Lead budget writers in the state Senate voted on Tuesday to keep the Office of the Child Advocate in place to oversee child welfare across New Hampshire, heeding a call from Gov. Kelly Ayotte to restore it.

Its role in state government would be pared back, although it won’t be abolished entirely as the New Hampshire House of Representatives envisioned.

Cassandra Sanchez, the state’s child advocate, said the decision to cut half her staff will negatively impact the office’s ability to fulfill its obligation as a watchdog agency and advocate for the interests of the state’s children.

“I don’t know how we’ll be able to keep up, and I’m very concerned about our ability to meet our mandate,” Sanchez said. “When we are not able to meet our mandate, we’re not reviewing in-depth as the way we are now, that unfortunately leaves children in unsafe situations at times.”

The amendment to the budget, put forth by Senate President Sharon Carson, a Londonderry Republican who was instrumental in establishing the office back in 2018, would nix four of her office’s nine positions: the associate child advocate, a case aide, a public relations officer and an office coordinator.

With fewer people to handle an increasing workload, something has to give: Without the dedicated case aide, her office will no longer be able to review every instance when a child held in a facility faces the use of restraint or seclusion.

Still, she said, something is better than nothing.

“Anything is better than what we were given in the House, which is the office no longer existing,” Sanchez said, “so anything is a win compared to that.”

Policy changes attached to this next version of the state budget, which will soon go to a vote by the full Senate, could also hinder Sanchez’s ability to do her job, she said.

A simple addition to the statute that gives her office access to information and facilities “as allowed by state and federal law” could keep Sanchez from viewing documents – like children’s autopsy reports, which may be covered by HIPAA – that she said are vital to overseeing the state’s childcare systems and trends at certain residential care facilities.

Part of Sanchez’s job is to advocate for legislation that will improve care and services for the children of New Hampshire, but after Rep. Dan McGuire, an Epsom Republican, suggested Sanchez “interfered” with legislation, her office may be restricted to advocating only “in a non-partisan manner.”

Last year, Sanchez spoke at a press conference opposing bills that would target LGBTQ youth, like transgender sports bans and a parental bill of rights.

Sanchez said she views her work as bipartisan, to advocate on behalf of all kids.

“If children’s best interest is now becoming a political issue, then that inference could be made,” Sanchez said, “but in truth our work is rooted in the statute … really focusing on the best interests of all children, not singling out a particular group.”

Though she understands that some were upset about her office’s position on those bills, she doesn’t want that to overshadow all her other work.

“That was one piece of advocacy of our office, and the real focus of our office is all children,” Sanchez said. “And so any cuts that happen to our office are not just impacting a very small population of children, it is impacting the overall children in our state that our system involves.”

If this version of the budget passes the Senate, both bodies will hash out the differences between their two proposals in a Committee of Conference, then send a final draft to Gov. Kelly Ayotte, who’ll decide whether to sign it into law or veto it.

Ayotte had included the Office of the Child Advocate in her budget and said after the House’s cuts that she’d work with the Senate to restore it. She hasn’t yet said whether she agrees with the Senate’s plan to pare down its funding and staffing.

Charlotte Matherly is the statehouse reporter for the Concord Monitor and Monadnock Ledger-Transcript in partnership with Report for America. Follow her on X at @charmatherly, subscribe to her Capital Beat newsletter and send her an email at cmatherly@cmonitor.com.