Latest news with #OfficeoftheChildAdvocate
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Maine lawmakers push decision on proposal to use New Hampshire child advocate model to next year
After renewed scrutiny in recent years, there have been multiple attempts to restructure Maine's child welfare system. (Getty Images) Maine lawmakers postponed action on reforming the state's troubled child welfare system, this time on a proposal modeled after New Hampshire's independent child advocate — a program some see as a blueprint to provide oversight and address systemic issues. There have been many proposals to reform the system in recent years, but some feel that looking to New Hampshire for its Office of the Child Advocate could offer the most promising solution. Assistant House Majority Leader Lori Gramlich (D-Old Orchard Beach) introduced LD 1893 in early May. The bill would transfer Maine's existing child welfare ombudsman into a new, independent agency with expanding responsibilities to advocate for Maine children. Although the Legislature adjourned in late June, the Health and Human Services Committee decided to hold onto the bill until next session, which is slated to begin in January. The Department of Health and Human Services, which houses the state's child welfare agency the Office of Child and Family Services, said at the public hearing that it would also like more time to consider the proposal because of the 'extensive reach' it could have throughout state government. 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 beyond just child welfare. This could extend to the Departments of Education, Corrections, or any other agency providing services to or arranging services on behalf of a child. Moira O'Neill, who helped craft the model in New Hampshire and served as its first child advocate before stepping down in 2021, told Maine Morning Star that the language in LD 1893 is far better compared to the first iteration of New Hampshire's law. She also pointed out that the legislation proposes the essential components of ombudsman work: independence, impartiality, access to information, and confidentiality. As O'Neill sees it, children and their interests don't have a seat at the table under Maine's current child welfare infrastructure. She pointed out that there are children in Maine who are hungry, abused, neglected, and will be saddled with long-term effects to their health, employment and relationships. 'They need someone who is just for them — not a part time cabinet, not a caring governor, not a legislative committee — but one person whose only job is to hear children, know their best interest, and speak on their behalf,' she said. 'It must be an independent someone who is beholden only to the children and the statute. Though the department spoke neither for nor against LD 1893, it said it is interested in exploring the model as a way to strengthen oversight. It also acknowledged that there are already multiple avenues for oversight including federal regulations, legislative oversight and citizen advisory panels. After renewed scrutiny in recent years, there have been multiple attempts to restructure the state's child welfare system. This has included multiple failed legislative attempts, including just last year, to separate the OCFS from DHHS. Last year, OCFS 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 bill language presents a shift from policing to promoting better practices, including for state agencies, O'Neill explained. 'You can't prosecute and fire your way through a system weakness,' she said. 'When systems are weak due to lack of funding, work force, training, effective policy, etc., the best solution generally comes from collaborative efforts that enhance support for systems and repairs weaknesses.' Melissa Hackett, coordinator of the Maine Child Welfare Action Network, said she prefers the proposed Office of Child Advocate model because it does not solely focus on the child welfare system. 'This office taking that bigger picture view felt more promising to me than some of the other proposals that have really, in my opinion … felt reactionary,' Hackett said. She appreciates that the Office of Child Advocate would build upon the oversight provided by the existing child welfare ombudsman office, while having the ability to explore the root causes that could lead a family to being involved with the system. That could create what Hackett described as a 'both-and' approach to provide oversight and address the systemic factors like substance use disorder or mental health that can bring a family in contact with the child welfare system. But she said that will require public and political will to understand what is really happening with children and families. Hackett said the proposed child advocate would be able 'to really look up from a high level down at what's happening on the ground to see these trends and to not be singularly focused on one incident or case but to be able to look across those trends to say, 'This is what we need to really address and this is how we address it to stem the flow of these kids coming into these systems.'' The Office of Child Advocate could also provide a solution for the ways confidentiality complicates child welfare oversight. In August 2022, the Legislature's Government Oversight Committee asked DHHS to view records relating to the 2021 deaths of four children. The department denied the committee access, citing confidentiality laws. After that denial, the committee filed an action in the Kennebec County Superior Court urging the department to comply with its subpoena. The court denied the committee's request, ruling that it did not have the authority to access the confidential records. The committee appealed the decision to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, which held a hearing in December 2023 before ruling in line with the lower court decision. Because of that decision from the state's highest court, Sen. Craig Hickman (D-Kennebec) put in a bill last session seeking to allow the committee to access 'privileged and confidential' records while keeping them exempt from public disclosure. That proposal was also carried over by the Judiciary Committee to be worked on further next session. O'Neill said the independent child advocate role outlined in LD 1893 is a better solution than opening up legislator access to that sort of confidential information. That person wouldn't be influenced by partisan priorities and can serve as a 'resource for children and families navigating seemingly unfriendly systems,' she added. This story was originally published by Maine Morning Star, which like the New Hampshire Bulletin is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
Boston Globe
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Mass. kids struggling in school need support. Too often, they're being sent to court.
In fiscal year 2024, the state recorded 4,290 Child Requiring Assistance filings, a 6 percent increase from 2022. Petitions from parents, usually filed due to a child running away or being difficult to manage, accounted for close to 60 percent of those petitions in 2024, the report found. Advertisement In some cases, children as young as 6 years old were brought to court to address behavioral or discipline problems, including truancy , the Office of the Child Advocate reported. Petitions associated with children ages 6 to 12 increased by 17 percent from 2022 to 2024. Among the state's counties, Suffolk reported the highest rate of children subjected to the petitions, a possible sign of insufficient resources in the Boston school district, Threadgill said. Advertisement The district did not respond to a request for comment. Families at times are advised to turn to Child Requiring Assistance filings by educators, therapists, or medical providers who don't realize that they are often unnecessary and aren't aware of the power the petitions can give the court. In some cases, a petition can result in the child's removal from the home. Latino children were 3.5 times more likely than white students to have a CRA petition filed against them. Black children were referred to the court system at similar rates to Latino children, the report found. Glenn Koocher, head of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, expressed concern that Child Requiring Assistance filings, also called CRAs, were more likely to be filed for students in poverty and noted that aggressive immigration enforcement this year was likely to exacerbate existing racial disparities by encouraging children to miss school. 'If you were afraid that your parents are going to get deported, or that your uncles or aunts or cousins are going to get deported...' he said. 'I would think that would make them anxious about going to school.' A 2022 report from the Juvenile Justice Policy and Data Board, a statewide policy evaluation organization that includes representatives from organizations involved in the juvenile justice system, recommended addressing the needs of children subject to CRAs without the court's involvement. Since then, though, the opposite has happened, with petitions initiated by schools growing the most. Petitions due to chronic truancy and habitual misbehavior account for roughly 43 percent of all those filed in 2024, the report stated, an increase of almost 14 percent over two years. Advertisement Families statewide often struggle to obtain from schools the Related : 'The special education system is very complex, the procedures, the process, the regulations that need to be followed,' said Ellen Chambers, founder of SPEDWatch, a Massachusetts activist group for children. 'It is very easy for a school district to pull the wool over a family's eyes.' Related : While the latest report didn't include data on the connection between CRAs and special education needs, the The Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents did not respond to a request for comment. School absences or discipline problems, the kinds of behaviors that are often causes for school-filed CRAs, are also signs a child isn't getting needed educational supports, said Chambers, who also works with families as an adviser appointed by the court through the CRA process. The vast majority of children she connects with through CRAs are disengaged at school due to unidentified disabilities or a lack of special education supports. Advertisement 'They become very, very anxious because they can't keep up with what's going on,' she said. Karrie Conley is the parent of a teenage girl, who she asked not be named, who was the subject of a CRA petition last year in the Acton-Boxborough School District as she dealt with extreme anxiety. 'She was locking herself in the bathroom for four hours at a time,' Conley said. The school's attempts to accommodate the teenager's difficulties understanding math as well as her physical and mental health challenges were inadequate, the mother said. The district withdrew the petition shortly after it was filed, but Conley said the experience only deepened her daughter's antipathy for attending school. Now, she's attending a private school that allows her to learn at home, but she still struggles to manage a full course load, she said. 'I will be lucky if I can get this child to community college when she graduates,' she said. Peter Light, superintendent of the Acton-Boxborough School District, said he couldn't speak about a specific case involving a student but said the district turns to CRA petitions rarely, once or twice a school year. 'We typically work with parents very closely in these cases,' he said. In its report, the Office of the Child Advocate pointed to Advertisement 'A court process is just not going to be the best way to deal with complicated behavioral health situations, educational situations, or family dynamics,' Threadgill said. Jason Laughlin can be reached at
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
State senators try to salvage New Hampshire's child advocate amid budget cuts
Sen. Sharon Carson, photographed during a Senate Finance work session Thursday, plans to propose an amendment to restore the Office of the Child Advocate after the House voted to eliminate it. Still, her proposal pares the agency down. (Photo by William Skipworth/New Hampshire Bulletin) New Hampshire's Office of the Child Advocate has been on the chopping block this session as state lawmakers look to trim the budget during a difficult fiscal year. However, some senators, slightly more bullish on the state's economic outlook, have proposed a way to keep the office, albeit in a slimmed-down form. When the New Hampshire House of Representatives passed its version of the budget, it eliminated the Office of the Child Advocate. Established in 2018, the office serves as a watchdog for New Hampshire's youth, overseeing the state's child welfare, juvenile justice, and youth care systems, and advocating for the best interests of children in the state. Eliminating it would save the state — which has been experiencing lagging business tax revenues — around $2.2 million over two years. However, state senators — who projected a slightly less dire financial outlook and appear more interested in keeping the child advocate — have since come up with a proposal to restore it. 'I'm trying to find a middle ground that the House will accept,' Sen. Sharon Carson, who is spearheading the proposal, said. 'Keeping it but compressing it down for now and still allowing them the funds that they need to do the job I think is important.' Carson, a Londonderry Republican and the Senate president, said she plans to propose an amendment to the budget that would restore the Office of the Child Advocate but lay off four of its employees. The amendment also gives the office the option to request more money from the Fiscal Committee in the future should the state's finances improve over the course of the next two-year budget term. The committee is expected to finalize the budget plan on Tuesday. After that, the entire Senate will vote to create the Senate's final version of the budget. From there, the Senate and House will hash out the differences between their budgets before Gov. Kelly Ayotte gets the opportunity to review and either approve or veto it. Carson believes there's enough Republican support for her proposal on the child advocate. She hopes it's 'a path that the House can accept.' Carson serves on the Children's Oversight Committee and has been pleased with the office's work. 'After working with the office for a number of years, I know how valuable it is,' Carson said. 'And I know the value of the work they do, so we had to try to figure out a way to save it.' Cassandra Sanchez, who heads the Office of the Child Advocate, said she has 'really mixed feelings' about the proposal. 'It's a really difficult time to look at reducing the office in the way in which that amendment would,' Sanchez said. 'But, of course, seeing an amendment come forth that continues funding to our office and does not eliminate the office altogether is a big win for us.' Sanchez said the four positions to be eliminated are an office coordinator (which is currently vacant), a public relations and training officer, the associate child advocate (her second-in-command), and a case aide. As the budget cut threats have loomed, she's conceded to lawmakers that if they have to cut positions, losing the public relations and training officer won't impact their caseload management and she asked that it be removed first. She's most fearful of the case aide being laid off because that position reviews all restraints and seclusions of children, and the state has been seeing rising numbers of these tactics being used, she said. In April, the state saw approximately 450 instances of children being restrained or secluded by a state worker, according to her office's most recent numbers. Sanchez's office is the only agency that reviews such instances to ensure they're necessary and in the best interest of the child. She said the office would 'be able to function quite well' with the other three positions removed 'but (the case aide) is the one critical position being cut that is truly going to have an impact on the children of New Hampshire.' The amendment also includes a provision that prohibits the office from partisan advocacy. Sanchez has been vocal in support of trans youth in the state. In April 2024, she participated in a press conference speaking out against bills targeting LGBTQ children, which ruffled feathers among Republicans. State Sen. Victoria Sullivan told New Hampshire Public Radio the advocacy is 'distracting from the actual good work that's happening with the children, with the systems.' Other lawmakers have echoed the sentiment. Sanchez said she's 'not extremely clear on what that means,' but 'could assume' it's a reference to that press conference and other LGBTQ advocacy. She wants more clarification from lawmakers, or even an interpretation from the attorney general. Regardless, she has not backed down on the issue. 'I have had conversations where I'm willing to talk about the way in which we engage with the Legislature around those issues,' she continued. 'But it would not change our viewpoint, which again, backed by psychological research, is that supporting a child and their gender identity, however they choose to explore that gender identity, supporting them in that exploration is healthy for their development. And so that is where I stand and where the office stands on those issues. And we will continue to advocate for protections of those vulnerable children and sharing factual information about the statistics and the outcomes for children when there is harmful legislation that attacks their ability to freely express themselves.' She said leading a team where employees are aware that their jobs are on the chopping block, through no control of their own, has been 'extremely difficult.' 'It's nothing I ever thought or had planned for having to manage,' Sanchez said. 'And now that it's here, I'm really taking it day-by-day. … But it is hard because the work we do already is so heavy and so difficult, and then to add that burden of the unknown on top of it, for their own lives, their own jobs, it's a lot for folks to deal with.' Still, she said, the team is 'not gonna let pessimism sink in.'
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Yahoo
New Hampshire to pay $2.25M to mother of 5-year-old killed by father
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — New Hampshire has agreed to pay $2.25 million to the mother of Harmony Montgomery, a 5-year-old girl whose father was convicted of murdering her. Crystal Sorey filed a negligence lawsuit against the state last May accusing social workers of ignoring signs that her daughter was being physically abused by her ex-husband after he was awarded custody in early 2019. Adam Montgomery is serving a minimum of 56 years in prison after being convicted of murdering Harmony and moving her corpse around for months before disposing of it. Police believe Harmony was killed by him nearly two years before she was reported missing in 2021. Her body has not been found. The state does not admit any wrongdoing in the settlement agreement reached last month. The attorney general's office declined to comment on the settlement Friday or on other similar settlements reached in the last year. In July, the state agreed to pay $5.75 million to the mother of a Laconia boy the state placed with a grandmother who is now charged with his 2019 death. In December, it settled with the father of 5-year-old boy Merrimack killed by his mother in 2021. In 2018, the state created an Office of the Child Advocate to serve as an independent watchdog agency, but lawmakers are considering eliminating it in the next state budget.
Winnipeg Free Press
23-05-2025
- Winnipeg Free Press
New Hampshire to pay $2.25M to mother of 5-year-old killed by father
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — New Hampshire has agreed to pay $2.25 million to the mother of Harmony Montgomery, a 5-year-old girl whose father was convicted of murdering her. Crystal Sorey filed a negligence lawsuit against the state last May accusing social workers of ignoring signs that her daughter was being physically abused by her ex-husband after he was awarded custody in early 2019. Adam Montgomery is serving a minimum of 56 years in prison after being convicted of murdering Harmony and moving her corpse around for months before disposing of it. Police believe Harmony was killed by him nearly two years before she was reported missing in 2021. Her body has not been found. The state does not admit any wrongdoing in the settlement agreement reached last month. The attorney general's office declined to comment on the settlement Friday or on other similar settlements reached in the last year. In July, the state agreed to pay $5.75 million to the mother of a Laconia boy the state placed with a grandmother who is now charged with his 2019 death. In December, it settled with the father of 5-year-old boy Merrimack killed by his mother in 2021. In 2018, the state created an Office of the Child Advocate to serve as an independent watchdog agency, but lawmakers are considering eliminating it in the next state budget.
