New Hampshire
NH Child Advocate urges increased supervision of children in state placement
This story was originally produced by the New Hampshire Bulletin, an independent local newsroom that allows NHPR and other outlets to republish its reporting.
Details of what the Office of the Child Advocate called “horrifying” abuse and neglect of two New Hampshire boys placed by the state in a Tennessee youth facility are behind legislation that would require the state to substantially increase its supervision of the children it places and limit those placements to New England as of January 2025.
The state Department of Health and Human Services has estimated it would need 30 new positions, 18 of them case workers, to meet the requirements in House Bill 1573 at a cost of about $5 million a year. The bill would also increase court hearings, a measure the state judicial branch has estimated would require nine new positions at a cost of about $1.5 million a year.
Children in abuse and neglect cases are placed in residential treatment facilities when their needs cannot be met by family, legal guardians, or other relatives.
The bill was heard Tuesday before the House Children and Family Law Committee.
Meanwhile, the state is defending itself against a federal lawsuit filed in 2021 against Gov. Chris Sununu and Department of Health and Human Services officials by New Hampshire Legal Assistance, Disability Rights Center-NH, ACLU New Hampshire, and the national advocacy group Children’s Rights. They allege the state is systematically and unnecessarily institutionalizing older foster youth rather than placing them in homelike settings within or close to their communities. The case is pending the outcome of mediation.
Currently four children of nearly 350 in out-of-state placements are in facilities outside New England, Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Kathleen Remillard said Tuesday. Those sites are in Missouri, Arkansas, and Florida.
Of the remaining children, 264 are in New Hampshire and 81 are in New England, she said.
Child Advocate Cassandra Sanchez said the four children outside of New England is a drop from the approximately 20 children receiving services out of state when she reported the Bledsoe Youth Academy to Tennessee child protection officials and demanded the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services return them to the state.
Sanchez’s allegations against Bledsoe Youth Academy in Gallatin, Tennessee, included staff offering children incentives to assault other children; cameras in bedrooms that left little privacy to change; and kids with rug burns from being restrained face-down on a carpet. The two New Hampshire boys said they were threatened with retaliation for reporting the incidents to Sanchez and her team.
When officials at Bledsoe, a facility for boys 12 to 18, learned of the allegations, they told the boys they were being sent elsewhere, to a facility where gang members would harm them and kill their families, Sanchez told the committee.
In a September report recounting her findings, Sanchez said that while the Division for Children, Youth, and Families had been checking in with the two children at Bledsoe, it had not visited in person for a facilities evaluation before awarding it certification in 2021 or recertifying it in 2023.
Sanchez’s office and the department agree on “99%” of the proposed legislation, she said. Their disagreement is isolated to the nature of the state’s legal relationship with residential placement facilities.
Sanchez wants the state to contract with each facility, something it currently does with most but not all out-of-state sites. She told committee members a contract was the only way the state could hold a facility accountable.
Morissa Henn, deputy commissioner for the Department of Health and Human Services, said the state wants to maintain the contracts in place but be allowed to require certification for those sites when a child’s needs require a level of care an existing site cannot provide. She also told lawmakers contracting is a lengthy process that could interfere with providing a child timely care.
Each have requested amendments to the bill, which its sponsor, Rep. Mark Pearson, a Hampstead
Republican, introduced Tuesday for the committee to weigh. Aside from the disagreement over how to partner with sites, their amendments are virtually identical.
Under the bill, caseworkers would be required to visit the children in and out of state monthly, during which they would have to tour the children’s living area, talk with the children, and meet with the site’s leaders and staff.
Sanchez said she learned of the conditions in the Tennessee facility by taking those steps. She said seven different case workers visited the boys, all unfamiliar to the boys, and spent too little time to uncover the abuse and neglect. She said the state’s visits to children last 15 minutes.
Henn disputed that Tuesday.
“Just to correct the record, these are not 15-minute visits, where you pick up some pamphlets, as you just heard,” she said. “These are in-depth visits. We take them extremely seriously. We check on the youth under our care, we interview them. We have critical responsibilities serving often in the role of parents and in our obligations as a department. It gives me goosebumps to imagine the notion that we would do anything but the most robust protections.”
The department would also have to visit in-state and out-of-state facilities quarterly; at least one of those visits each year would have to be unannounced.
The bill would put new requirements on the judicial branch as well.
Courts would also have to review placements more frequently, from every 90 days as is now required to every 60 days. If the child or the child’s representative does not support the qualified residential treatment program level of care, those court reviews would be required every 30 days.
Prior to those hearings, the department would have to submit evidence to the court showing the residential placement continues to meet the child’s needs and provides the most appropriate level of care; placement with family or a legal guardian could not meet those needs; and that the placement is consistent with the short- and long-term goals for the child.
Before approving a placement, the court would have to determine whether the child’s needs could be met through placement with a parent, legal guardian, legal custodian, kin caregiver, or in a foster care home. Before approving a residential treatment placement, the court would have to review the specific needs of the child, the length of stay, and input from the child and the family.
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The federal government has activated the New Hampshire National Guard’s 157th Air Refueling Wing in connection with the war with Iran.
“I’ve had a briefing myself, a classified briefing, but it’s really important on the messaging on this that we really coordinate with the Pentagon,” Gov. Kelly Ayotte told reporters during a press briefing following Wednesday’s Executive Council meeting.
Ayotte said she was unable to share additional details about the nature of the New Hampshire National Guard’s activity related to the conflict, including how many guard members have been activated or what role they are playing.
“We’re going to respect what messaging comes out of the Pentagon just to make sure that our men and women in uniform are fully protected and that we aren’t providing any information that could be used in a way that would be harmful to them,” Ayotte said.
In a statement Thursday, Ayotte said the unit had been deployed in late February to the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility in support of the operation.
Earlier this week, Pentagon officials confirmed that members of the Vermont National Guard were involved in attacks against Iran over the weekend, though our news partners at Vermont Public were not able to confirm additional details on the nature of the operation.
During the briefing with local reporters, Ayotte also stressed her support for servicemembers and those close to them.
“I have such respect for our men and women in uniform,” Ayotte said. “As you know, I come from a military family, and they have our full support, and we appreciate them and their families, and obviously anyone who is serving right now, and my thoughts and prayers go out to those who have lost someone that they love.”
By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – While Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte has said she opposes increasing highway toll rates across the state, the Senate voted Thursday to increase rates for out-of-state license plate holders.
It now goes to the House for consideration.
This would be a $1 increase for those who have out of state plates going through the tolls at Hooksett, Hampton and Bedford for out-of-state plates, a 75 cent hike for those taking Hampton’s Exit 2 and on the Spaulding turnpike at Rochester, and a 50 cent hike for those taking the exit off I-93 to Hooksett.
An analysis in the bill shows that this would increase toll revenue by $53.3 million in fiscal year 2027 and go up each year to generate $81.4 million a year in 2036.
Senate Bill 627 passed on a voice vote with two Republicans, Senators Regina Birdsell of Hampstead and William Gannon of Sandown opposing.
Senator Mark E. McConkey, R-Freedom, moved to take the bill off the table and offered an amendment.
He said the last time there was a systemwide increase to the turnpike toll was 19 years ago.
“I am sure we could all agree the cost of operations…has continued to escalate when revenue is not rising with it,” and he noted that with an enterprise fund, the state can only spend what it takes in.
The state has just completed a 10-year highway plan and there was a $400 million shortfall in projects that could not be paid for under the current income.
McConkey said the measure would not increase tolls for New Hampshire drivers with a state license plate.
“Why don’t we ask our neighbors,” to pay a toll increase. “We are getting the best of all worlds,” by passing the bill, he said, including “protecting our residents” and having resources for improvements to the turnpike system.
Sen. Gannon, R-Sandown, asked McConkey if there are any studies on impacts near the border on businesses.
If implemented, McConkey said the state will be the 27th lowest in per mile cost still. McConkey said the bill would also increase from seven to 14 days the amount of time for those with NH license plates to pay for a toll adding there are other states that also have different rates for out-of-state users.
The Hampton toll cost would go from $2 to $3, while Hooksett and Bedford would rise from $1 to $2 for out-of-state plates.
New Hampshire currently has the lowest rate per mile among states with tolls roads.
The governor said she does not support a toll increase.
“We are not going to put a burden on drivers for a toll increase,” Ayotte said. “Families are struggling.”
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