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Auditors say Maryland's foster-care oversight failed; lawmakers consider centralizing background checks
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Summary
Legislative auditors told a Feb. 12 briefing that Maryland's Social Services Administration lacked effective oversight, failed to ensure routine criminal-background follow-ups and data accuracy, and incurred millions in hotel and vendor costs; DLS and OLA proposed legislation to centralize checks and create an audit-compliance unit.
Legislative auditors and evaluators told a joint Judiciary and Appropriations subcommittee briefing on Feb. 12 that the Social Services Administration's (SSA) oversight of local departments of social services was deficient and that those gaps harmed foster children.
"SSA had not established a comprehensive and effective quality assurance program to ensure the LDSSs properly administered these programs," Eddie Rubinstein, director responsible for the OLA foster-care audit, told the committee while summarizing the audit. Rubinstein highlighted multiple findings including missing routine criminal-background follow-ups, inaccurate case-management data and incomplete medical and dental exams for many children.
Why it matters: OLA identified 280 instances in fiscal years 2023—and—24 when foster-care children spent time in hotels, with related payments to 1-on-1 vendors totaling $10,400,000, and reported potential overpayments of about $34,500,000 across FY20—through—24. The audit also noted a federal noncompliance penalty of $698,000 tied to foster-care performance measures, raising risks to federal reimbursement.
The auditors cited multiple concrete weaknesses. Rubinstein said SSA did not conduct periodic reconciliations of the Maryland offender registry against provider records and that OLA matched registry addresses to approved guardianship homes. The audit identified vendors used to supervise children in hotels who had criminal convictions; OLA said it could not document that SSA had ensured background checks for those vendors or taken corrective actions.
Data-quality problems also surfaced: OLA found CJAMS case records lacking support that required initial health exams occurred for dozens of children and that many foster children had not received required dental or medical exams in the periods the system requires.
Repeated problem, proposed remedies: Brian Tan, the legislative auditor, told members the audit repeated six prior findings and that SSA has now received three consecutive unsatisfactory audit ratings dating back to audits beginning in 2017. In response, Department of Legislative Services (DLS) staff presented draft legislation to centralize background checks in a State Police unit with FBI rap-back alerts, create an Audit and Fiscal Compliance Unit (AFCU) in the Department of Budget and Management to drive corrective actions, and strengthen fiscal capacity to pursue federal reimbursements. Ken Weaver (DLS) said these bills (filed in the Senate as SB858 and SB859 and with House companions) are intended to close gaps OLA identified and reduce fraud in contractor background-check submissions.
Reaction from lawmakers: Members pressed auditors on implications for liability and asked whether particular local departments were outliers. OLA and DLS witnesses said problems appeared across jurisdictions and emphasized that the recurring theme was weak monitoring and incomplete procedures rather than isolated audit-errors.
Next steps: Committee members signaled support for legislative fixes and follow-up reports. DLS and OLA said they would provide more granular data and collaborate on proposed bills to centralize checks and create oversight capacity; DHS and the SSA were scheduled to testify next and to provide their implementation status and responses to the audits.
