Maryland lawmakers plan to hold hearings in coming weeks on reports that the Social Services Administration may have let children in its care be housed with registered sex offenders, just one of many allegations in an audit of a “broken” agency.
“We need to make sure that the state — who is charged with overseeing their care — is doing so in the best way possible and ensuring the safety of these children,” said Sen. Shelly Hettleman (D-Baltimore County), co-chair of the Joint Audit and Evaluation Committee, which received the audit on the administration Wednesday.
Hettleman said she expects the committee will hold a hearing in the near future to investigate issues at the administration, a unit of the Department of Human Services that oversees the delivery of care by the state’s 24 local social service departments to about 24,000 children.
The 70-page report from the Office of Legislative Audits found that, among other problems, the state may have approved the placement of children in homes at addresses that were also listed as the address for seven registered sex offenders. Auditors also found that one group of foster care homes had an employee how had been convicted of sexual abuse of a minor, and another vendor that provided care for children being housed in hotels had an employee who was convicted of murder in 1990 — although it was not clear if that employee had access to children.
Lisae Jordan, executive director of the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said that many children end up in foster care because of sexual assault — she said 28.4% of the child abuse or neglect in Maryland in 2020 was sexual abuse. Placing those children in the care of registered sex offenders is “beyond irresponsible,” she said.
“Rather than protecting them [children], the state is apparently exposing them further,” she said. “They’re one of the most vulnerable people in Maryland and they deserve better.”
Auditors said that many of the problems identified in the newest report were included in previous of the administration, but that they have not been addressed. The audit concluded that the SSA’s accountability and compliance level was unsatisfactory for the third audit in a row, with some repeated findings dating back to 2008.
That did not surprise Sen. Clarence Lam (D-Howard and Anne Arundel), who chaired the Joint Audit and Evaluation Committee three years ago when it held a hearing to review the same issues at the administration.
“This goes back a long way, you know,” Lam said Wednesday. “While it still continues to this day, this extends as far back as audits that go only back to 2017 and there have been repeat audit findings that have come up in the past.”
Lam agreed with the auditors’ conclusion that job vacancies at the SSA “contributed, at least in part” to the problems. The audit said that the administration reported a vacancy rate of 12% to 22% over the last four years, and that as of June 30, 2024, about 19% of the agency’s 141 positions were vacant.
“You’re operating with an agency that’s very hollowed out … and so I think they probably are understaffed and don’t have enough people to be able to address all these concerns as well,” Lam said.
In a statement from the Maryland House Republican Caucus, GOP lawmakers said the audit’s findings were “not just disgusting and infuriating, but absolutely heartbreaking.”
“These are children who are under the care and guardianship of the state and deserve every protection we can give them,” said Assistant Minority Leader April Rose (R-Frederick and Carroll) in the statement. “This is a complete failure of the state’s most basic responsibility.”
Chief Deputy Minority Whip Wayne Hartman (R-Lower Shore) concluded the statement by saying there is “no excuse, absolutely no excuse, for “this level of complete negligence.”
Lam cited what he thinks is a “void in leadership” at the administration to address the problems.
“I think it’s clear from this audit that this is a broken agency, that the Social Services Administration has a long way to go in reforming their practices, bringing it up to standards and ensuring the safety of those that are under their care,” he said.
He said lawmakers could withhold funding from the administration, but said doing that to an already understaffed and underfunded agency “doesn’t seem incredibly appetizing.” The other option, he said, is “to redouble our efforts to hold their feet to the fire and make sure that they’re accountable in response to these concerns.”
“So then we’re only left with the other tool, which is every couple years, bringing them up before the joint audit committee and hoping that public shaming will be effective in getting them to step up and address these significant fundamental shortcomings in their processes,” Lam said.
“Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to have had much of an impact either, because we’re facing a lot of the same findings of a broken department,” he said.