Tag: rafael lu00f3pez

This article was republished with permission from WTOP’s news partners at Maryland Matters. Sign up for Maryland Matters’ free email subscription today.

The state Social Services Administration may have approved guardianship homes for children who are in state care where registered sex offenders lived, and failed to identify a convicted sex offender who worked in a group foster home and later faced criminal charges involving children under his care.

Those are just some of the findings of a 70-page audit released Wednesday by the Office of Legislative Audits that includes a slate of concerning findings dating back to 2008 and new findings that include nearly $700,000 in penalties for failing to meet federal foster care service requirements.

Legislative Auditor Brian Tanen, in a letter with the audit, said the administration “did not have comprehensive procedures to ensure individuals with disqualifying criminal backgrounds did not have access to children in the State’s care.”

The letter also noted that the administration “was not aware of the 7 registered sex offenders we identified that had the same address as an approved guardianship home housing 10 children as of August 2024 and had not identified that an individual employed by a group foster care home had been convicted of sexual assault of a minor. This individual was subsequently charged with crimes involving children under his care.”

The Social Services Administration, part of the Department of Human Services, oversees the work of the state’s 24 local social services departments that provide programs and services to about 24,000 children. There are roughly 12,500 providers and parents that participate in those programs at a cost of about $360 million, according to auditors.

The report covered a period between May 1, 2020, to May 31, 2024, overlapping the administrations of Gov. Larry Hogan (R) and Gov. Wes Moore (D).

Department of Human Services Secretary Rafael Lopez, in a Sept. 9 response to the audit, said his agency takes “the findings of the audit with the utmost seriousness.”

“In the 1.5 years of the 4-year audit period during which I served as Secretary, our leadership team has moved with urgency and challenged the status quo not only with the Social Services Administration, but across the department.”

The agency largely agreed with the more than one dozen findings in the audit.

In response, the agency repeatedly stated that “the safety and well-being of children are our highest priority.”

Seven on sex-offender registry had addresses of group homes

Auditors noted that the administration failed to ensure that adults “convicted of disqualifying crimes” were not residing at homes in the state’s guardianship program. There were 2,463 such homes approved by the agency in fiscal 2024.

Local social services departments are responsible for criminal background checks on adults living in a home when it is initially approved, but the audit found that in fiscal 2024 the state “did not conduct periodic follow up to identify new adults” living in those homes after the initial approval.

Auditors identified seven adults on the state’s sex-offender registry living at addresses associated with an approved guardianship home as of August 2024. In one case, an individual convicted of sexual misconduct with a minor listed the same address as a home where four children between ages 4 and 8 lived.

“SSA [Social Services Administration] was not aware of any of these individuals until we provided them our match results in December 2024,” auditors wrote.

In its response, the agency said it was “fully committed to ensuring background checks are completed for individuals interacting with children under our care,” but that it does not have “legal authority to conduct ongoing monitoring or background checks” after children are placed in guardianship.

Auditors disagreed, saying the administration is still responsible for certifying facilities and “should implement the recommendations to ensure the ongoing safety of children placed in these settings by the state.”

Abuse allegations involving convicted sex offender

In another instance, auditors found a man convicted of sexual assault of a minor had been employed since December 2022 by a group of foster care homes, and that in June 2023 he “allegedly transported three foster children for an inappropriate activity.” The Washington County social services office determined there was evidence of abuse related to that incident.

Auditors said that DHS’ Office of Licensing and Monitoring had reviewed the home where that individual worked in April 2023, but did not uncover his sexual assault conviction. The audit said the administration could not provide documentation of any corrective action taken as a result to ensure background checks were conducted at foster care group homes.

In its response, DHS said it would ensure background checks are being completed. Additionally, it said the unidentified group home “removed portions of its employees’ criminal background checks to avoid … review.”

The administration ended placements with that provider in November 2023 and revoked the provider’s license a month later. All children were removed from the facility by February 2024.

“Additionally, the team member responsible for reviewing the criminal background clearance and their supervisor were disciplined,” DHS noted in its response.

It vowed to “take action,” including immediate suspension or revocation of licenses, removal of children and corrective action plans, if it identified “disqualifying criminal activity.”

Employee convicted of murder may have had access to children

Auditors used state wage data and Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services conviction records to review employees of 14 vendors that provide care for some foster children housed in hotels. The review uncovered one individual “who was convicted of murder in 1990, which would preclude them from working with children.”

The auditors noted that the agency was not aware of the conviction and “could not readily determine if this individual had or continues to have unsupervised access to children.” In its response, the administration said the unidentified employee no longer works for the contractor “and we confirmed there is no invoice … referencing this employee.”

Questions on ‘sufficiency and propriety’ of background reviews

Auditors tested a sample of 10 group homes that the SSA said it reviewed in December 2023 and reported that background checks were conducted for all employees in those facilities.

But auditors said they could find “no evidence of a criminal background check in 5 of the homes raising questions about the sufficiency and propriety of those reviews.”

The review did not turn up any individuals who had convictions that would have disqualified them from working with children, according to the report.

Accountability and compliance ‘remains unsatisfactory’

The audit also contained a half-dozen repeat findings including:

• A lack of quality assurance and effective oversight of the local departments’ administration of child welfare programs.
• Failing to ensure that local departments provided foster children with required medical and dental exams. Auditors identified 640 children who had not received a medical exam in the last year, and another 110 had not had an exam in up to six years. More than 1,600 children had not had a dental exam in the last six months, including 140 children who had never had a dental exam.
• Failure to address instances where local offices did not promptly conduct abuse and neglect investigations. Between January 2023 and June 2024, it said 22 local offices took more than a month for such an investigation, while 10 failed to do so for seven or more months and five had not conducted an investigation for the entire 18-month period.
• A lack of an effective process for redetermining eligibility resulting in the loss of nearly $23 million in federal funds.
• Failure to pursue nearly $5 million in overpayments to providers.
• Failure to ensure that payments made to an unidentified state university for child welfare services were consistent with work agreements, related to the task performed and backed up by adequate documentation.

“Based on the results of our current audit, we have concluded that SSA’s accountability and compliance level remains unsatisfactory,” auditors wrote in their report. “The significance of the findings and the number of repeated findings are the primary factors contributing to the current unsatisfactory rating.