To start reforming the state’s child protective services, one senator is proposing to break it up.
Republican Sharon Carson is filing a bill to remove the agency from within the Department Health and Human Services, the state’s largest department that houses everything from Medicaid and the state psychiatric hospital to the food safety and medical marijuana programs.
“The issues facing the (Division for Children, Youth and Families) are so important they should be their own stand-alone agency, with their own commissioner,” said Carson, of Londonderry. “DHHS has gotten so big that it’s become unwieldy in many respects.”
Reforming child protection is poised to be a major issue this legislative session. The agency has come under scrutiny following the recent deaths of two toddlers who had been under DCYF supervision. An independent report recently found the agency is understaffed and doesn’t adequately protect children at risk of future abuse and neglect.
In addition to child protection, DCYF also oversees foster care and adoption, juvenile justice and Head Start, among other programs. Carson’s bill would make the entire agency its own department and also establish an office of the child advocate, to provide independent oversight of the agency’s work, she said.
“I view this as an opportunity to start anew,” Carson said. “We just need new leadership at DCYF.”
The full bill is not yet publicly available. A state committee estimated the cost of a child advocate between $250,000 and $500,000, depending on the number of office staff.
Carson’s proposal will likely face questions and perhaps pushback from members of the Republican-controlled Legislature who opposes creating new levels of administration.
Rep. Neal Kurk, who heads the House Finance Committee, is “skeptical” of a plan to make DCYF its own stand-alone department.
“When you set up a different department, you have a great deal of duplicative administrative overhead,” said Kurk, a Weare Republican. “What is it we’re not doing with that extra money we are spending on administrative costs?”
The report, completed at the request of Gov. Maggie Hassan, made 20 recommendations to improve the agency, including strengthening the state’s neglect law and requiring reports of abuse be kept on file for longer periods of time. One of the report’s strongest suggestions was to bring on an additional 35 social workers to help manage a growing number of caseloads the reviewers found were spread across a staff already stretched thin.
Any staff positions would likely be included in the state budget, the first version of which Republican Gov.-elect Chris Sununu will present in February.
The Department of Health and Human Services didn’t respond to specific questions about Carson’s proposal. Instead, spokesman Jake Leon said in a statement that the department is “ready to work with both legislative bodies to implement the recommendations in the independent review of DCYF and ensure the state’s child welfare system protects children from abuse and neglect.”
Health and Human Services makes up nearly half of government spending. Some, like Carson, say the department has gotten too big. DCYF also oversees the state’s only juvenile detention center in Manchester, the source of many headaches in Concord.
Lawmakers have sought for years to reduce spending by the Sununu Youth Services Center, which has seen its population steadily decline. Although the center was built to hold 144 children at its campus off River Road, it usually has about 50 youth.
Most recently, legislators considered converting part of the center into a substance abuse or mental health treatment center for youth.
Kurk plans to file a separate bill this year that would downsize the center to roughly 20 to 30 beds and send the remainder back to their respective communities for treatment and services.
“Most of the children at the Sununu Center really don’t need to be there,” he said.
(Allie Morris can be reached at 369-3307 or amorris@cmonitor.com.)