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Child Advocate Christina Ghio testified before the Education Committee during a public hearing about homeschooling legislation. Credit: Laura Tillman / CT Mirror

Christina Ghio, who had been serving as acting child advocate since July 2024 when predecessor Sarah Eagan resigned, was confirmed to the role by the Senate on Tuesday in a split 27-9 vote that fell mainly along party lines.

The vote followed the confirmation of Susan Hamilton last month as the new commissioner of the Department of Children and Families.

The Office of the Child Advocate serves as a check on agencies such as DCF, which handle the care of vulnerable children in Connecticut.

Ghio has been a controversial figure in recent months as a voice of support for House Bill 5468, which would require families to get approval by the Department of Children and Families to withdraw children from public schools for home education. The issue moved some Republicans to oppose her nomination. And while some voted against her confirmation on Tuesday, none voiced their dissent during the discussion.

Instead, Senate Democrats voiced their support.

“I know she takes her job very seriously,” said Sen. Bob Duff, D-Norwalk.

Sen. Saud Anwar, D-South Windsor, commended Ghio as an independent voice, an essential attribute in a position that investigates DCF’s work and is charged with exposing the state’s failures.

In a statement, Sen. Ceci Maher, D-Wilton, who co-chairs the Committee on Children, celebrated the confirmation.

“Christina Ghio has proven herself to be a fierce and dedicated defender of Connecticut’s children, and I’m highly encouraged that her presence as the Child Advocate comes at a time when our state needs to improve current standards,” Maher said. “I’m heartened to know the children of our state will have a champion tirelessly fighting for them.”

Eagan, Ghio’s predecessor, resigned from the role after serving in the position for more than a decade. Since then, Ghio has released reports on the lack of regulation for homeschooling and how it can be used as a cover for abuse and neglect in some cases.

She also released a public letter last week detailed the decline in the quality of casework at DCF, and exposed a recent child death in which a child told DCF they wanted to be removed and placed in foster care and a caseworker told them that was not possible. Less than an hour later, the child had died in an apparent suicide.

Laura Tillman is CT Mirror’s Human Services Reporter. She shares responsibility for covering housing, child protection, mental health and addiction, developmental disabilities, and other vulnerable populations. Laura began her career in journalism at the Brownsville Herald in 2007, covering the U.S.–Mexico border, and worked as a statehouse reporter for the Associated Press in Mississippi. She was most recently a producer of the national security podcast “In the Room with Peter Bergen” and is the author of two nonfiction books: The Long Shadow of Small Ghosts (2016) and The Migrant Chef: The Life and Times of Lalo Garcia (2023), which was just awarded the 2024 James Beard Award for literary writing. Her freelance work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times and The Los Angeles Times. Laura holds a degree in International Studies from Vassar College and an MFA in nonfiction writing from Goucher College.