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A scathing 70-page audit from the Maryland Office of Legislative Audits lays bare what every hardworking American already fears when government swallows parental responsibility: children in state care were placed in environments that would make any decent citizen furious. The report shows the Social Services Administration repeatedly failed basic safety checks, letting kids be housed where registered sex offenders lived and where people with horrific criminal histories could have access to vulnerable children. This is not bureaucratic incompetence; it is moral failure that demands immediate consequences.
Auditors found seven individuals on the sex-offender registry living at addresses tied to approved guardianship homes, with ten children residing at those locations as of August 2024, a fact the agency only learned after the audit’s investigators matched records. Imagine the outrage if this were your child — the state’s promise to protect became a cruel betrayal for those kids and families. Maryland taxpayers deserve answers about how these placements were ever approved and why follow-up checks were not mandatory.
Even more disturbing, the audit uncovered a group foster home that employed a man previously convicted of sexually assaulting a minor; after a failed review, he allegedly transported foster children for inappropriate activities and was later charged with crimes involving those in his care. This is the kind of headline that should spur criminal referrals and heads to roll, not bureaucratic statements about “taking findings seriously.” The safety of children cannot be a checkbox on a spreadsheet while predators slip through the cracks.
The report also identified that a vendor caring for foster children housed in hotels had employed a person convicted of murder in 1990, raising alarming questions about who’s watching these children when the state outsources care. Hundreds of children were placed in hotels — some for months or even longer — under unlicensed supervision, a practice that reeks of negligence and indifference to family values. This is what happens when systems prioritize convenience and budgets over the sanctity of childhood.
The audit’s findings go beyond horror stories; they document systemic rot: missing medical and dental care for hundreds of kids, thousands of overdue abuse investigations, and repeated failure to correct long-standing deficiencies dating back years. The Social Services Administration received an “unsatisfactory” accountability rating for the third consecutive audit and faces nearly $700,000 in federal penalties — a cold accounting of taxpayer money wasted while children suffered. Voters must demand that the money be used to fix the problem, not to paper over it with press releases.
Lawmakers from both parties are finally calling for hearings to probe this broken agency, and some Republican leaders are rightly demanding immediate firings and tougher oversight from Governor Moore’s administration. This is the moment for bold action: suspend licenses, launch criminal investigations, and replace failed leadership with people who respect the family, the rule of law, and the safety of children. The public shouldn’t accept platitudes; they want action and accountability now.
Conservative Americans know what works: stronger background checks, regular re-screening of anyone in a household with foster children, outlawing prolonged hotel placements, and empowering parents and faith-based organizations to care for vulnerable kids. If the state won’t protect the innocent, we must rebuild systems that do — with transparency, real consequences for failure, and a renewed commitment to the dignity of family life. Patriots and taxpayers should demand nothing less than a full course correction and a pledge that no child in Maryland will again be put at risk while bureaucrats look the other way.
