From the AP:

When a father from Burlington County showed up unannounced at the New Jersey Statehouse to complain that child welfare workers had failed to protect his 11-year-old son after beatings by his ex-wife, a staffer for Gov. Chris Christie called the Child Advocate — the same office that would be eliminated July 1 under Christie’s proposed budget.

The father, a prison guard whose name is being withheld by The Associated Press to protect his son’s privacy, said he drove the boy to Trenton on April 16 after becoming frustrated that state child welfare caseworkers were requiring the boy to go back to his mother, who has shared custody. The man said he turned to the governor’s office rather than violate a custody order for failing to drop the boy off; he said his son threatened to run away if forced to go back.

“The Child Advocate’s office are the only ones doing anything to help my son,” the father said, less than three weeks before the office is slated to close. “They’re the only ones keeping track of DYFS (the Division of Youth and Family Services).”

The child advocate watches out for children who have come into contact with state authorities, which can include working with DYFS, courts and school officials on the child’s behalf. In this case, the advocate’s office helped keep the son with his father through the end of the school year and is pursuing a more permanent solution. Criminal complaints alleging assault, neglect and abuse are pending against the woman and a teenage stepbrother.

Christie’s $29.3 billion budget proposes cuts to social services, public education and programs, and saves a projected $1.3 million by closing the child advocate’s office, shuttering its helpline and laying off the remaining staff of 14. Legislation disbanding the office would be among the budget bills Christie must sign by month’s end.

The Office of the Child Advocate was created in 2003 after the body of 7-year-old Faheem Williams was found in a squalid Newark basement. Faheem and two brothers had been under the supervision of DYFS, but their case was closed without an investigation into abuse allegations.

The office protects the rights of mistreated, neglected and vulnerable children by overseeing the provision of child welfare services. It monitors foster care homes, juvenile detention centers and mental health services, runs a 24-hour telephone line that helps residents navigate state bureaucracy and can investigate complaints, subpoena records and sue the state.

Christie said New Jersey’s child welfare system has improved greatly since a lawsuit by a children’s rights group led to federal oversight in 2006. However, advocates for abused and neglected children said they worry that hard-won reforms could be undone without an independent watchdog.

“It was something that may have been necessary at the time when DYFS was in its greatest crisis,” Christie said after his budget was announced in March. “I think now, given the federal monitorship and the leadership that has developed … it leads me to believe the office of the Child Advocate is no longer necessary.”

Cecelia Zalkind, executive director of the Association for Children of New Jersey, an independent watchdog advocacy, said New Jersey’s child advocate has shined a light on inadequacies in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems.

Their early reports on harsh, overcrowded conditions at youth detention centers led to reforms, and Zalkind said the child advocate is the only agency that compiles public reports on child fatalities.

Advocates in the Legislature, including Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle, chairwoman of that chamber’s Human Services Committee, are fighting for restoration of funding for the office. In a letter to Christie dated June 15, Vainieri Huttle said she was “deeply concerned” about the effects of eliminating the office.

“We need an independent voice for the children,” she said Wednesday. “The child advocate fills in that safety net — it provides that extra sense of protection for abused and neglected children. As good as our department is, they can’t get to everything.”

A spokesman for Christie did not return calls and an e-mail seeking comment.

A court-appointed federal monitor issues reports every six months that track DYFS’s progress in achieving a multiyear, top-to-bottom reform. The most recent report, issued this month, showed that the state has made strides in caring for 9,000 foster children but too often did not provide such basic services as weekly visits with parents or safety assessments before closing cases.

For example, during the six months ending last December, just 2 percent of foster children had weekly visits with their parents. Caseworkers failed 81 percent of the time to complete required safety and risk assessments 30 days before closing a case, the report showed.

Christie’s $1.57 billion proposed budget for Children and Families, which includes state and federal money and is essentially flat compared with the current year, is expected to keep the reform effort on track.

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