A new report shows that between the summers of 2023 and 2024, 12 child deaths were reported across New Hampshire agencies focused on care for families.The Office of the Child Advocate, which wrote the report, said the number of deaths is down compared to years past, but more funding is needed to keep the trend low. "The critical need for us right now is really to get the word out about the importance of what we do, by helping reflect that in the report and other efforts that we've been making and ensuring that our leaders can see the importance of continuing to fund this office," said New Hampshire Child Advocate Cassandra Sanchez.The Office of the Child Advocate, founded in 2018, oversees the state's child-serving agencies.That includes groups that fall under the umbrella of the Division of Children, Youth and Families, such as child protective services and juvenile justice.The latest report shows that about 3,000 incident reports were reviewed in total across state agencies. Among those reports are 12 child deaths, and about one-third of them were children younger than 1 year old. It also points to more children entering the system than there are foster homes and residential care available to take them in. "We really need to work to build up and support our foster parents and get children into that community-based level of care as quickly as possible," said Sanchez. "That is what's going to lead to better outcomes for our children." >> Download the free WMUR app to get updates on the go: Apple | Google Play <<Sanchez said that despite several staffing changes, she feels confident with how the office handled cases in the past year and in the group's ability to serve New Hampshire's families moving forward."We continued to work very diligently," said Sanchez. "We have very dedicated staff in the office, even working extra hours to try to make sure that we were seeing incidents as they were coming in."The office is working to advocate for itself, too. It faces the risk of becoming defunded in the state's latest budget, which Governor Ayotte spoke out against last month."We've had children that have been harmed and killed, and so I think that having that outside perspective of the Child Advocate to really push the agency, and also to provide information to the legislature, is important," said Ayotte.Newly introduced office positions, like a Public Relations and Media Officer, are boosting the office's presence on places like social media. For Sanchez, these efforts to save the office means also saving the kids who need the state's help."It was a very busy year," she said. "We made a lot of progress in certain areas, but there's still a lot of work to be done."Sanchez adds other efforts the office wants to improve on include school resources, mental health, and reducing residential care for kids.