The death of sixteen-year-old Kanaiyah Ward, who died by suicide while placed in an unsupervised hotel despite requirements for supervision, has intensified calls for reform of Maryland’s foster care system.[1] Her death underscores a broader systemic failure, that there is inadequate oversight of vulnerable children placed in state care.[2]

In Maryland, children enter out-of-home care, or foster care, when removal from their homes is necessary to ensure their safety and well-being.[3] This includes both traditional foster placements and kinship placements, where children are placed with relatives rather than unrelated caregivers.[4] Approximately 3,800 children are currently in the state’s foster care system, many of whom have experienced significant trauma and loss.[5] These children require placements that are not only safe but responsive to their complex needs.[6]  However, due to a shortage of appropriate placement options, the State has increasingly relied on temporary and often unsuitable settings, including hospitals, hotels, and group homes.[7] These placements frequently lack adequate supervision and regulatory oversight, which exposes children to further harm.[8]

A recent audit by the Maryland Department of Human Services revealed serious deficiencies within the Social Services Administration (“SSA”).[9] The audit found that required background checks were not consistently performed, allowing individuals with criminal histories, including seven individuals listed on the Maryland Sex Offender Registry, to be associated with foster care placements.[10] Additionally, SSA placed children in unlicensed and unauthorized settings, including approximately two hundred eighty children housed in hotels under the supervision of unlicensed providers.[11] These failures are not merely administrative, as they represent a breakdown in the State’s duty to safeguard children in its custody.[12] Kanaiyah Ward’s death underscores the consequences of these deficiencies, where mandated one to one supervision was not provided.[13]

In response, Maryland legislators have taken steps to address these systemic failures.[14] Delegate Mike Griffith, drawing on his own experience in foster care, introduced House Bill 980, known as Kanaiyah’s Law.[15] The legislation requires juvenile court approval specifying a child’s placement, prohibits the placement of children in unlicensed settings, and mandates comprehensive criminal background checks for all individuals residing in or associated with a foster placement.[16] By requiring judicial oversight and strengthening placement standards, the law seeks to impose accountability on a system that has historically operated with insufficient safeguards.[17] Kanaiyah’s Law is set to take effect in October 2026.[18]

While this legislation represents a critical step forward in strengthening oversight, its effectiveness will depend on meaningful implementation and sustained oversight.[19] Without enforceable penalties, such as the removal of children from unsafe placements, administrative sanctions against agencies, and increased judicial oversight, there is little to prevent the recurrence of the same oversight failures that have plagued Maryland’s foster care system.[20] As prior audits have shown, lapses in background checks and the continued use of unlicensed placements are not isolated incidents, but systemic deficiencies.[21] When children are placed into foster care, it is often following a series of traumatic events.[22] To then place those children in environments that lack adequate protection compounds that harm and undermines the very purpose of state intervention. The estimated cost of implementation (approximately 1.2 billion dollars) reflects both the scale of the problem and the resources required to meaningfully address it.[23]

Kanaiyah’s Law does not resolve all deficiencies within Maryland’s foster care system, but it marks a necessary beginning. By addressing oversight failures and unsafe placements, the State moves closer to fulfilling its duty to protect children in its care. Meaningful reform must continue, but this legislation offers a framework for change and, most importantly, a measure of accountability for a system that has too often failed those it was designed to protect. Maryland’s foster care system must do more than provide temporary shelter. It must provide safety and stability to foster care children. Without continued reform and enforcement, the system risks perpetuating the very harm it is intended to prevent.

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Skyler Daniels is a second-year day student at the University of Baltimore School of Law and a First Year Staff Editor for Law Forum. Skyler earned her bachelor’s degree from The Ohio State University in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. At the University of Baltimore, Skyler serves as the President of the American Constitution Society and was inducted into the Royal Graham Shannonhouse III Honor Society. Skyler will serve as an Intern with the Office of the State’s Attorney for Baltimore City this upcoming summer.

[1] See Tommie Clark, 16-year-old’s Death in Maryland’s Foster Care System Sparks Significant Reform Within DHS, WBAL TV (Mar. 19, 2026, at 17:45 ET), https://www.wbaltv.com/article/16-year-old-death-maryland-foster-care-significant-reform-dhs/70795484 (on file with the University of Baltimore Law Forum).

[2] See Mikinzie Frost, Baltimore Teen’s Death Raises Questions on Foster Care Oversight and Contractor Role, FOX45 News (Oct. 2, 2025, at 19:10 ET), https://foxbaltimore.com/news/local/baltimore-teens-death-raises-questions-on-foster-care-oversight-and-contractor-role (on file with the University of Baltimore Law Forum).

[3] See Out-of-Home Care, Md. Dep’t of Hum. Serv., https://dhs.maryland.gov/out-of-home-care/ (on file with the University of Baltimore Law Forum) (last visited Apr. 9, 2026).

[4] What is Kinship Care in Maryland, Md. Dep’t of Hum. Serv., https://dhs.maryland.gov/out-of-home-care/kinship-care/ (on file with the University of Baltimore Law Forum) (last visited Apr. 19, 2026).

[5] Out-of-Home Care, supra note 3.  

[6] See Pamela Wood, Maryland is Spending $1.2B to Eliminate Foster Care Hotel and Hospital Stays, Balt. Banner (Mar. 18, 2026, at 17:54 ET), https://www.thebanner.com/politics-power/state-government/maryland-foster-care-contracts-JY2B5J7UTZE77PJOLFQYEGCJXI/ (on file with the University of Baltimore Law Forum).

[7] Id.   

[8] Id.  

[9] Maryland Department of Human Services, Social Services Administration Audit Report 1—2 (2025) https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://ola.maryland.gov/umbraco/Api/ReportFile/GetReport%3FfileId%3D68c486a79057a613fa7fa61e&ved=2ahUKEwjXpbi968CTAxX41vACHVipDV0QFnoECB0QAQ&usg=AOvVaw3QCd1eYFG75ESZ9YJzo8Fo (on file with the University of Baltimore Law Forum) [hereinafter “Audit Report”].

[10] Id. at 12, 15. 

[11] Id. at 19

[12] Id. at 1.

[13] Id.  

[14] See David Collins, Lawmakers Consider Withholding $750K From Embattled Maryland Department of Human Services, WBAL TV (Feb. 19, 2026, at 18:08 ET), https://www.wbaltv.com/article/maryland-department-human-services-funding-at-risk-issues/70423090 (on file with the University of Baltimore Law Forum).

[15] See Clark, supra note 1; H.B. 980, 2026 Gen. Assemb., 449th Sess. (Md. 2026) https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2026RS/bills/hb/hb0980T.pdf (on file with the University of Baltimore Law Forum).

[16] Md. H.B. 980.

[17] Wood, supra note 5.

[18] Md. H.B. 980.

[19] See Clark, supra note 1.

[20] Md. H.B. 980.

[21] See Audit Report, supra note 9.

[22] See Out-of-Home Care, supra note 3.

[23] See Rhiannon Evans, State Officials Approve Up to $1.2 Billion in Contracts to End Hospital Overstays, Md. Matters (Mar. 19, 2026, at 05:00 ET), https://marylandmatters.org/2026/03/19/state-officials-approve-up-to-1-2-billion-in-contracts-to-end-hospital-overstays/ (on file with the University of Baltimore Law Forum).