Hot Report: Use of Restraints on Children in DCF Group Homes

OLR Report 2011-R- 0366 gives background information on the use of restraints in Department of Children and Families (DCF)-licensed therapeutic group homes and (2) when they were outlawed.

Both the law (CGS §§ 46a-152 to -154) and regulations adopted under CGS § 17a-16 contain requirements governing the use of restraints on children in DCF care and custody. But in practice, DCF applies the more restrictive provisions in CGS § 46a-152. This law was enacted in 1999. To comport with the law, DCF has adopted policy that largely follows the law but that is tailored to its clients and programs.

Since 1999, Connecticut has limited the circumstances in which state schools and certain institutions and facilities may use restraints on the people they care for. Specifically, it prohibits individuals who provide direct care, education, or supervision to a “person at risk” in these settings from using involuntary physical restraints on such people. Persons at risk include children who receive care, education, or supervision in an institution or facility operated by, licensed or authorized to operate by, or operating under a contract with, DCF or other specified agencies or operating under a contract with a local school board.

The law establishes a general exception to this prohibition. It permits restraints as an emergency intervention to prevent immediate or imminent injury to the person at risk or others, provided they are not used for discipline or convenience or as a substitute for a less restrictive alternative. DCF policy mirrors this. (Another exception exists for the Whiting Forensic Division within the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services.)

DCF regulations contain an additional exception, allowing the use of restraints when a possibility exists that a child could run away while being transported from one location to another.

Contracts between DCF and therapeutic group homes contain language that recognizes that there may occasionally be the need for restraints, but encourage the homes to employ other strategies; they do not reference the law. Presumably, when the homes use restraints, this is done according to CGS § 46a-152, et. seq. and agency policy.

For more information, read the full report.