At CT DCF, staff turnover is high. The costs can be devastating.

"“We didn't get a goodbye. We made relationships with these workers and at the next pickup we'd find out we had another worker,” she said. Carew, now 29, remembers thinking, “'Wow, there's just another adult in my life who doesn't care.'”"

"Much was uncertain in Rylee Carew's childhood. She was removed from her biological mother's care at age 2 and, after cycling through foster homes, said she was adopted in first grade. At age 16, she entered foster care yet again - removed from her adoptive family by the Department of Children and Families. She became pregnant at 17 and remained in foster care until adulthood."

"The problem is neither small nor easily solved. DCF has lost as many social workers as it has gained over the past five years, according to department data, and nearly half leave within their first two years at the agency."

Rylee Carew experienced repeated removals and foster placements, including removal from an adoptive family at 16 and remaining in foster care after becoming pregnant at 17. She still remembers a caseworker who used her own money to buy clothes and took her to Taco Bell during pregnancy, then disappeared without warning. Other foster children described similar whiplash when relationships with workers ended and new workers appeared at pickups. Department of Children and Families staff turnover has been linked to agency troubles, with department data showing losses of social workers comparable to gains over five years and nearly half leaving within two years. Accountability efforts around child deaths have repeatedly raised turnover as a contributing factor.

Read at CT Mirror