Waterford — The Department of Children and Families will try to reunify the children and New London parents at the center of the "Baby Dylan" case, a department lawyer said Tuesday.

DCF representatives met Tuesday in Juvenile Court with lawyers for the parents and the five children involved in the case. The family's case drew public attention last year after Kirsten Fauquet and John Stratzman's son, who is now almost 3 years old, nearly died of starvation in an unlicensed foster home in November 2015.

DCF removed four of Fauquet's children due to allegations of neglect on June, 12, 2015. The department also later took custody of a fifth child, born on June 8, 2016, shortly after Fauquet gave birth.

DCF cannot terminate parental rights unless it can prove it has made "reasonable efforts" to reunify the family. Chris Aker, the assistant attorney general representing DCF, told Juvenile Judge Michael Mack that the department is pursuing a "concurrent plan" for the children, which means that while DCF will makes efforts to reunify the children with their parents, it still may pursue termination of parental rights if is deems the family cannot be reunited.

Lisa Vincent, Fauquet's lawyer, said she will oppose terminating parental rights and said she will show that DCF has not made "reasonable efforts" to reunite the family.

Aker argued that visits between the parents and children should be reduced from twice weekly to once weekly for two hours. Visits are difficult for the children emotionally, he said. For the last month, DCF has been scheduling the children to see their parents once a week rather than twice a week.

Priscilla Hammond, the lawyer representing the boy who was injured in DCF custody, asked that visits be suspended. The child has asthma and seizures and must endure long car rides to visit his parents at the DCF office in Willimantic, she said.

"This child has been in foster care for almost two years," she said. "He is really confused about who he belongs to."

But lawyers for the parents said the visitation arrangement, not the visits themselves, is the problem.

Vincent said Fauquet agrees the visits are hard on her son, doesn't want him on long car rides and wants the visitation arrangement changed. But the solution isn't to reduce or end the mother's visits, but to set them up in a way that's best for the children, Vincent said.

Making five children spend an hour in the car to visit their parents for two hours in a small DCF room doesn't create an environment for parenting, Vincent said. DCF also reduced the visits to once a week despite a court order for twice-weekly visits, she said.

Lori Hellum, attorney for Stratzman, agreed; reducing visits to once a week denies the parents an opportunity to show that they can be parents to their children, she said. The parents are willing to meet the children at any time and place the court deems acceptable, Hellum said.

Ryan Ziolkowski, the lawyer who represents four of Fauquet's children, said the children already are seeing the parents once a week so it should remain that way. But he said the car rides are not helpful to the kids.

Ziolkowski said he's not aware of the children having any problems with their visits with their parents, however. He said he could see how there would be some chaos when two parents are trying to manage five children.

d.straszheim@theday.com