A strongly worded memo raised new questions about how much work Department of Children and Families (DCF) staff were doing from home, and whether that level of teleworking was hurting child protection. 

Telework expanded during the pandemic and later became part of the state’s labor agreement, allowing some DCF employees to work remotely up to 80% of the week.

While social workers continued to handle court appearances, home visits, and foster placements in person, they were allowed to start and end most workdays at home. Staff must reapply for telework permission every six months and face losing that privilege if performance slips. 

Concerns over the workflow quickly followed. The state’s Office of the Child Advocate (OCA) warned that extensive teleworking could be undermining case practice and supervision inside an agency already struggling with high turnover and many inexperienced workers.

In a critical letter sent Thursday, the Child Advocate suggested that telework should be limited unless workers met specific, data‑driven performance standards, citing the loss of in‑office collaboration, supervision, and real‑time support. 

NBC Connecticut Investigates also spoke exclusively with a longtime former DCF employee who remained in the child welfare field. That former worker said telework simply did not function on multiple levels at DCF, describing widespread belief among current staff and those in the judicial system that bringing people back into the office was a necessary step toward restoring the agency. 

Lawmakers from both parties echoed those concerns. House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora (R) said staff working remotely were missing daily interaction, training, and support, instead operating in silos. House Speaker Matt Ritter(D) said the newly formed oversight committee was expected to examine the policy. 

Those warnings were backed up by troubling findings. According to the OCA’s report, a review of in‑home cases in 2024 and 2025 found face‑to‑face interactions did not happen in about 40% of cases—something the OCA called alarming and in need of urgent attention. 

As scrutiny over DCF intensified, teleworking became the latest flashpoint in a broader debate over accountability, supervision, and whether the systems meant to protect vulnerable children were being stretched too thin.

May is almost here, bringing with it warmer weather, bright spring blooms and of course, Mother’s Day, this year falling on Sunday, May 10.

Looking for an activity to celebrate the women in your life outside of the house? Luckily, Connecticut has plenty of fun Mother’s Day events that mom, aunt or grandma would enjoy, all the way from a casual day of shopping at the farmers market to an elgant brunch inside a castle.

Here are eight of Connecticut’s best Mother’s Day activities to check out with mom this year.

Cruise the Connecticut River

For moms who would love a day on the water, the Connecticut River Museum hosts special Mother’s Day cruises on RiverQuest, a tour boat that explores the river’s ecology and wildlife.

On May 10, RiverQuest will offer hour-long cruises at 10 a.m., noon and 2 p.m. Tickets are $10 for mom and one child, $15 for children under 12 or $20 for other adults.

Visit a vineyard

Does mom love a good glass of wine? Treat her to an afternoon at a vineyard. On Sunday, May 10, Stonington Vineyards will host a Mother’s Day celebration full of wine, sandwiches and sweet treats, shopping from local vendors and live music. Plus, create a custom bouquet with or for mom at the onsite Bloom Bar.

Stonington’s Mother’s Day event is free to attend, with no registration required. The vineyard is located at 523 Taugwonk Road in Stonington.

Go flower picking

If mom is a fan of flowers, take her to Wicked Tulips, a flower farm with the biggest you-pick-tulip event in New England, complete with over 1.5 million blooming tulips of various colors and 75 varieties.

Admission, which includes 10 tulips, costs $5.50 for children, $24.95 for adults on weekdays or $29.95 for adults on weekends. Additional tulips can be purchased for $1.50 per stem. Online tickets for Wicked Tulips must be reserved for a specific date and time, though guests can stay as long as they want after entering. Tickets are also sold at the door, but entry is more expensive and not guaranteed.

Connecticut lawmakers on Wednesday approved more reforms aimed at reining in towing companies in the state, following reporting by The Connecticut Mirror and ProPublica that exposed problems in state law.

The Connecticut Senate passed a bill that would create an online portal so Connecticut drivers can track their towed cars and require towing companies to consider the age of towed vehicles before they’re sold.

Last year, the legislature overhauled the state’s towing laws to end a practice in which towing companies could start the process to sell people’s cars in as little as 15 days if the firm deemed the car to be worth less than $1,500. The window was one of the shortest in the country, CT Mirror and ProPublica found, and meant many people who couldn’t afford to quickly pay the towing fees lost their cars.

The 2025 reform law required 30 days to pass before cars could be sold, and it ordered towing companies to accept credit cards, let people retrieve their belongings from towed cars, and warn owners before towing cars from private property over minor issues.

But CT Mirror and ProPublica continued to hear from residents who said they never received notice that their cars would be sold because their address on file was outdated or because their vehicle was still registered to someone else. The news organizations also performed an analysis that found that many towing companies valued vehicles much lower than their estimated retail values, allowing them to sell the vehicles more quickly.

The Connecticut Senate sought to fix both those issues with the latest bill, in part with the creation of the portal. The legislation, Senate Bill 413, would put new limits on which cars can be sold quickly: Towing companies could only sell vehicles after 30 days if they are at least 15 years old.

The new bill breezed through the Senate, 35-1. The House is expected to vote on it in the next few days.

“There are bad actors,” said Transportation Committee Co-Chair Sen. Christine Cohen, D-Guilford. “We have read about it in the press. It’s what prompted us to take action and really kind of take a look at our towing statutes on the whole.”

She said that legislators wanted to find language that strikes “that necessary balance between protecting consumers from predatory behavior but also supporting the many reputable small businesses that provide these essential services to our communities.”

The bill received bipartisan support. Committee ranking member Sen. Tony Hwang, R-Fairfield, urged members to support the measure. He said it builds on last year’s work, which he called “remarkable landmark legislation.”

The measures came partly from a working group created by last year’s towing reform law that spent the past several months studying towing policy and making recommendations.

The working group, composed of towing companies, consumer rights advocates and Department of Motor Vehicles officials, struggled to come to a consensus on policy changes. DMV Commissioner Tony Guerrera, who chaired the working group, ultimately issued recommendations that didn’t have support from everyone on the panel.

The new bill would create an advisory council to keep studying towing policies and how owners get their vehicles back. The council would also monitor the portal, which would be set up by the state DMV and allow owners to see where their vehicles have been towed and whether they are up for sale.

The bill also addressed towing fees. Towing companies have frequently complained that the fees they are allowed to charge are too low. The bill says fee rates should be set every three years and that those changes must be based on government measures of inflation.

Guerrera said the portal will make his agency more transparent and will help consumers find their vehicles more quickly.

“You have to be accountable and take things head-on,” Guerrera said. “This portal that we will get running as soon as possible will allow someone to go online and — even without all their information — find where their car is.”

But consumer advocate Raphael Podolsky, who served on the working group, said the portal will mostly help towing companies do away with paperwork and make the system easier for the DMV to monitor. He warned that some drivers might not be able to access the system.

“First of all, everybody doesn’t have a computer, and second of all, everybody who does have a computer would not know to go to a DMV portal, and third, not everybody has internet access, even if they have a computer,” Podolsky said.

Sal Sena, president of the industry association Towing & Recovery Professionals of Connecticut, said he thinks the portal will “make it easier for everyone” and that the state is “on the right track.”