How Maryland failed families and children with complex needs

In Maryland, a prosperous state that’s home to some of the nation’s best behavioral health care and social-work institutions, dozens of children every year languish in hospital emergency departments, sleep in government offices or live in hotel rooms with no one but an aide camped out in the hallway to care for them. How did it come to this? Caring for children with highly complex emotional and behavioral needs is a challenge across the country. But in Maryland, the problem has worsened over the last decade — and many blame outgoing Republican Gov. Larry Hogan. Several children’s advocates, health care executives and current and former state employees say state officials have cut costs, reprioritized and shrunk the size of government. Now, they say, these children are suffering the consequences.