establishing the department of children's services and juvenile justice.

SB 142 establishes a new Department of Children's Services and Juvenile Justice to replace the Department of Health and Human Services' Division for Children, Youth and Families and Bureau of Children's Behavioral Health. The bill transfers all related functions, including child protection, foster care, adoption, juvenile justice, and children's behavioral health services, to this new department, which will be organized into four divisions: Administration support, Child welfare, Juvenile justice, and Children's behavioral health services. The new department will be headed by a commissioner appointed by the governor, and all employees from the transferred divisions will become employees of the new department. This change affects all children, youth, and families in New Hampshire who receive these services, as well as the state employees currently working in the transferred divisions.