Gov. Dan McKee nominates interim child advocate to fill role permanently

Governor Dan McKee announced on Friday, May 17, 2024, that interim Child Advocate Katelyn Medeiros is his nomination for the permanent post. (Courtesy of Office of the Governor)

The state’s Acting Child Advocate could soon fill the post permanently, Gov. Dan McKee’s office announced Friday.

Since July 2022, attorney Katelyn Medeiros has served as the temporary leader of the Office of the Child Advocate (OCA), the state’s oversight agency that ensures and protects the wellbeing and rights of children receiving services through the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF).

Legislative advocacy, legal action and inspection of state-contracted providers or facilities are all within the advocate’s purview, according to Rhode Island General Law. Its powers of oversight are separate and independent from those internal to DCYF. 

“Katelyn is a proven and passionate leader who has championed the safety and well-being of Rhode Island children for more than a decade, including the last two years as our state’s acting director,” McKee said in a statement. “We know she will serve Rhode Islanders well in this permanent role.”

Medeiros’ nomination now goes to the Senate for advice and consent. Senate spokesperson Greg Paré said Friday afternoon that “the Senate just received this nomination” and nothing had been scheduled as of May 17.

“During the last ten years, my passion and commitment to this important work has remained steadfast,” Medeiros said in a statement. “I will provide continuity to the critical work of our office to ensure the best interest of all children experiencing our child welfare, children’s behavioral health, and juvenile justice systems.” 

Since her initial role at the OCA in 2014 as a staff attorney, followed by a promotion to assistant child advocate in 2017, Medeiros has added an educational advocate to the office’s ranks and also helped establish a nine-member Advisory Committee. The committee members, each appointed by various parties and organizations, include an attorney, a family court judge, three kinds of pediatric specialists and an independent clinical social worker. The child advocate chooses the remaining three members, who are all children or parents formerly involved with the state’s child welfare system.

Medeiros took over as acting director in 2022 when her predecessor, Jennifer Griffith, left on an extended medical leave. Griffith ultimately resigned in July 2023 to take a job with the Secretary of State’s Office. 

Concerns from Griffith’s tenure have stretched into the present unresolved — particularly, a lack of adequate community-based, wraparound services or residential care for children, especially young girls, with severe behavioral and mental health issues or histories of trauma and abuse. 

Medeiros testified in a tense, long hearing of the House Committee on Oversight on the monthslong report her office made public in January documenting abuse and negligence at St. Mary’s Home for Children in North Providence. A scathing report questioned practices among staff and administrators at the home and the lackluster attempts by DCYF officials to remedy them. St. Mary’s recently announced that Tides Family Services would take over clinical duties at the residential treatment facility.

DCYF welcomed a new leader last year when Ashley Deckert took over for acting director Kevin Aucoin. Earlier this week, Zachary Cunha, U.S. Attorney for the District of Rhode Island, announced the results of a joint investigation with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights that found the child welfare agency let children and adolescents languish for months or even a year or more at Bradley Hospital, the state’s children’s psychiatric hospital in East Providence. Cunha suggested potential legal action. 

Cunha placed the onus of wrongdoing entirely “with the state, and the state alone” and not Bradley Hospital, he said in a press conference Monday, May 14.

With DCYF, the object of its oversight, now magnified to federal attention, the Child Advocate agreed the findings were important.

“The OCA anticipates DCYF’s swift response to address these findings and ensure the best interests of all children experiencing the children’s behavioral health system,” Kara Foley, an OCA spokesperson, said in a statement emailed Tuesday, May 14.  

“All children involved with DCYF have the right to receive treatment in the least restrictive setting with access to comprehensive services that allow them to maintain relationships with their family, school, and within the community. These findings provide a critical opportunity to conduct an in-depth review of our full continuum of care, build capacity in-state, and explore all funding opportunities.”

 “I believe we have momentum and look forward to identifying innovative solutions necessary for systemic reform,” Medeiros said in the statement accompanying news of her nomination. 

Paige Clausius-Parks, executive director of Rhode Island KIDS COUNT, praised the nomination of Medeiros in an emailed statement. 

“Katelyn’s commitment and determination to protect the children of Rhode Island is evident from her solid leadership throughout her tenure as interim. This is a win for our state’s most vulnerable children,” Clausius-Parks said,

The announcement of Medeiros’ nomination arrived less than an hour after McKee chose Wayne Salisbury for a permanent post at the Department of Corrections, where he has served as acting director since January 2023. 

McKee’s administration has been making progress in filling key roles. Dr. Jerome Larkin’s nomination for health department director was advanced by a Senate committee Thursday, and will hit the Senate floor Tuesday, May 21. 

The Senate approved Richard Leclerc as director of the Department of Behavioral Health, Developmental Disabilities on March 14. Cory King took over leadership of the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner on April 2, after having filled the role in an acting capacity since December 2022.

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