AN ACT CONCERNING REPORTING REQUIREMENTS AND MINOR AND TECHNICAL REVISIONS TO THE GENERAL STATUTES AFFECTING THE DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES

AN ACT CONCERNING REPORTING REQUIREMENTS AND MINOR AND TECHNICAL REVISIONS TO THE GENERAL STATUTES AFFECTING THE DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES

SUMMARY: This act makes various minor changes affecting the Department of Children and Families (DCF). Among other things, it:

1. specifies that DCF must annually report to the Children's Committee, in addition to the governor and General Assembly as already required, on its progress in achieving its strategic plan for meeting the needs of the children and families it serves (§ 1);

2. requires DCF to submit certain reports to the Children's Committee, instead of the Human Services Committee, if it is not already required to do so (§§ 2, 6 & 7); and

3. requires DCF to include information about parent and sibling visitation determinations in a child's case record, rather than in his or her treatment plan as was previously required) (§ 14) (the treatment plan is a component of the case record.

The act also adds the Children's Committee as a recipient of the (1) Behavioral Health Partnership evaluation the DCF, Department of Social Services, and Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) commissioners must annually submit to the Appropriations, Human Services, and Public Health committees; (2) program inventory that DCF, DMHAS, the Department of Correction, and the judicial branch's Court Support Services Division must biennially submit to the Appropriations and Finance Committees; and (3) cost-benefit analysis of state criminal and juvenile justice programs the Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy must annually submit to the Office of Policy and Management, the Office of Fiscal Analysis, and the Appropriations and Finance Committees (§§ 5 & 8).

Finally, the act makes numerous technical changes, including updating an obsolete federal law reference and making numerous masculine pronoun references gender neutral (§§ 3, 4, 9-13 & 15-36).

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage for the reporting requirements and some technical changes (§§ 1-13); July 1, 2016 for the provision on visitation determinations and certain technical changes (§§ 14-16); and October 1, 2016 for the remaining technical changes (§§ 17-36).