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Delegate Kipke presents resolution on foster-care audit that found safety, medical-exam failures
Summary
Delegate Kipke introduced HJ 4 describing an audit that documented systemic failures in Maryland's child welfare system, including licensed guardianship homes with registered sex offenders on the premises, numerous children missing required medical and dental exams, and delayed abuse investigations.
Delegate Kipke presented House Joint Resolution 4, which responds to findings in a recent audit of Maryland's foster-care system that documented longstanding safety and oversight failures. Kipke said auditors identified guardianship homes approved without administrators' knowledge of registered sex offenders at the addresses, staff with convictions who later were charged with crimes involving children, and hundreds of children lacking timely medical and dental exams.
Kipke cited audit findings that included 640 children missing a required medical exam for over a year and more than 1,600 children without required dental exams; he framed the resolution as a reaffirmation of the General Assembly's obligation to protect children and complement ongoing reform work in policy committees.
Ending: The committee received the resolution and testimony; no formal vote on the resolution was recorded at the hearing.
