LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — An overhaul of the watchdog agency that monitors Nebraska’s foster care cases has taken effect.

The new Foster Care Review Office announced Monday that it has replaced the 30-year-old Nebraska Foster Care Review Board.

The board was created as a watchdog for the Department of Health and Human Services, to address concerns that too many children were being taken from homes and kept as state wards for too long. But critics say board members had conflicts of interest, because some worked for child welfare agencies that receive funding from the department.

The new law by Omaha Sen. Bob Krist dissolved the board and created a new office and advisory committee. The law bans committee members from having a financial interest in the child welfare system.