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Yahoo
a day ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Oversight hearing probes failure to prevent youth deaths, substance use in R.I. child welfare system
Richard Leclerc, foreground, director of the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals, searches through his slide presentation during a May 21, 2025, House Committee on Oversight hearing. At left is Department of Children Youth and Families Director Ashley Deckert. (Photo by Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current) It's not unusual for a government agency report to anger lawmakers. It's less common a report nearly brings them to tears. This year's child fatality report from the Office of Child Advocate did both at a May 21 meeting of the Rhode Island House Committee on Oversight. 'This, by far, is the worst oversight hearing I've ever had to sit through,' Rep. Julie Casimiro, a North Kingstown Democrat, said at the afternoon meeting, a flat and gray sky visible through the committee room's windows. Casimiro choked up as she addressed Child Advocate Katelyn Medeiros after Medeiros finished giving a presentation on the May 13 report, the first public documentation of child fatalities released in six years. The report, subtitled 'A Review of Seven Fatalities and Twenty-Three Near Fatalities,' details dark and sometimes final chapters in the too-short lives of these young Rhode Islanders from 2019 through 2024. The 30 incidents all involved substances, including a 1-year-old who almost died from taking suboxone that had been left next to candy atop a nightstand. All of the youths had past or present involvement with the Department of Children Youth and Families (DCYF). The report was the first public documentation of child fatalities released in six years. Half of the report's 118 pages are devoted to case-by-case narratives. Infants and toddlers accidentally exposed to substances comprise 14 of the cases, and teenagers who knowingly took drugs made up the remainder. Incidents involving younger children were more likely to occur when living with parents or relatives. The opposite was true for older kids, who often used drugs while in DCYF placements like foster homes or treatment centers, or while on the run from home. The remainder of the report includes 19 pages of discussion plus 56 formal recommendations — some new, some old but unaccomplished, according to the child advocate. The Office of Child Advocate produced the report as part of its statutory responsibility to oversee DCYF. The hearing was attended by DCYF Director Ashley Deckert and Richard Leclerc, director of the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities & Hospitals (BHDDH), which handles substance use prevention for young adults. The week of the hearing marked Deckert's second anniversary on the job; Leclerc assumed his role in March 2024. Medeiros became the permanent child advocate two months later, although she has worked in the office since 2012, with two of those years as interim director. But Committee Chair Patricia Serpa, a West Warwick Democrat, was unconvinced that much has changed even as agency leadership shuffled. 'This is the smallest state in the union,' Serpa said during the hearing. 'And I just don't know why we can't get it together. This isn't California. This isn't Texas. The same things keep happening and happening and happening.' The DCYF budget for fiscal year 2025 was over $399 million. Deckert testified that DCYF currently has 43 vacancies out of 714 budgeted positions. That included 13 openings for child protective services investigators. The agency's collection of social caseworkers is more complete, with only three vacancies out of 213 positions. 'Our staff do this work because they care deeply,' Deckert testified. 'They carry the weight of every case and every outcome, even when the public doesn't see it.' DCYF became the first state child welfare agency in New England to receive accreditation from the nationwide nonprofit Council on Accreditation on Feb. 14. Accreditation guidelines suggest a maximum of 15 cases for one investigator, Deckert said, noting that maximum caseloads in Rhode Island range from 11 to 13. 'This report shows that the vast majority of what is being asked of us is already in process or has been done, and yet these tragedies still happen,' Deckert said. 'Child safety is not the sole responsibility of DCYF, it is the shared responsibility of every system that touches a child.' At the hearing, Casimiro asked Medeiros what she would do with the child welfare agency if she had 'a magic wand.' 'That'd be a big magic wand,' Medeiros began, then went on to describe 'a full continuum of care that can meet all levels of need here in Rhode Island' for children whose wellbeing is entrusted to the state. In 2024, there were over 2,300 children who had some contact with DCYF services, whether foster care, behavioral health referrals, or child protective services. Among the report's guidance is fortifying the state's treatment options for adolescent substance use by forging a stronger connection between DCYF and BHDDH. Medeiros noted that 14 of the 30 incidents occurred in just the last two years, which she credited partially to 'a fractured behavioral health system and a non-existent adolescent SUD [substance use disorder] continuum.' Other mistakes included delays in coordinating care across agencies, the use of residential treatment as a first rather than last resort, and the exclusion of youth from decisions about their own care. Sometimes, DCYF referrals to care providers failed to include diagnostic information or insights into the youth's history, Medeiros said. 'We're seeing a net cast so wide that sometimes the providers that are receiving the referrals are not even specifically addressing, or do not address, the specific needs of that youth,' Medeiros told the House panel. In a phone interview, Medeiros acknowledged structural quirks in how the state handles youth with both substance use and behavioral health needs. Other states may sweep behavioral and substance use treatment for youth under the same umbrella of governance. But years ago, Medeiros said, the state carved out substance use as the sole responsibility to BHDDH, regardless of age group. That means every adolescent in the fatality review had both substance and behavioral issues and needed to access services from two different state agencies — not an ideal model for planning treatment. 'We don't want kids to have to tell their story multiple times,' Medeiros said. Deckert told lawmakers she found the Child Advocate's report timing problematic. 'The decision to release multiple years of reports simultaneously, though rooted in a desire for transparency, does present a significant emotional and practical burden,' Deckert said. She said DCYF has already done much of the work the report suggests. 'It is also troubling that the Office of the Child Advocate made numerous recommendations without first acknowledging that DCYF is already implementing many of them,' Deckert told the Oversight Committee. 'This omission not only misrepresents the current state of our work, but it also undermines the efforts.' DCYF spokesperson Barb Francella confirmed in an email to Rhode Island Current that of the advocate's 56 recommendations, 22 were already underway or completed. Only three recommendations require funding: expanding DCYF's runaway investigations unit, adding a substance use coordinator position and establishing a referral policy for caseworkers whose clients need substance use treatment. Eight recommendations did not apply to the agency, Deckert said at the hearing. This report shows that the vast majority of what is being asked of us is already in process or has been done, and yet these tragedies still happen. – Ashley Deckert, director, Department of Children Youth and Families Francella's email highlighted recent efforts that address some of the report's concerns, including joining a national child safety partnership to improve fatality reviews, launching an interagency collaboration to prevent child fatalities, and expanding its slate of community-based programs by 82% to 62 partners overall. The agency is also prioritizing family-centered care as part of its 2025-2030 strategic plan. Rhode Island Current shared the email reviewing DCYF responses with Casimiro. She replied in a followup phone interview that she was 'happy with most of them' and that her communication with Deckert, which she said began strong, has improved recently. 'I believe she is making changes,' Casimiro said. She later added, 'I think Ashley is doing a great job. I mean, in these responses that you sent me, there was a little bit of fluff.' Casimiro thought Deckert 'needs to push back harder' to accomplish more profound change, but she also acknowledged the intense demands placed on Deckert's role. That was made tangible at the hearing, as Deckert, like Casimiro, had to pause and gather herself as she began to broach the serious topic at hand. The question of why the report took so long to emerge came up during the hearing. Medeiros told the House committee that for nearly two years, from 2022 to 2024, the office only had six people. 'We were kind of frozen in place with hiring,' Medeiros said. 'I was in limbo, serving as both the child advocate and the assistant child advocate.' Also taking place in that timeframe was the office's 2023 investigation and report on abuses and neglect at the now-shuttered St. Mary's Home for Children in North Providence. That report had made Medeiros a protagonist in a January 2024 oversight hearing. The child advocate's office reviews all fatalities and near-fatalities of youth who have or had a DCYF connection. Medeiros said her office is now working on another fatality report with 40 additional cases from 2019 to 2025 under review. 'Wait. Forty more?' Serpa replied. 'Yes, Madam Chair,' Medeiros said. 'That's … unbelievable,' Serpa said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bipartisan call to model child welfare oversight in Maine after New Hampshire
The failings of the Office of Child and Family Services, a division of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, was a key focus of the Legislature last session. (Photo by Getty Images) A bipartisan group of lawmakers wants to change oversight of child welfare in Maine to mirror the approach taken by its neighboring state. Assistant House Majority Leader Lori Gramlich (D-Old Orchard Beach) said she modeled her bill after the New Hampshire Office of the Child Advocate. LD 1893, which has two Republican and seven Democrat cosponsors, would transfer Maine's existing child welfare ombudsman into a new, independent agency with expanding responsibilities to advocate for Maine children. The proposed Office of Child Advocate would have the authority to receive complaints, access information, investigate, make public reports and advise the executive and legislative branches on how best to provide services to the state's youth. 'This bill builds a foundation for meaningful oversight and reform while ensuring children's voices and interests remain at the forefront,' Gramlich told the Legislature's Health and Human Services Committee during a public hearing Friday morning. After renewed scrutiny in recent years, there have been multiple proposals from lawmakers and agency leadership to improve the state's embattled child welfare system. Last year, frontline workers came forward with accounts of onerous workloads that culminated in December with a letter of no confidence in the agency's leadership. The proposed restructuring comes after the committee backed a proposal to update the state's definition of child abuse and neglect that legal experts have argued is easy to conflate with poverty. Christine Alberi, the state's current child welfare ombudsman, supports the bill to transition her position into an Office of Child Advocate because it preserves the work her office is already doing while adding 'necessary functions.' For example, the new office would allow for juvenile justice investigations and access to facilities such as Long Creek Youth Development Center, the South Portland-based youth correctional facility. However, Alberi said that adequate funding would be crucial to the office's success. During the hearing, she said it wasn't clear where those resources would come from, since the ombudsman office has struggled with a lack of funding for staff since 2012. The current child welfare ombudsman program in Maine operates as a nonprofit that assists and investigates complaints against how child protective services cases are handled. It submits an annual report that includes an analysis of case specific reviews and other details about its interaction with the Office of Child and Family Services. Having served as New Hampshire's first child advocate, Moira O'Neill said she believes Maine could have avoided a lawsuit with the U.S. Department of Justice over the state's children's behavioral health services had there been a proactive resource checking on the children in the care of the Department of Corrections. The suit was settled last November. O'Neill, who helped craft the model in New Hampshire before stepping down in 2021, supported Maine adopting that structure. She said Maine's current ombudsman office leaves many children, especially those in the juvenile justice system, without an ally. Republican lawmakers in New Hampshire have expressed interest in cutting the Office of Child Advocate when looking for ways to trim the state budget. Gramlich said the Office of the Attorney General suggested modest amendments to the bill that she is happy to work with the committee to incorporate. The Department of Health and Human Services, which houses the state's child welfare agency, spoke neither for nor against the bill. Director of Government Relations Abby Stivers said the department would like more time to review the proposal, but cautioned that the new framework being proposed likely requires more consideration than the department can give it in the remaining time for this legislative session. Stivers said the authority granted to the child advocate in this legislation could be wide reaching and questioned whether it is necessary given the multiple forms of oversight that already exist for child welfare services. The agency is subject to federal oversight, multiple citizen review panels and was subject to extensive investigative work from the Legislature's Government Oversight Committee last session. However, Sen. Joe Baldacci (D-Penobscot) reintroduced a bill he brought forth last session to create an Office of the Inspector General of Child Protection. 'The problems with the Maine Department of Health and Human Services are going to require far more than cosmetic surgery being suggested by some,' he told the committee when introducing LD 770. An inspector general at the state level would send a 'clear and articulate message' that the accountability and transparency of Maine's child welfare system needs to be substantially changed, Baldacci said. He referenced a 2024 report from the federal watchdog that indicated Maine struggled to comply with best practices in the vast majority of abuse and neglect cases. Under this proposal, the inspector general would be appointed by the governor to serve a five year term, with the potential for reappointment. It would also take on matters related to juvenile justice and have subpoena powers. No one from the public testified on the bill. Bobbi Johnson, director of the Office of Child and Family Services, provided written testimony opposing the legislation. She wrote that it isn't clear what benefit the role would offer to the 'robust and comprehensive oversight of child welfare that already exists.' The proposal last session ultimately died after it was not endorsed by the Health and Human Services Committee. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
House Dems slam GOP over child safety bills
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways Democratic leaders charged Wednesday that their Republican counterparts have pursued a coordinated, deliberate assault on working families that put children at risk. House Democratic Leader Alexis Simpson of Exeter appeared at a press conference with Democratic ranking members who deal with child and family issues to condemn the House GOP agenda. 'The attacks on N.H. families and children in this legislative session have gone way too far,' Simpson said. 'We are still pleading with our Republican colleagues to protect children.' Simpson said the top priorities in her caucus were to convince lawmakers to eliminate proposed copayments under Medicaid for moderate-income families, to reject a 3% cut in the rate paid to Medicaid providers and to restore the Office of Child Advocate slated for elimination under the House-approved budget. House Democrats will ask Thursday to reconsider the House decision last week to kill a bill (SB 23) that would increase from a misdemeanor to a felony certain actions under the state's child endangerment law. The House vote to kill the bill was 190-152. 'These policies are cruel, they are short-sighted, and they put ideology ahead of medicine,' said House Deputy Democratic Leader Laura Telerski of Nashua. Reps. Alicia Gregg, D-Nashua, and Peter Petrigno, D-Milford, criticized a House panel for endorsing a parental rights bill that could prevent some minors from confidentially obtaining birth control without the consent of parents. 'This is not leadership; this is not courage, and it is certainly not protection,' Gregg said. House Majority Leader Jason Osborne, R-Auburn, said it's House Democrats who are out of the mainstream. 'The real threat to New Hampshire families comes from elected Democrats. They've repeatedly tried to hide vital information from parents, push age-inappropriate and pornographic material into public institutions, and now for the second time in one week they will try to make it a felony to take your kids to ski lessons, football practice, or even keep firearms in your own home,' Osborne said. 'Democrats will clearly never stop until they make your children wards of the state.' Other House Republicans said they will watch how Democrats vote Thursday on legislation to increase the prison term for traffickers in people under 18 (SB 262). The Senate-passed bill would lengthen the prison term from a 7- to 30-year range to at least 18 years and up to a life sentence. klandrigan@
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Lujan Grisham signs $10.8 billion state budget, but strikes some CYFD oversight provisions
On a frenzied deadline day for bill signings, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham affixed her signature on the state's $10.8 billion budget Friday — but also wielded her line-item veto power. She targeted in particular reporting requirements tied to the state's child welfare agency and allocations for a new office to oversee it. Lujan Grisham, a Democrat in her second term, struck at least $1.6 million from the budget for an Office of Child Advocate in the New Mexico Department of Justice, a move that comes after she blasted Attorney General Raúl Torrez and the Legislature last month over a proposal to establish the agency to monitor services and field complaints about the long-troubled Children, Youth and Families Department. 'The vetoed language inappropriately interferes with the executive managerial functions and statutory duties of another agency,' the governor wrote in an executive message Friday. The governor signed an amended version of the bill establishing the office March 21, but criticized Torrez and lawmakers over the original proposal, which would have given the office subpoena power and the authority to determine whether CYFD or an employee had violated a child's constitutional rights. She wrote the initial draft was 'a thinly-disguised vendetta,' but that the amended measure would allow the new office to 'begin its operations with integrity.' Other funding for the Office of Child Advocate — at least $950,000 — remained in the budget Lujan Grisham signed for fiscal year 2026. Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, chair of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, pushed back on the governor's analysis, as well as her line-item vetoes related to CYFD. 'The executive [branch] has had seven years to manage CYFD, and it's gotten worse,' Muñoz said. '... Things have to change.' Lujan Grisham also struck clauses in the budget that would have required CYFD to report quarterly to the Legislative Finance Committee the number of vacant case aide positions in each county, along with the number of jobs posted and workers hired and retained. 'The vetoed language is unnecessary because the agency already provides staff recruitment and retention data to the LFC,' Lujan Grisham wrote. Muñoz said some of the data reporting sought in the budget would have given the Legislature insight into potential solutions to persistent issues facing the agency. 'They may provide the data. But OK, how many applicants did we have, right? What are we lacking? What are we missing?' he said. 'When you line-item veto accountability in mental health and CYFD and tax dollars spent, we don't know if we are spending wisely because the executive [branch] can spend them any way they want,' Muñoz added. The budget, which reflects a nearly 6% increase in spending over the current year, maintains a reserve of more than $3.2 billion to help weather potential economic downturns. Though widely touted by Democrats, the bill was likened to a 'bloated cow' by some Republicans. Sen. Bill Sharer, R-Farmington, the Senate minority leader, said he is concerned about the state's budget increasing each year as crime rates remain high and education outcomes remain low. 'Since she became governor, the budget has increased 74%,' Sharer said of Lujan Grisham. 'Now, that's because of oil and gas and not her, but still an increase of 74%. And yet, we don't have 74% of kids graduating from school or reading at grade level. Our roads aren't 74% better. Crime isn't down 74%.' Jodi McGinnis Porter, a spokesperson for the Governor's Office, said only nonrecurring funding was reduced by Lujan Grisham's line-item vetoes in the budget. 'Of the $19 million vetoed from [House Bill 2], $12 million was tied to bills with failed contingencies, meaning this funding would not have materialized regardless of the veto,' McGinnis Porter wrote in an email. 'Therefore, the Governor's actions effectively reduced nonrecurring funding by only $7 million from the general fund.' After signing HB 2, along with two key measures allocating capital outlay and reauthorizing capital outlay approved in past years, the governor said in a statement Friday, 'These appropriations bills represent significant investments in New Mexico's future, from education and healthcare to critical infrastructure.' She added, 'The targeted line-item vetoes were necessary to maintain fiscal responsibility while ensuring that we fund our highest-priority projects and initiatives.' The spending plan includes investments in early childhood education, child welfare services, behavioral health, public safety, affordable housing and the state's workforce, which is poised to receive average pay increases of 4% in the coming fiscal year. Key investments in the budget bill include $100 million for a new behavioral health trust fund — initially envisioned as a $1 billion fund — as well as $50 million for a natural disaster revolving loan fund, plus $25 million to promote the expansion of health care in rural communities and $65 million for transportation projects. HB 450 allocated $1.2 billion for more than 1,400 state and local projects before Lujan Grisham put her pen to it. The governor line-item vetoed $1.2 million in general fund projects that, she said, 'lack proper planning or are not ready to proceed.' The items she struck represent about 0.1% of the total capital outlay approved by lawmakers. One aspect of the capital outlay bill has drawn controversy: a $10 million appropriation to build a reproductive health clinic in Northern New Mexico. Republican lawmakers accused Lujan Grisham of 'sneaking' the item into the bill, but the governor has denied this. She has signed more than 150 of the 195 bills the Legislature passed in the session that ended last month. She had vetoed 18 bills as of Friday afternoon. Bills that go unsigned Friday are considered 'pocket vetoed' and won't become law — although that could change if voters in November 2026 approve a constitutional amendment to take away the governor's ability to pocket veto legislation by refusing to sign it. New Mexico is among 11 states where the governor has pocket veto power; in other states, bills the governor declines to sign become law anyway, and New Mexico would join their ranks if voters approve the amendment.
