When the state takes a child, it claims the power to protect. Across the country, documented cases show what happens when that promise collapses, removals triggered by low-severity claims, warnings ignored in placements, children harmed, missing, or dead, and accountability arriving late, if it arrives at all.

A child welfare case can be decided by what gets typed into a file. This “When Case Notes Lie” installment uses documented court findings to show how falsified reports and distorted records can fuel removals and rip families apart.

Paris Golec says her daughters Abigaile and Natascha were taken from her in May 2017, and that what followed was not protection, it was procedure used as a weapon, across state lines, across courts, and behind closed records. After reading her entire blog, I wrote this to put her account where more people will actually see it, and to expose the systemic failures that allow a mother to report a crisis while the system re-labels it as “civil” and lets time do the damage.

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 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.