About 20 kids fall from windows in CT each year, data shows. How advocates say it can be avoided

CT Insider – Thursday, June 5, 2025
By Lisa Backus

An average of 20 children under the age of 12 fall from windows in Connecticut each year, a number that could be reduced with better housing laws and more education for caregivers, advocates say.

An average of 20 children under the age of 12 fall from windows in Connecticut each year, a number that could be reduced with better housing laws and more education for caregivers, advocates say.

In recent years, the only child in Connecticut who has died as a result of a fall from a window was 2-year-old Corneliuz Williams, who fell out of his family’s third-floor apartment in Hartford in July 2023. He was home with four siblings, all under the age of 12, when the incident happened, Hartford police said.

His mother, Tabitha Frank, who was not home, has been charged with manslaughter in his death and with several counts of risk of injury to a minor. Court records indicate she has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Over the last week in the state, a 4-year-old fell out of a third-story window in Hartford and a 12-year-old fell off of a four-story balcony in Bridgeport, police said. Hartford police are investigating the incident in their city. The child wasn’t seriously injured, police said. Bridgeport police confirmed the 12-year-old went to the hospital but said detectives are not investigating.

While Williams’ case is unusual because of the death and the charges, it’s not uncommon for children of color living in urban or high density areas to face housing hazards that could lead to a fall, Eagan said.

“Who falls out of windows?” Eagan said. “Little kids under the age of 5 when it’s really hot out.”

According to data provided to the Injury Prevention Center, about 20 children statewide annually are brought to an emergency department after a fall from a window. That may not capture the entire number of incidents because the data is based on hospital visits coded as a fall from a window, according to Kevin Borrup, executive director of the Injury Prevention Center with Connecticut Children’s Medical Center.

It also doesn’t include situations where a child falls from a window but is not seriously injured or taken to a hospital, he and the state Office of the Child Advocate said.

The Injury Prevention Center receives the fall data from the Connecticut Hospital Association based on information that hospitals are required to report. The Office of the Child Advocate also receives a limited amount of data regarding child falls from windows based on state Department of Children and Families’ critical incident reports, according to Assistant Child Advocate Brendan Burke.

The data, which is required by law to be reported to OCA, is based on child falls from a window where there is a suspicion of abuse or neglect that is being investigated by DCF. According to the OCA data, from May 2023 to May 2025, 16 children fell from windows, including the 2-year-old Williams, who was the only child to die during the period.

So far in 2025, there have been four critical incidents involving children falling from windows, and that only represents half of a year, Burke said. In 2023 and 2024, there were six falls for the entire year for each year, he said.

“That’s a bit concerning because normally it starts in May but this year the falls started happening in February, Burke said.

The bulk of those 16 children — 13 — were under the age of 5, Burke said, adding that 94% were male and 94% were children of color.

The OCA is notified of a critical incident fall usually after a child has been brought to the hospital with injuries and an emergency department physician suspects neglect or abuse and contacts DCF, said acting Child Advocate Christina Ghio.

The case gets reported to the OCA after DCF agrees to accept the case for investigation, said Ghio, who pointed out that the data her office receives is a subset of the actual number of children falling from windows.

The problem seems to be particularly acute in urban areas where families are living in low income housing that may not be well maintained, said Sarah Mervine, the Director of the Yale New Haven Medical Legal Partnership for the Connecticut Center for Child Advocacy.

Mervine acts a liaison between the Yale New Haven health system and the center fielding and addressing complaints about housing and other issues that impact children.

One problem is that rental units in multi-family homes may not have air conditioning, and the only way to cool off is to keep windows open that often don’t have screens or other protective devices such as window guards or stops, Mervine said.

“Almost nobody has air conditioning,” she said. “It’s hot and you have to open the windows but a lot of times there are no screens.”

And as Borrup pointed out, screens are designed to keep bugs out, not to keep children in.

The other issue that drives falls from windows is active children who can be difficult to supervise every minute in a warm environment that requires the windows to be kept open, Borrup and Eagan said. Children with disabilities are also at risk for falls out of windows, they said.

Parents should make sure that there are no objects such as beds, couches or chairs that can be climbed on to access windows and children shouldn’t be allowed to sit on windowsills, Borrup said.

Window stops that can be easily installed prevent windows from opening wider than four inches, which helps prevent a child from crawling out, Borrup said. Window guards, which are basically bars placed on windows, are more expensive but also work to prevent child falls, he said.

People can also open windows from the top so that a child can’t easily access the open screen, Borrup added.

While those measures provide some relatively easy fixes, there are times when landlords aren’t cooperative when windows may need repair, Mervine said.

“The penalties are so low for landlords who receive a window violation that they often say, ‘Should I fix the window or just take the slap on the wrist?'” Mervine said.

In addition to requiring stiffer penalties for landlords who don’t address window problems, there are other policy changes lawmakers could make that would help prevent falls, experts say.

Just as there are laws requiring landlords to provide heat in the winter, the state should consider implementing laws requiring landlords to provide cooling, Eagan said. “There is a lack of regulation around livable temperatures in the warmer months,” Eagan said. “That and broken windows with no remediation, these are all problems that affect poor children exclusively.”

Access this article at its original source.