Audit: CT DCF faulted for children suffering sex trafficking victimization, fleeing state care

CT Post – Thursday, June 26, 2025
By Bill Cummings

The Department of Children and Families failed to provide adequate services to six female teenagers who suffered sex trafficking victimization or ended up in the juvenile justice system while in the agency’s care, according to a new state audit.

The six teenagers, who ranged from 14 to 17 years old, collectively ran away from DCF supervised care 341 times over three years, the report said.

Overall, auditors said there were 3,736 episodes in which someone under age 18 ran away from DCF care between the 2021 and 2023 fiscal years, marking an increase of 42 percent, the audit said.

“Running away exposes children to risks such as human trafficking, health issues, substance use, academic struggles and involvement with the criminal justice system,” auditors said in a 40-page examination of DCF’s performance during the audited period.

The audit said most children deemed missing from care were gone for one day or less, most were teenagers, congregate care settings accounted for the most runaway episodes and some children went missing from care multiple times. The runaway episodes involved 606 children, a figure that remained consistent during the years examined.

In responses included with audit, DCF disagreed with the “cause” offered by auditors for the runaway incidents – a failure by DCF to adequately provide care – but said numerous policy changes have been implemented.

“The department agrees that the data depicts an increase in the incidents of children missing from care during the review period but disagrees with the identified ’cause’ referenced,” DCF said.

“While we disagree that there is a direct causal connection between the level of care and children missing from care, the department agrees with the need to continue working with the provider community, including foster and kinship care providers, to ensure that children have timely access to appropriate and the least restrictive placement settings consistent with their individual needs and circumstances,” the agency said.

A DCF spokesman declined additional comment beyond responses within the audit.

State Senators Jason Perillo, R-Shelton and ranking senator on the Committee on Children, and Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield and the senate minority leader, both expressed concern over the audit’s findings.

“These concerning findings warrant DCF management’s immediate attention,” the senators said. “The number and rate of episodes of children in DCF care who are missing has increased. DCF did not develop any formal plans to address children who go missing from care. As the auditors note, ‘running away from foster care placements exposes children to risks such as human trafficking, health issues, substance use, and academic struggles.’ The audit points the way toward corrective measures which can prevent future tragedies involving vulnerable Connecticut children.”

State Rep. Anne Dauphinais, R-Killingly and ranking member on the Committee on Children, called the findings “sobering” and called on committee members to hold the department accountable.

“The findings of the audit offer a sobering snapshot of the immense challenges facing DCF — alongside some deeply troubling failures in both performance and procedure,” Dauphinais said.

“Some of these shortcomings, like those involving the STAR group home, were already known,” Dauphinais said. “But that makes them no less unacceptable. Children in these situations are among the most vulnerable in our state and deserve nothing less than a system that intervenes swiftly and effectively. The commissioner must take these findings seriously and act on the recommendations without delay. We cannot allow this to become another case where auditors return years later with the same findings.”

Auditors said DCF also failed to perform formal assessments of common risk factors of children who go missing from care, including inpatient settings, residential care, group homes, foster care and Short Term, Assessment and Respite (STAR) Homes, which provide a homelike setting.

“DCF did not appear to adequately address the needs of children who habitually went missing from care, including failing to document the reason children went missing from care, failed to offer have sufficient guidance documents for staff when responding to certain aspects of missing from care incidents, including procedures for screening all missing children for sex trafficking,” auditors said.

“DCF should develop detailed operational procedures and a plan with measurable benchmarks and data-driven strategies to reduce missing from care episodes and incidents of human trafficking,” auditors added.

DCF is charged with preventing abuse and neglect of children, which includes providing mental health care, myriad services and overseeing foster care.

Sex trafficking and juvenile justice

Auditors examined DCF’s care of six female teenagers during the audit period and concluded the agency “did not meet the clinical needs” of those teenagers.

The six teenagers either suffered sex trafficking victimization or experienced involvement with the juvenile justice system while in DCF care, auditors said.

“The case records identified concerns from DCF social workers or other service providers that the children’s current level of care could not keep them safe. They also showed that the appropriate level of care was not available,” auditors said.

Still, auditors noted “case records showed a strong commitment and effort by DCF line staff and other service providers to support these children.”

Auditors said the six teenagers could not access appropriate levels of care because of long waitlists, high behavioral acuity and lack of foster homes. The audit noted the teenagers spent time in STAR homes because DCF could not find an appropriate placement.

DCF said four of the teenagers could not access psychiatric residential treatment facilities or treatment centers due “high behavioral acuity.” Auditors added placement options were limited because the children did not meet the criteria for inpatient hospitalization, the highest level of care.

DCF “should assess behavioral health service capacity across all levels of care based on the needs of the children in care,” auditors said. “The department should develop performance measures regarding the adequacy of such care.”

In response, DCF agreed enhancements to the service array “are always helpful” in meeting the ever-changing needs of children and families.

“It’s evident that community resources are currently insufficient when youth present with these complex issues,” DCF said. “The challenge is that our provider network is finding that with the increasingly complex and challenging behavior of youth, they are challenged and sometimes hesitant to assume the risk and liability associated with providing these youth care.”

DCF added: “the department has also continued to invest and enhance evidenced based practices to provide in-home and community-based services for youth with more complex needs, including, but not limited to, Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT), Functional Family Therapy (FFT) and Multisystemic Therapy (MST).”

Children at risk

Auditors said DCF categorizes children missing from care as runaway, abducted or AWOL, which means absent without leave. Children labeled AWOL are absent from their placements, but DCF knows their location or is in communication with them, auditors explained.

Auditors noted 70 percent of the runaways were missing for one day or less, the average episode length was eight days and the longest episode lasted 865 days.

“Children missing from care are at risk of harm and adverse outcomes,” auditors said. “These risks include human trafficking, criminal victimization, untreated illnesses, injuries, substance use, increased mental health acuity, poor academic outcomes, involvement with the juvenile justice system, and weakened connections to supportive adults.”

Auditors said two children were still missing from care “when DCF downloaded the data report” for the 2021 through 2023 fiscal years.

Auditors said the first child’s case was soon closed and the child was AWOL for about a year, adding “DCF knew where the child was living but could not license the home.”

The second child, auditors said, had been missing from care for two years and remained missing as of April 4, 2025.

“DCF does not know where the child is,” auditors said. “The LINK narrative shows DCF continues to search for this child and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) published a missing child poster.”

A DCF spokesman said the child has since been accounted for and is safe.

Auditors also faulted DCF for not fully reviewing missing from care cases.

“By not fully understanding and assessing missing from care cases, the department squanders an opportunity to implement strategies to prevent children from going missing from care,” auditors said. “DCF should assess missing from care episodes to identify common risk factors, evaluate the care environment, and address any systemic issues and develop a plan with measurable benchmarks and data driven strategies to reduce missing from care episodes.”

In response, DCF said it had implemented several policies and procedures to respond to children who are missing from care.

“The department recognizes that further analysis of missing from care episodes may yield findings that are not being addressed by other related initiatives already in progress,” DCF said.

Determine why children go missing

Auditors said DCF did not have procedures for determining and responding to reasons why a child leaves care.

“DCF either did not complete or document efforts to determine why the child went missing from care in 19 out of 53 reviewed episodes (36 percent) in which the child returned to care,” auditors said. “We considered DCF in compliance when the child told DCF why they went missing from care, DCF asked but the child did not respond, or the child’s placement provided a reason.”

Auditors said DCF should amend its policy to require workers to determine and document the factors that contributed to the child being missing from care and create a prevention plan which ensures workers receive and save prevention plans.

In response, DCF agreed that further definition is required “regarding the reassessment plan to locate a child missing from care within 3 hours of the initial call.”

DCF said: “The reassessment includes, but is not limited to, updated and additional action steps to locate the child mutually agreed to by DCF, facility staff, foster parents and any therapeutic foster care (TFC) agency staff.”

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