Massachusetts' child-welfare agency closed a neglect case after wrongly concluding the family had left the state and not seeing the children for months, the child advocate found.

A December 2025 investigative report by the Massachusetts Office of the Child Advocate found that the Department of Children and Families' Worcester East Area Office served a family for neglect for a total of three years and eight months without adjusting its approach as risk to the children increased. The area office closed the case in October 2023, believing the family was living in New York, information later found to be inaccurate; at closing, caseworkers had not seen the children for 114 days.