NH child advocate lobbies for lawmakers to rethink abuse, neglect placements

Out- of-state residences would be last resort
Children in abuse and neglect cases are typically placed in outside facilities when there is no family or foster situation available. Often, those facilities are far from home. Included in the recent report from the State of New Hampshire Office of the Child Advocate, was reason to be alarmed about the kind of care received by children placed in a Tennessee facility.
According to Cassandra Sanchez, MA, the child advocate for the state who spearheaded the report, two children were removed from Bledsoe Youth Academy in Gallatin, a 30-bed facility for adolescent boys, and returned to New Hampshire following concerns of physical and emotional mistreatment.
In what was deemed as a “culture of shame, ...