The Maryland Department of Human Services is investigating Caroline County Child Protective Services after staff failed to respond this summer to a Federalsburg home where state troopers found two children alone, living in human and animal waste. One child was naked, covered in dirt.
Audio from law enforcement’s communications with one another shows troopers were frustrated by the lack of response; one threatened to file a complaint with the state if a Child Protective Services representative didn’t show. Several local officials told The Baltimore Sun that Child Protective Services has been providing “inadequate” responses to after-hours calls from schools and law enforcement for more than a year, putting children at risk and straining police resources.
Sometimes Child Protective Services staff don’t show up at all, leaving children in dangerous situations or forcing law enforcement officers to babysit neglected or abused children while they wait for staff, said Caroline County State’s Attorney Sloane Franklin.
“This is absolutely endangering our children,” said Caroline County Sheriff Donald Baker. Although he, Franklin and others have raised this issue with leadership more than a year ago, he said, nothing has changed. He hopes this new investigation will force change, but he’s not certain it will.
“I was impressed with his response during that meeting, but it’s a shame we’re still in this situation a year later,” Baker said.
Department of Human Services spokesperson Ben Shnider told The Sun it was investigating staff in the Caroline County location and called “the safety and well-being of Maryland’s children … our highest priority.”
Much of this came to a head July 13, after Caroline County’s Child Protective Services staff failed to respond to Maryland State Police calls for assistance at the Federalsburg home.
The house was full of broken furniture, the Maryland state trooper’s report said.
Large piles of trash were on the floor and feces was smeared on the walls; dirty diapers lay on the floor; cat urine and feces were found throughout the house, and the toilets were completely full of human waste.
Two of the five children who lived in the house were found abandoned — one, a four-year-old girl, was naked, smeared with dirt. Law enforcement found a five-year-old boy sleeping on a urine-soaked blanket and mattress, surrounded by trash, food and empty alcohol bottles.
According to the statement of charges, Child Protective Services refused to respond to the house. Both parents are facing misdemeanor charges for neglect and/or endangerment.
Although the state police declined to comment on whether their trooper filed a complaint with the state, Child Protective Services and the Maryland Department of Human Services confirmed the investigation into staff was in response to the July 13 neglect case, but declined to comment on staff conduct, citing privacy laws.
The investigation is ongoing.
CPS under investigation, ‘inadequate responses’
State’s Attorney Franklin told The Sun that he and others had identified a pattern of slow or inadequate response by Child Protective Services for more than a year, but had been frustrated in their attempt to address it.
Both Franklin and Sheriff Baker said it was not one particular staff member, but rather a division-wide pattern that put children at risk and took up law enforcement officers’ time and resources.
“We want to be there for the welfare of the children, but it’s our job to investigate the incident, find people who need to be arrested and held accountable,” Baker said.
Instead, Franklin said, law enforcement officers are often left “babysitting” traumatized children instead of investigating those implicated in their abuse.
“Caroline County is unfortunately inundated with child abuse investigations,” Baker said. “My concern is it seems like when it’s not Monday through Friday, eight to four, Social Services hesitates to respond to support law enforcement, which is mandated by law. They would rather have the law enforcement officer facilitate what they call a safety plan or to put the child with another family member, until they can respond during normal business hours.”
Although Child Protective Services caseworkers must initiate investigations into reports of suspected child abuse within 24 hours and into reports of suspected child neglect within five calendar days, “that is a floor, not a ceiling,” Baker said. “They can respond that minute, if they want to.”
Franklin recalled a disturbing call Caroline County Public Schools made to Child Protective Services after an elementary school girl reported her father had been raping her. He said caseworkers refused to respond until the district contacted him and involved law enforcement.
“Their response was absolutely criminal,” Franklin said.
In another instance, Baker recalled a boy who had to be flown to Johns Hopkins Hospital as a result of severe child abuse.
“They didn’t respond for several days, and never went to the hospital,” he said of the agency.
Franklin, Baker and others met with the Department of Human Services Secretary Rafael López and other relevant parties last April to raise the issue of inadequate response by the Caroline County staff. Baker said he was impressed by López’s response in the meeting, but he and Franklin both agreed they saw little to no improvement following that discussion.
Department press secretary Lilly Price responded on López’s behalf, noting that the investigation was into staff following the July 13 call, not the division. She declined to elaborate further.
“Our top priority is the well-being of Maryland’s children and families,” Price said in an emailed statement.
“Based on feedback from families and stakeholders, we have significantly reduced vacancy rates and prioritized filling front-facing roles to improve our responsiveness,” Price said. “That said, any failure to respond to a report of abuse or neglect in a timely manner is one too many. When mistakes are made, we hold ourselves accountable and take action to ensure we do better moving forward.
“Failure to respond to a report of abuse or neglect in a timely manner is unacceptable.”
According to the 2021 Child Welfare data snapshot, Caroline County saw an average of 22 child maltreatment reports per month from Feb. 2020 to Jan. 2021 and averaged eight completed investigations, among the lowest in the state, most of which ruled out child abuse or neglect.
The state’s Child Abuse and Neglect Brief 2010-2019 showed that during that time, eight children died in the county due to abuse or neglect; a rate of 23.9 per 100,000 residents, second-highest in the state behind Baltimore City, at 29.5.
‘Terrible living conditions’
In an audio recording from the scene reviewed by The Sun on a public streaming site Broadcastify, a responding Maryland State Police trooper said he planned to file a complaint if Child Protective Services did not respond.
“There’s still talks of CPS [Child Protective Services] not coming out here,” an unidentified officer told dispatch. “If you happen to talk to them, just tell them that I’m going to file a complaint against her department if they do not respond.”
Maryland State Police declined to comment on the investigation into the agency but did confirm that its troopers responded to a Federalsburg home for a welfare check shortly after 9 a.m. on July 13. Upon finding unattended children, a spokesperson said, a representative contacted Child Support Services by phone.
The statement of charges, a copy of which The Sun reviewed, went into much greater detail.
“Several attempts to contact Child Protective Services were made in order for them to respond, assess the living conditions and take custody of [the children],” a trooper identified as S. Hansley wrote. “Child Protective Services were eventually contacted but they refused to make a response to the scene despite the terrible living conditions and the wwell-being[sic] of [the children].”
One expert with decades of experience in child welfare told The Sun the agency’s response was appropriate.
“Troopers coordinated with CPS and the family member to reunify the children with him, which is exactly what needed to happen on an emergency basis,” said Judith Schagrin, a Baltimore County social worker of 35 years and former public policy analyst for Baltimore City, now an advocate for The Coalition to Protect Maryland’s Children.
“The protection of children doesn’t rest with CPS in isolation, but depends on input and support from family and community, and other authorities, including police,” she said.
Intoxicated endangerment and neglect of a minor
Hansley wrote that he arrived at the Federalsburg home shortly after 9 a.m., the same time local paramedics responded to another call nearby, according to the records reviewed by The Sun. The mother of the two children was spotted lying in a ditch near an intersection close to the home, the statement said.
The Sun is withholding the identity of the adults involved so as not to inadvertently identify the children.
Emergency personnel said her speech was slurred and difficult to understand; she was soaking wet, covered in dew, and had likely been lying in the ditch for “a long period of time,” the document said.
The mother requested a welfare check on her husband and children at the Smithville Road home, and upon arrival, responding officers found the boy and girl living in squalor, the report said.
A neighbor told law enforcement the couple living there had six children, but that the older children may be with another relative in a nearby town. According to the document, the children were aged 4, 5, 10, 12, 13 and 14 years old. The neighbor said she hadn’t seen either parent since 5 p.m. the day before, the document said.
The relative, when contacted by law enforcement, confirmed the older children were living with him “because he knew how poor the living conditions were.”
The father told Hansley he had last seen his wife at about 6:00 a.m. that day, and said she was asleep in bed, the charging documents read. He said he then left for work, knowing both children were asleep upstairs in bed. He said all the alcohol in the house belonged to his wife.
“The house has been destroyed for approximately a month,” the father told Hansley. He was arrested on site and charged with five counts of neglect of a minor, according to the records.
The mother has been charged with two counts of intoxicated endangerment and neglect of a minor, according to court records reviewed by The Sun.
In an interview with state police at the Tidal Health Nanticoke hospital in Delaware, the mother said she left the house between 6 and 7 a.m. on Sunday. She said she thought her husband was still home.
She said she consumed a pint of vodka “between last night and the early morning hours” and did not remember much after walking past the intersection. She was found lying in a ditch nearby.
When asked about the condition of the home, she blamed her children.
The children left the scene with their relative within an hour, law enforcement said.
Got a news tip? Contact Glynis Kazanjian at gkazanjian@baltsun.com.
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