“If we find that our standards for care were not met, we will hold our contractors accountable.” This is part of a statement from Maryland’s Department of Human Services (DHS) in response to the death of Kanaiyah Ward, a 16-year-old girl in their custody who died of an apparent drug overdose in a hotel room in Baltimore last month. While there are many infuriating issues surrounding Kanaiyah’s tragic death, it is this sentence that may be the worst. This comment is wholly symbolic of a broken department and a broken system that contributed to the death of this child. One would think that when a child in state custody dies alone in a hotel from a drug overdose, the very minimum standard of care has not been met.
Kanaiyah’s death came just days after the release of a terrible audit of the Social Services Administration (SSA) within DHS. While the audit identified repeated problems that have plagued the agency as far back as 2008, it also uncovered some disturbing findings regarding the safety of children in DHS care, including the agency’s failure to ensure individuals in positions to interact with children received background checks, its lack of a process to periodically reconcile the Sex Offender Registry with its providers and vendors, and their overreliance on the placement of children in hotels with unlicensed providers.
The audit found that “SSA did not have a procedure to ensure that criminal background checks were obtained for vendors that provided one-on-one services to foster care children in hotels.” Children like Kanaiyah Ward. These vendors provide transportation, administer medication and prepare meals for the child in their care in a hotel room. Yet, the SSA was not ensuring that criminal background checks were conducted on these providers. Auditors discovered that one of these individuals, employed by a one-on-one vendor, had been convicted of murder in 1990 and should have been precluded from working with children.
Placing foster children in hotels for an extended period is a practice that must end. According to the audit of the SSA, “state regulations require that children removed from their home be placed in the least restrictive environment, which includes, in order of preference, a relative, a family foster home, or a group care setting.” The audit found that the SSA did not ensure that local social services agencies were placing foster care children in settings authorized by state law. While it is understandable that an emergency removal of a child may mean that a space is not immediately available and a hotel is needed for a short period, the audit found that some children are staying in hotels for periods ranging from three months to two years. Many of these same children had behavioral or medical needs that required placement with a treatment foster care provider. However, one-on-one vendors are not licensed providers, so there is no guarantee that the children in their care are receiving the services they need. It would certainly appear that Kanaiyah Ward was not.
If this child had been left by her parents in a hotel room and died of an overdose, arrests would be made. If she had died in police custody, there would have been protests in the streets. Where is the outrage?
As someone who grew up in the foster care system from the age of 12 until I turned 18, I can say from experience that children in this system are too often treated like second-class citizens. I had no one to speak for me except my social worker, who was completely overwhelmed. In Annapolis, there are advocates who work tirelessly on behalf of children in the foster system. But they are minnows in an ocean of big-money special interest groups who tend to garner more time and attention for their own issues.
What happened to Kanaiyah Ward can never happen again. I am working with my Republican colleagues in the House of Delegates to craft the Never Again Act of 2026 — Kanaiyah’s Law. This legislation will prohibit placing foster children in hotels for more than a week without review and authorization from the secretary of the Department of Human Services. It will require training, licensing and criminal background checks for one-on-one providers. It will grant the Department of Human Services the legal authority to conduct ongoing monitoring and background checks of adults residing with children placed in guardianship homes. This legislation will likely evolve as we continue to review the audit of the SSA, as well as the facts surrounding Kanaiyah’s death.
Regardless of one’s place on the political spectrum, protecting vulnerable children is a crucial responsibility of the government — even more so when these children are wards of the state. Maryland is failing in its duty. We failed Kanaiyah Ward. This must never happen again.
Del. Mike Griffith is a Republican representing District 35A, which includes Harford and Cecil counties.
