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.

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.