'Are you sure?' Shock as New Hampshire Republicans put child welfare on chopping block

As New Hampshire lawmakers look for ways to cut the state budget, Republicans in the State House want to eliminate the state’s Office of the Child Advocate, the Commission on Aging, and the Housing Appeals Board.

“Are you sure about the Child Advocate?” Rep. Rosemarie Rung, a Democrat from Merrimack, asked during a work session Monday to discuss this and several other budget-related proposals. “Have you discussed — I mean, they’re the overseer of YDC.”

The Youth Detention Center — a juvenile corrections facility in Manchester that’s been renamed the Sununu Youth Services Center — has been embroiled in one of the largest child abuse scandals in U.S. history. Over 1,100 former residents of the facility have filed lawsuits alleging physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, and several state workers have been arrested.

“Yeah, they’re there,” Rep. Dan McGuire, the Republican from Epsom who chairs the subcommittee holding the work session, responded.

House Finance Division I, which is one of three legislative subcommittees working on various aspects of the massive state budget — which was proposed by Gov. Kelly Ayotte in February and is currently being debated by the Legislature — approved a series of amendments to that budget on Monday that would eliminate these state agencies.

“There’s a number of these smaller things that are sort of nice-to-haves, but they’re not necessary,” McGuire said. “And so, we need the money. I don’t know how to put it any blunter.”

The committee voted, 5-4, along party lines in favor of recommending the amendment eliminating the Office of the Child Advocate, firing its staff, and repealing the statutes that created it. The full House will also have to approve the amendment before it’s officially added to the proposed budget. Then the entire budget will have to be passed with this amendment included for it to become law.

All four Democrats on the committee voted no.

“We just had a discussion an hour ago about a $150 million appropriation needed to fund the YDC settlement fund,” Rung said, referring to the money the state is being forced in court to pay to the facility’s victims. “And this office, you know, it’s $1 million a year. To me, if we can prevent future liabilities that we’ve seen with the YDC … I think this is one of those positions, one of those offices, that actually is a cost saving to us in the long run. I think it’s penny-wise and pound-foolish to get rid of this.”

Cassandra Sanchez, New Hampshire’s child advocate, said she was at a conference in Boston when she heard from one of her legislative partners about the vote. She said the news came as “quite a shock and surprise.”

As child advocate, Sanchez serves as a watchdog overseeing the state’s child welfare and juvenile justice systems and advocating for the best interests of children in the state. Her position and the office she leads were created by the Legislature in 2018. It is independent of any other state agency or official. Sanchez is under contract until January 2026; the budget would become effective July 1, 2025.

Sanchez said she and her team hadn’t been told this was even being considered ahead of Monday’s vote, including on Feb. 26 when she gave a presentation to the subcommittee.

“They did mention that there needed to be further cost-saving measures, but had not floated any idea of the potential of repealing our statute,” she said. “And given our office budget is so miniscule, I had not even thought of that as a potential option.”

Eliminating the Office of the Child Advocate would save the state approximately $2 million over two years, McGuire said. He noted that most of the cost savings come from firing the eight staff the office employs besides Sanchez. Amid a tight fiscal environment, the House is currently trying to trim Ayotte’s two-year budget proposal by around $800 million after the Ways and Means Committee predicted state revenues would be much lower than the governor’s estimates. As subcommittee chair, McGuire said he’s been tasked with finding $200 million of that savings.

Sanchez argued her office actually saves the state money in the long run. She said her team works to identify situations where children are being harmed and address them before they grow into a situation that spurs a costly lawsuit.

As an example, she pointed to a 2023 incident where her office discovered that two New Hampshire boys who had been sent out of state to a residential treatment facility in Tennessee were being abused there. Her office had them removed from the facility, and she argued it could’ve led to a lawsuit against the state if she hadn’t acted.

She also noted that her office works to ensure children can receive the services they need in the community while remaining with their family or another family as opposed to being sent to a residential care facility. Those facilities, she said, are “extremely costly” to the state.

Even more, Sanchez said, her office’s services are essential to ensuring the best outcomes for children. She said her office works toward “prevention as opposed to reacting and waiting for something terrible to happen to children.”

“We are the one entity that’s giving a voice to children,” she said. “And that wouldn’t exist anymore. And children are so vulnerable. They need to be heard. Their needs need to be met. And I don’t know who would be filling that if we’re not here.”

Sanchez said if she’d known this was being considered she would’ve offered to sit down with members of the committee beforehand and discuss what her office does, how it helps children, and how it saves the state money long-term. She’s still willing to do this with legislators wanting to understand more. She said she’d already proactively reached out to some.

Sanchez said she watched the hearing online after the fact.

“It appeared that the Democrats had a pretty good understanding,” she said, singling out Rung and Rep. Karen Ebel as two who spoke well on the issue. “From my perspective, I don’t feel that all of the members on that committee truly understand what we do, understand our mandate, and didn’t ask any questions to figure that out during our presentation.”

The subcommittee also voted to recommend an amendment eliminating the Commission on Aging, 5-4, on party lines Monday. That amendment will also need the full House’s approval.

McGuire called the Commission on Aging “an easy one.” Democrats on the committee disagreed.

“I understand the constraints we’re under, but this commission is up and running,” Ebel, a New London Democrat, said. “It’s been very active. It’s been useful. So I’ll be voting against the amendment.”

In a 6-2 vote, the committee also recommended an amendment to eliminate the Housing Appeals Board, which allows New Hampshire residents to contest decisions made by their local planning and zoning boards and officials. The amendment would forbid the board from taking on new cases beginning in July and give it 60 days to complete the cases it’s already accepted. Because two of the board’s employees are under contract for terms well beyond the end of this year’s budget — one is contracted through June 2027 and the other through June 2028 — the amendment offers those two jobs in the state judiciary if the judiciary wants them. This amendment also needs the full House’s approval to be added to the budget.

“The whole point of doing this is to save money,” McGuire said. “It’s not because they’re doing a bad job.”