Four-year-old James Reese Jr. died in Jacksonville in 2021 while Florida held legal custody. Doctors found a skull fracture and older injuries. Missed exams, a superficial home visit, and kinship care without support point to systemic failure. Read the investigation.

A three-year-old in West Virginia, known to elope, was placed in a foster home about 30 yards from the Little Kanawha River with no alarms or barrier. CPS certified the placement, the contractor approved it, and the child drowned. Read the documents and the timeline.

A 13-year-old in Connecticut became pregnant in 2008 while under a probate guardianship. Records show DCF and the court missed clear warning signs, failed to notify police, and left the child in harm’s way. Read how gaps in policy and practice let a guardian keep custody and control.

Police found Jacqueline Torres-Garcia in a plastic tote behind an abandoned New Britain house in 2025. Records show DCF closed a case months earlier after a video check. The story tracks the school withdrawal, the missed in-person visit, and the custody decisions that left no neutral eyes on her.

Fifteen-year-old Christian Williams had Type 1 diabetes and was in Arizona DCS custody at a Catalyst group home in Mesa. Emails warned that missed insulin “will result in his death.” A DCS-contracted worker asked for a nurse. An emergency team met. Nothing changed. On July 7, 2024, staff framed a medical crisis as misbehavior and delayed 911. Christian died three days later of diabetic ketoacidosis. Licensing took no action. This investigation follows each warning, each decision, and the policies that should have protected him.

An 11-year-old boy with autism told adults he was in pain. Thompson’s RTC dragged him to a holiday movie anyway. He collapsed and died. This investigation shows how Texas child welfare, licensing, and contractors missed warning after warning until a child was gone.

A shocking case out of Sebring, Florida has exposed the horrific abuse and death of 13-year-old Selena at the hands of her adoptive mother, Diane Mack. Once a Florida DCF worker and Guardian Ad Litem, Mack now faces capital murder charges for keeping her autistic daughter chained, starved, and surveilled in her own garage. This case raises damning questions about oversight failures in Florida’s child welfare system.

Sixteen-year-old Nayeli Perez was supposed to be safe. Instead, she was hidden away, starved, and beaten until her body gave out. Found weighing just 78 pounds, with injuries that told the story of months of torment, her death exposes a child welfare system in Texas that failed to see, failed to act, and failed to protect. This is not just the story of one girl, but of a broken system that allowed her to disappear in plain sight.

The Greylock group home in Springfield was supposed to provide safety and healing for vulnerable girls in state custody. Instead, it became a place of fear and abuse. From daily chaos and repeated staff misconduct to the indictment of staff member Xavier Cruz on charges of raping a 14-year-old resident, Greylock exposes a child welfare system in Massachusetts that is broken at its core. Despite 132 violations and confirmed abuse, the facility remained open until public outrage forced its closure. This is not an isolated scandal. It is a stark example of how systemic neglect, poor oversight, and profit-driven decisions leave children in harm’s way, not only in Massachusetts but across the country.

Massachusetts’ Department of Children and Families has long promised reform after each new tragedy, yet the cycle of failure continues. Children die, suffer neglect, or are torn from safe homes because of an agency that is broken at its core. The recent revelations about abuse inside a state-run group facility are not isolated scandals but symptoms of a nationwide crisis in child protection. From Massachusetts to California, Illinois to Texas, child protective services have left vulnerable children in danger and caused immeasurable harm. This article exposes how secrecy, negligence, and systemic dysfunction have made the system itself a threat to the very children it was created to protect.

Harmony Montgomery’s story exposes the devastating failures of child protective services. Years of warnings were ignored, oversight collapsed, and a child disappeared under the care of those sworn to protect her.

Massachusetts DCF has turned children into revenue streams. Instead of protecting families, the agency profits from removals, seizes Social Security benefits, and inflates abuse reports to secure more funding. Behind every dollar is a child abandoned, exploited, or discarded.

A child’s safety should never depend on whether an agency follows its own rules. The November 7, 2024 audit of Massachusetts DCF revealed widespread neglect of oversight, missing documentation, and ignored court orders, proving once again that systemic failures continue to endanger vulnerable children.