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 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.