Connecticut law sets caregiver grants and child welfare safety checks

The Department of Children and Families must make emergency placements with relatives or family friends when the placement serves the child’s best interests. A relative or fictive kin caregiver is covered. Fictive kin is someone age 21 or older who is not related by birth, adoption, or marriage but has a family-like relationship with the child or the child’s family. The department must first conduct a satisfactory home visit and basic family assessment, and check criminal history and child abuse records. The caregiver must seek a foster care license or approval from a licensed child-placing agency. Safety rules cannot be waived. The emergency placement rules take effect October 1, 2026.

The Department of Children and Families must establish grants for caregivers’ child-related costs and for some young people’s education. The child care grants cover department-placed children in the care of relatives, fictive kin caregivers, or other caregivers defined by state law. Education grants cover approved college, trade, or vocational programs for the eligible young people described above. Caregivers accepting emergency placements may receive grants for clothing, food, safety-related purchases, and other necessities, up to $625. They must report spending and repay money used outside the department’s guidelines. Caregivers may apply for grants covering some or all of child care and after-school costs. The department must set eligibility and payment rules; no more than half of the funds may go to either type of cost. Caregivers eligible for foster care or guardianship payments who have not yet received one get priority. Education grants are for people adopted through the department’s foster care program on or after January 1, 2005, and before age 18, or people who agree to remain in state care after turning 18. Participants must apply each year for federal student aid and suitable scholarships and grants. The commissioner may let someone enrolled before age 21 continue until age 24 or program completion, whichever comes first. The basic-needs and child care grant programs take effect July 1, 2026. The department must set rules for them by January 1, 2027, and must establish the education grant program by that date.

The Department of Children and Families must provide staff training and social worker mentoring programs. The training requirements apply to Department of Children and Families employees. The internship is for students in relevant bachelor’s or master’s degree programs, and mentoring is for newly hired department social workers. Staff training must cover perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, human trafficking, cultural sensitivity, and implicit bias. The department must offer each training at least every six months. Staff must complete the required training by the deadlines in the law; cultural sensitivity and bias training must be repeated at least every two years. The department must create an internship for students in related degree programs and a mentorship program for new social workers. It must pay stipends to interns and mentors who complete their programs; it may pay a stipend to a new social worker who completes mentoring. The programs take effect October 1, 2026. The department must create the internship and mentoring programs by January 1, 2027, and the training programs by January 1, 2028.

The law sets safety follow-up duties for certain children and adds a rule for repeated abuse reports. The travel rule covers children under specified child welfare investigations or services and children living with them. The repeated-report rule covers reports concerning a child, their siblings, or other children in the same home. Parents or guardians of children under specified department investigation, supervision, or services must notify the department at least 48 hours before taking a child out of state for more than 14 consecutive days. They must provide the places the child will sleep and how long the trip will last. If the department learns about such a trip or an extension without notice before the child returns, it must try to contact family for three consecutive days and take steps to check the child’s safety. Some duties depend on whether the child’s location is known. After a third accepted abuse or neglect report within 12 months involving the same child, a sibling, or another child in the same home, the department must investigate. The investigator cannot be someone who investigated an allegation concerning one of those children during the previous 12 months. Seeking or receiving voluntary mental health treatment cannot be the sole basis for department action. This does not prevent action based on harm or risk of harm to a child, or use of treatment information when authorized. These rules take effect October 1, 2026. The required safety follow-up does not apply if the department is not notified until after the child returns.

The law requires public reporting tools, oversight, studies, and safety measures for department services. These requirements involve the Department of Children and Families, other state agencies, the Child Welfare Policy and Oversight Committee, and staff who regularly visit children’s homes. By January 1, 2027, the department must create a public website with a dashboard about its services and performance, public information about its programs and reporting child abuse, and public training materials. A new child welfare oversight committee must review state services and make recommendations. The department and other agencies must also conduct studies and submit reports on child welfare policies and programs. Beginning January 1, 2027, the department must provide emergency communication devices to employees who regularly visit children’s homes and want one. The law also directs the department to establish an urgent crisis center in Stamford for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2027. The website is due by January 1, 2027. The committee must report annually beginning January 1, 2028, and may end its work on or after January 1, 2031. The Stamford urgent crisis center is required for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2027.