FWSN-advisorybd-repo.. - The Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance

and their families and provided by CSSD and DCF. Among the candidates for CSSD’s
IICAPS programs are court-involved children with diagnoses that reflect severe
emotional or behavioral impairment and for whom more traditional outpatient approaches
have not been, or are not likely to be, successful. Also appropriate recipients of IICAPS
services are children for whom psychiatric hospitalization is otherwise likely, and those
who are discharging from psychiatric or secure confinement and need outpatient
psychiatric treatment to successfully return to, and remain in, the community. These
children require support as they re-integrate into their communities or await placement in
another treatment facility.
The model creates a working partnership between the child, the family and the treatment
team, through assessment, facilitating timely access to psychological and psychiatric
evaluation, development and implementation of a comprehensive treatment plan, and
providing time limited family, individual and couples psychotherapy, and crisis response
24 hours/7 days per week. Services include school consultation, parent guidance and
training in behavioral management techniques, clinically informed case management and
case coordination, multi-systems collaboration and coordination, and vocational services.
E. FWSN Judicial Process
There are instances when a family is referred to community services or a Family Support
Center and the program determines that the family can no longer benefit from its
services. When this occurs, the juvenile probation officer may, after consultation with the
Juvenile Probation Supervisor, file a petition and begin the court process.
The family is summoned to appear in court. The child, accompanied by a parent or
guardian, will initially appear at a plea hearing and admit or deny the allegation that s/he
is a child from a family with service needs. If the child agrees to admit the allegations, or
if, after a hearing, the court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the facts alleged
in the FWSN petition are true, the child is adjudicated as a child from a FWSN. If the
facts alleged are not proven, the case is dismissed. Prior to adjudication, if appropriate,
the court may divert the case for up to six months, with the option for the court to allow
an additional three month extension, to allow the family to be referred to communitybased
services. If the child’s and family’s issues are satisfactorily resolved, the petition
may be dismissed and erased. 16
In certain instances, the court may vest temporary custody of a child in a suitable person
or agency, usually DCF, if the court finds that the child may harm him/herself or run
away, or the child needs to be held for another jurisdiction under the “Interstate Compact
on Juveniles.” 17
16 When a petition is erased, the effect is as if the case never was filed with the court. There is no automatic
erasure.
17 The “Interstate Compact on Juveniles” incorporated by reference into the Connecticut General Statutes
(§46b-151h) legally joins all jurisdictions and makes each state responsible for the proper supervision or
return of juveniles, delinquents and status offenders who are on probation or parole and who have
absconded, escaped or run away from supervision and control and have endangered their own safety and
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