runaway” children from state care. And around the legislative table, most participants agreed that there simply aren’t enough services to support these children and keep them safe.
Well.. What are we going to do about that? And yes, it must be asked… who is accountable?
No one wants to “blame” the hardworking people at DCF. I get that, but we shouldn’t confuse being hard on the person with being hard on the system, or ourselves. We need to be. Yes, I think we can assume that individual adults charged with sacred responsibilities of protecting and serving children are doing their best, but we must also bang our fists on the table and demand change.
Who is accountable?
Two years ago a Medicaid study came out that confirmed what we already knew: we badly underfund essential services for people in our state, including children.
Every quarter or so, another state report comes out, that shows more than 1,500 children a year stuck in hospital emergency rooms, waiting for care in the community, with hundreds of those children involved with DCF.
We even looked at foster care this past session, examining the (gross) inadequacy of reimbursement rates for this essential service that have not meaningfully changed in a generation.
And just a few weeks ago this summer, another child welfare audit came out, this time from the federal government, evaluating how well the state meets the safety, permanency, and wellbeing needs of children involved with the child protection system. Connecticut’s performance was largely, and certainly in all areas that matter to Teresa, very poor.
So who is responsible?
Where is the outcry??
DCF is one state actor here. And they have a very important role and must be held accountable, not just for their intentions, but for the outcomes. But responsibility does not lie solely with DCF.
The state collectively is responsible: to design, administer, and invest adequately in a system of care for children and vulnerable people. Services that help keep struggling families together and make them stronger; behavioral health care for children before they are stuck in hospitals and emergency departments; a foster/kin care system well supported to provide homes for children that can’t stay with their families due to abuse and neglect.
To begin to help children like Teresa, we must first lay our truths on the table and prepare to do the work.
Truth: The holes in our safety net have widened and frayed beyond repair, gaping open with the worst human service crisis we have seen in many years, confirmed in study after study, audit after audit.
Truth: Our children pay the price.
Truth: We need to stop trying to stitch together the net and commit to building the foundation that children in this state need, with brick and mortar.
Truth: There must be accountability for our progress.
Is this crisis unsolvable because it is somehow everyone’s responsibility and no one’s? I refuse to believe that. If Teresa can still hold on to hope for a family, I know we can muster the collective will and competencies to do the work that we are morally, ethically, and legally bound to do. We must face our rock bottom truth so that we can build the path forward.
The path that leads Teresa home.
Sarah Healy Eagan, is Executive Director or the Center for Children’s Advocacy.
