Committee hears amendment to clarify Office of Child Advocate access to contractor records and confidentiality

The Senate Children and Family Law Committee opened a public hearing on Senate Bill 76 and amendment 0173s, measures the Office of Child Advocate (OCA) says will clarify statutory language about its oversight of executive-branch child-serving agencies and the private contractors that provide services under agreements with those agencies.

The bill aims to fix inconsistent wording that remained after the OCA’s 2020 statutory expansion beyond the Division for Children, Youth and Families (DCYF). Lisonbee Maschio, associate child advocate and legislative and policy director for the New Hampshire Office of the Child Advocate, told the committee the amendment limits OCA access to records to information “specifically relating to the services that they're providing for children under those contractor agreements.”

Maschio said the office was created by statute in 2017 and its statutory language was expanded in 2020 to cover all executive-branch child-serving agencies and contracted service providers; she described remaining references to “division” and inconsistent uses of “agency” as a source of confusion. "The clarification is just there to…