Collateral Damage: The DCF Chronicles

DCF Chronicles, New York, Foster Care, Child Welfare Failures, Investigations, Civil Rights Paul Brown DCF Chronicles, New York, Foster Care, Child Welfare Failures, Investigations, Civil Rights Paul Brown

Broken Bridge: How New York's Foster System Pushed Jade Smith to the Edge

Public filings show 13-year-old Jade Smith was reported missing near the Brooklyn Bridge hours before she was found in the East River. A federal lawsuit alleges that New York City’s child welfare system failed at the moments that mattered, from mental health planning to placement oversight to missing-from-care response. This story follows what the record shows, and what the sealed record keeps from view.

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DCF Chronicles, Investigations, Child Fatalities and Near-Fatalities, Case Dossiers, Oversight and Accountability, Policy Failures, Contracted Provider Failures, Foster Care and Cause Closure Failures, Screening and Case Closure Failures, Legislative Watch, Court and Records Watch, Survivor Testimony, Systemic Issues Map, Calls to Action Paul Brown DCF Chronicles, Investigations, Child Fatalities and Near-Fatalities, Case Dossiers, Oversight and Accountability, Policy Failures, Contracted Provider Failures, Foster Care and Cause Closure Failures, Screening and Case Closure Failures, Legislative Watch, Court and Records Watch, Survivor Testimony, Systemic Issues Map, Calls to Action Paul Brown

DCF's Rotten Core: How Massachusetts Keeps Killing Kids Through Neglect and Incompetence

Massachusetts DCF keeps calling child deaths “isolated tragedies,” but the public record shows a repeat pattern of warnings ignored, cases closed without proof of safety, and protocols that protect paperwork instead of children. This is not a few bad apples, it is a rotten core.

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