bad news for the kids of nj

so sad...

As a foster parent in the state of NJ, it's really frustrating to see that leadership like this can't be stable. Kids in the state are soooo in need of some stability in their lives and the fact that the organization that serves them can't keep their leaders for more than a few years has to make you wonder.....how can they provide this for the children?

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January 24, 2008

New Jersey Child Welfare Chief Quits

By TINA KELLEY

The commissioner of New Jersey’s Department of Children and Families announced his resignation Thursday, after two years of leading a court-ordered overhaul of the state’s embattled child welfare system.

The commissioner, Kevin M. Ryan, helped the newly created agency complete a record number of adoptions and he oversaw a four-fold increase in the number of new foster families, as well as other requirements of the settlement of a federal class action lawsuit brought against the state after several highly publicized instances of child abuse in 2003.

Mr. Ryan, 41, the state’s former Child Advocate, plans to continue as commissioner through the end of February and begin working in March at the Amelior and MCJ Foundations, which serves impoverished children in Newark and Africa.

Several advocates for children reacted to his announcement with dismay. He is the third head of the state’s child welfare system to leave office in the past four years.

Marcia Robinson Lowry, executive director of Children’s Rights, a Manhattan advocacy group that brought the federal lawsuit on behalf of foster children in New Jersey, was very troubled by the resignation.

“It’s really unfortunate to lose the leadership at this particularly critical stage of the reform movement,” she said. “This is the first stage of the reform effort, and it’s only going to get more difficult.”

Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, said Mr. Ryan made significant strides during his tenure.

“He stopped the freefall of the New Jersey child welfare agency,” he said. “They had two years of very strong, very capable leadership in that job, and most child welfare agencies never see that.”