Children who have already been victimized should never be placed in another abusive or neglectful home by the state. Yet several recent cases raise alarms about the safety of guardianships and adoptions.

Last year in Arkansas, after 29 reports of maltreatment to the state hotline spanning more than a decade, an unnamed 15-year-old boy was discovered locked in a bathroom, naked and malnourished. His legal guardians, an aunt and uncle, have been charged with his abuse and imprisonment.

This was a voluntary guardianship, originally made in 2013 with the consent of the biological parents. However, concerns emerged almost immediately when the guardians prevented visitation with the parents. The parents unsuccessfully sought to appoint a different guardian less than a year after the guardianship began. By 2016, the guardians stopped submitting their annual reports accounting for the children's health and living arrangement; after several contempt citations were issued, the court dismissed the contempt case and took no further action.

These egregious failures of guardianship are not limited to Arkansas.

Last September in Detroit, 9-year-old Owen Rosario died after being found underweight, with "an extremely protruding stomach, and sustained fractures to several areas of his body." Owen's guardians were also voluntarily chosen by his biological mother; she chose a couple who had been licensed foster parents for at least six years. This means that even though Owen was not in state custody at the time of his death, caseworkers should have been checking in at least once a month on........

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