Maryland leaders are coming together in a bipartisan fashion to codify increased oversight of the foster care system after a turbulent year within the Department of Human Services (DHS).
The agency has been plagued with repeat audit findings of noncompliance, including lack of medical care for foster children, placing children in homes with registered sex offenders and placing children in homeless shelters, office buildings and hotel rooms.
The latter was the case for Kanaiyah Ward, a 16-year-old girl who took her own life via a drug overdose in September while in the state foster care system.
“DHS put Kanaiyah into a hotel room with limited to no supervision, not even with a guardian, but with someone they called a chaperone,” Del. Mike Griffith (R-Cecil and Harford Counties) said during a press conference Thursday. “This has led us down quite a path of discovery, of outrage, but also unity on trying to solve these issues.”
Griffith — who grew up in the foster care system — is the prime sponsor of Kanaiyah’s Law.
Roughly a month after Kanaiyah’s death, DHS announced it would be ending the practice of housing foster care children in unlicensed facilities, including hotels.
Kanaiyah’s Law would codify this policy into law, as well as require criminal background checks for all adults living in court-appointed guardianship homes and create an ombudsman to investigate foster care-related complaints.
As written, that ombudsman would be housed under the Office of the Attorney General, but Griffith says that provision is likely to change due to a potential conflict of interest since the Attorney General legally represents DHS.
“We are working very closely with DHS and the governor's office. They are supportive of this initiative. We still need to work out some of the details of exactly what that's going to look like, and where it's going to be housed,” Griffith said.
Maryland hospitals submitted an amendment request that hospitals be exempt from consideration as an “unlicensed setting” when temporarily housing sick children, which Griffith says he’s supportive of.
Rafael López was leading DHS at the time of Kanaiyah’s death and the release of the scathing audit findings, but he announced his resignation earlier this month due to “health-related reasons.”
López officially stepped down on Monday, ending his three-year tenure, and Deputy Secretary Gloria Brown Burnett is currently serving as acting secretary.
Former Baltimore County Administrative Officer Stacy L. Rodgers will take over as acting secretary on April 1.
When asked if he feels real change could be coming within the foster care system under new DHS leadership, Griffith clarified this bill was not written with the intention of calling any one person out.
“It's unfortunate that it had to take this type of tragedy for people to finally stand up and pay attention, but the good news is, people are. And I think we're going to be able to solve some of these things with this bill,” Griffith said. “This bill is not against anybody, right? This bill is for these kids. We're fighting for these kids, and as conservatives, as Democrats, we are for these kids,” he said.
At the recommendation of the Department of Legislative Services (DLS), lawmakers are considering withholding $750,000 from DHS funding until the agency can prove it has improved upon the troubling audit findings.
This isn’t the first instance of such a financial penalty for the department — language in the 2024 state budget restricted $100,000 in general funds from DHS until it could show steps taken to ensure compliance with state law.
DLS reports while the department did submit details on actions taken, those measures “did not prevent repeat findings from appearing again in the February 2025 audit.”
Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) says he’s in favor of withholding funding until DHS can show improvements.
“I think you'll see some budget restrictions coming out of the Senate, as well as a package in connection with the House,” he said at a media availability on Tuesday. “We've had very productive conversations around joint efforts for dealing with repeat audit findings and trying to do some initiatives to make sure that it is very clear that we need to see a change in how executive agencies are functioning and recognize that we can't continue to see these repeat audit findings over and over again.”
DHS testified in favor of the bill with some amendments, which include carving out college dorms from being an “unlicensed setting” and codifying the Guardianship Assistance Program.
That program provides financial assistance to foster care guardians, and an amendment would require those adults go through a background check process annually.
Kanaiyah’s mother, Brooke Ward, also testified in support of the legislation, wearing a hoodie with a photo of her late daughter printed on its front.
“We are hoping that the young men and women who need the help get it and that the systems that [they] rely upon to protect and serve them actually work,” Ward said. “I hope we can put politics aside and focus on something we all have in common: the love of our children.”
The bill awaits a vote in the House Judiciary Committee.
