N.J.’s child welfare system can end 20 years of court oversight with a new law. But it’s stalled. – NJ.com

It’s taken almost 20 years and billions of dollars of investments in technology, personnel and social services, but New Jersey’s child welfare agency is nearly at the finish line of an unlikely transformation — going from one of the most neglected and poorly run agencies of its kind to what many say is now one of the nation’s best.

What the state Division of Child Protection and Permanency will need to operate independently, without the supervision of a federal judge, is for the top two leaders in the state Legislature to pass a bill they themselves introduced in March.