BEAR, J.
The respondent mother appeals from the judgments of the trial court adjudicating two of her children neglected and ordering a six month period of protective supervision.
The following facts and procedural history are relevant to our disposition of this appeal. The respondent's minor children, Alba and Guadalupe, were adjudicated neglected in 2008 upon the respondent's nolo contendere plea. Pursuant to the 2008 adjudications, a period of protective supervision was ordered. The respondent did not appeal from the adjudications of neglect or the dispositional orders. In September 2009, the period of protective supervision expired.
On September 1, 2010, the department of children and families (department) opened an investigation after a school administrator reported that Alba, who at the time of the report was thirteen years old, was pregnant. On November 8, 2010, the petitioner, the commissioner of children and families, filed a petition for an adjudication of neglect with respect to both children, alleging that they had been denied proper care and attention, were living under conditions injurious to their wellbeing, had been abused and suffered
On June 8, 2011, the court adjudicated Alba and Guadalupe as neglected based on its finding, pursuant to § 46b-120 (8), that they were denied proper care and attention. The court also entered an order of protective supervision for a period of six months. This appeal followed.
On December 28, 2011, while this appeal was pending, the period of protective supervision expired. Thereafter, the petitioner filed a motion to dismiss the appeal on the ground that the appeal was moot. On January 11, 2012, this court denied the motion "without prejudice to the [petitioner] briefing the mootness claim in [a] brief in addition to the merits of the appeal."
Mootness is an exception to the general rule that jurisdiction, once acquired, is not lost by the occurrence of subsequent events. See In re Shonna K., 77 Conn.App. 246, 258, 822 A.2d 1009 (2003). Because mootness goes to the power of this court to entertain an appeal, we address the issue as a threshold matter. See Kennedy v. Kennedy, 109 Conn.App. 591, 598-99, 952 A.2d 115 (2008).
The respondent concedes that the period of protective supervision of the children by the department has expired, and, as a result, no practical relief could flow from reversal of the court's dispositional imposition of protective supervision. Nonetheless, she argues that review is proper under either of two exceptions to the mootness doctrine: collateral consequences and the capable of repetition yet evading review doctrine. The petitioner argues that the expiration of the period of protective supervision renders this appeal moot and that the exceptions do not apply. We agree with the petitioner.
We first address the respondent's claim that her appeal is saved by the collateral consequences exception. "[D]espite developments during the pendency of an appeal that would otherwise render a claim moot, the court may retain jurisdiction when a litigant shows that there is a reasonable possibility that prejudicial collateral consequences will occur." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Williams v. Ragaglia, 261 Conn. 219, 226, 802 A.2d 778 (2002).
The respondent argues that her family's history with the department makes it reasonably foreseeable that it will come under the department's scrutiny in the future. She argues that if any future involvement does occur, the department or the court "will undoubtedly consider any prior substantiations and adjudications."
Our Supreme Court has considered the relevance of past interaction with the department when determining the reasonable possibility of future interaction with the department resulting in collateral consequences to a litigant. Williams v. Ragaglia, supra, 261 Conn. at 228-29, 802 A.2d 778 (foster caregiver's likelihood of future involvement with department based on previously accepting care of foster children).
The respondent argues that the present adjudications may form the basis of a subsequent coterminous petition
General Statutes § 17a-112 (j)(3)(B)(i) provides that a court may terminate the parental rights to a child that "has been found by the Superior Court or the Probate Court to have been neglected or uncared for in a prior proceeding. . . ."
The respondent concedes that the 2008 adjudications can serve as the basis for a termination proceeding alleging her failure to achieve sufficient personal rehabilitation under § 17a-112 (j)(3)(B)(i). Accordingly, review of the present adjudications would provide the respondent with no practical relief from this claimed collateral consequence; Alba and Guadalupe still would be exposed to a subsequent termination of parental rights proceeding predicated on the 2008 adjudications. Whether the court would rely on the more recent adjudications or whether the present adjudications would have significant impact on a subsequent proceeding requires us to speculate as to what weight, if any, a court would assign to the present adjudications. Here, unlike Williams, the respondent did not have a "clean" record with the department prior to the adjudications of neglect that are the subject of this appeal. See Williams v. Ragaglia, supra, 261 Conn. at 225, 802 A.2d 778. Thus, even if we were to review and to reverse the present adjudications, neither the status of the respondent nor her children with the department would change. The children will have been adjudicated neglected by virtue of the 2008 adjudications, and the respondent will remain the parent of children previously found to have been neglected. Thus, because of the 2008 neglect adjudications, which were not appealed, our review and reversal of the present neglect adjudications could not provide the practical relief of removing the respondent's children from the ambit of § 17a-112 (j)(3)(B)(i).
Moreover, we are aware of no authority preventing the department or a court from considering the evidence underlying the present neglect adjudications in a subsequent termination or predictive neglect proceeding, regardless of whether the adjudications themselves stand.
The respondent also argues that she will be unable to challenge the department's 2008 and 2010 neglect substantiations and her listing on the central registry
Initially, we note that the parties have provided no indication that the respondent's ability to challenge her placement on the central registry through the administrative process described in General Statutes § 17a-101k and, thereafter, the court appeals process, would be foreclosed by dismissal of the present appeal.
Likewise, we are not persuaded by the respondent's argument that dismissal of the present matter will foreclose her ability to challenge the substantiations administratively. The respondent contends that, under the department's policy, a failure to overturn the court's adjudications of neglect will result in the denial of her administrative hearings as a matter of course. The respondent points to § 17a-101k-4 (d) of the Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies and the department's policy manual in support of her argument.
We next turn to the respondent's claim that the present appeal falls within the capable of repetition yet evading review exception to the mootness doctrine. The respondent challenges the court's adjudications of neglect and argues that there is a reasonable likelihood that the question presented in this case will arise again in the future, both for the respondent and for similarly situated parents. She further contends that the "substantial majority of
"[A]n otherwise moot question may qualify for review under the capable of repetition, yet evading review exception. To do so, however, it must meet three requirements. First, the challenged action, or the effect of the challenged action, by its very nature must be of a limited duration so that there is a strong likelihood that the substantial majority of cases raising a question about its validity will become moot before appellate litigation can be concluded. Second, there must be a reasonable likelihood that the question presented in the pending case will arise again in the future, and that it will affect either the same complaining party or a reasonably identifiable group for whom that party can be said to act as surrogate. Third, the question must have some public importance. Unless all three requirements are met, the appeal must be dismissed as moot." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) In re Forrest B., 109 Conn.App. 772, 775-76, 953 A.2d 887 (2008).
The respondent states that "[i]n this case, the challenged action is the Court's adjudication of neglect based solely on the prior substantiation and the child's recent pregnancy." Aside from her conclusory assertion that a majority of similar cases would become moot because a minimal period of protective supervision would be ordered in those cases, the respondent has failed to offer any authority that suggests that a substantial majority of such cases will be disposed of with only minimal periods of supervision imposed, instead of an order of commitment of the child to the commissioner pursuant to General Statutes § 46b-129 (j), or that such cases "are, by their very nature, of such a limited duration that there is a strong likelihood that they will become moot before appellate litigation can be concluded. See Drabik v. East Lyme, 97 Conn.App. 142, 146, 902 A.2d 727 (2006)." In re Forrest B., supra, 109 Conn.App. at 776, 953 A.2d 887. Accordingly, we reject her claim that the present matter is capable of repetition yet evading review under the first criterion of that exception.
The appeal is dismissed.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.