Gregoire also disclosed her own action plan for child welfare, which includes a response to all reports of child abuse within 24 hours. The state meets that standard now in 84 percent of cases. Gregoire said that will be 100 percent within a week.

Agency rules currently require a response to abuse reports within 10 days.

"When a child's life is at risk, responding in 10 days is absolutely not acceptable," the governor said.

Gregoire said the agency's interim director will be Liz Dunbar, a senior official in the administration's parent agency, the Department of Social and Health Services.

Ahluwalia had overspent her budget, The Seattle Times reported Thursday.

Sources in and outside DSHS confirmed Wednesday that she had resigned, The Times reported.

"Uma was gone as of the end of the day" Tuesday, said Charlotte Booth, executive director of the Institute for Family Development, which provides services for children and families. "I think it's tragic. It's never good to have this kind of chaos and turnover in the Children's Administration."

Ahluwalia, 38, a native of India, would not discuss her job status Wednesday, The Times said.

The $450 million-a-year children's agency, battered by critical lapses linked to high-profile abuse deaths in recent years, was assailed by Gregoire last month for overspending its budget for the current two-year fiscal period by $12 million.

"You look at the children whose lives have either been lost or dramatically impacted. We just cannot allow this to continue," Gregoire told The Olympian newspaper on Wednesday. "We've got to make some fundamental changes."

Ahluwalia emigrated from India in her early 20s, within six years was running social services in Prince George's County, Md., and later became congressional liaison for the District of Columbia's child-welfare services.

Praised by superiors and national child welfare activists as smart, aggressive and innovative, she was hired for the $100,000-a-year Washington state position in 2003 following the unexpected death of Children's Administration chief Rosalyn Oreskovich.

Ahluwalia began her tenure with visits to all 44 agency offices across the state, announced an ambitious agenda called Kids Come First 2 and worked for changes ranging from speedier child abuse investigations to better foster parent recruitment.

Still, just two days after Ahluwalia started work, 2-year-old Rafael Gomez of Ephrata died of child abuse and more deaths were linked to agency lapses.

Most recently, a report on the starvation and dehydration death of brothers Raiden and Justice Robinson in Kent in November was highly critical of Child Protective Services, part of the Children's Administration.

When the overspending came to light last month, Ahluwalia's superiors in DSHS announced spending cuts and removed her budget authority.

"I feel bad for Uma," said Charles Shelan, chairman of the Washington State Coalition of Children's Residential Services. "She's very bright, very articulate, but this problem, this entire cascade of events, just overwhelmed her."