BALTIMORE — Little is known about who 16-year-old Kanaiyah Ward or how her short life ended. Now, an autopsy is now underway to answer at least one question that lingers as her death raises many others.
The teen’s body was discovered at the Residence Inn on N. Wolfe Street on Monday, police are calling her death “questionable.”
At the time of her death, she was under the Maryland Department of Human Services’ care.
WATCH: Advocates call for answers, change after foster teen found dead in Baltimore hotel
“We got to get to the bottom of this. How does this happen? Who was in charge?,” Minority whip Delegate Jesse Pippy (R) District 4 said. "The care and custody of minors should be our greatest responsibility, and it appears in this scenario that the state has let this poor girl down, and I hope we can get answers."
Why Ward was in a hotel remains unclear, as the agency reports the law prevents it from disclosing more information to the public.
There are currently 18 minors under DHS care staying in hotels in comparison to the 40 that were on October 28, 2024.
A new audit of DHS, revealed that from May 2020 to May 2024 the agency placed 280 children in hotels with un-licensed supervisors providing continuous care at a cost of $10.4 million dollars.
It also showed that the agency’s expenditures significantly increased over that time period due to rising provider rates and increased usage of one-on-one vendors, which accounts for 91% of the $10.4 million.
“The licensing process provides a lot of assurance that they've had adequate training, they have adequate knowledge to be able to meet that child's needs,” executive director of the Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children and The Courts Aubrey Edwards-Luce said.
It also means it's not clear what background checks are being performed on supervisors used for these one-on-one services.
From 2023-2024 the agency contracted with 14 vendors.
The agency responded to the audit saying "any child placed in a hotel is one child too many" and that it partners with Local Departments of Social Services (LDSSs) to find “appropriate placements for youth based on clinical recommendations, diagnoses and behavioral needs.”
It notes “[w]hen a child is removed from their home, they should be placed in the least restrictive, most family-like setting, including with relatives, in family out-of-home settings, or, when necessary, in group care settings.”
The audit also revealed at least seven registered sex offenders were listed as living at the same address as foster children. The new findings raised concerns among those who work in the child welfare advocacy space.
“When we remove a child from their parents, we're doing so because we've said the parent has done something wrong and the promise is that the state will do better. And what we're seeing through this audit, and through this tragic death of this child, is that they're not fulfilling their promise,” CFCC faculty director Shanta Trivedi said.
WATCH: An In Focus look at the Social Services Administration audit
Trivdedi says that the money spent on hotel stays and one-on-one services, would be better spent helping to reunite family including providing wrap around services.
“Most of the cases that we see are neglect, not abuse, and a lot of those cases are based on poverty,” she said. “We take their children and then pay foster parents to take care of the children when we could take that same money and pay the parents to help them find stable housing and reduce the trauma on everyone and not for nothing, reduce the burden on the court system, on all these attorneys and case workers that are part of the system”
DHS press secretary Lilly Price shared in a statement after Ward’s death that the agency is investigating and will hold contractors accountable if “standards for care were not met.”
The governor's office echoed this statement after WMAR-2 News reached out saying:
The death of any child anywhere in our state is tragic. In coordination with other authorities, the Maryland Department of Human Services is working expediently to investigate this incident and is committed to holding its contractors accountable.
As we mourn the loss of this young life, the Moore-Miller Administration remains steadfast in our resolve to do everything in our power to prevent these tragedies from occurring. We will continue to work toward ensuring that every child in the state’s care finds a safe and healthy permanent home.
