Protection Failed

What happens to children after they are taken into foster care?

The answer is more complex-and more urgent-than most people realize.

In Protection Failed: Inside America's Foster Care System, Samantha J. Garcia delivers a structured, deeply examined look at one of the most critical systems in the United States. Moving beyond assumptions and surface-level narratives, this book explores what happens inside foster care when policy, data, and lived experience do not fully align.

Through a clear and grounded approach, this book examines:

• Children who go missing while in state custody
• Abuse and neglect within foster placements
• Data gaps, underreporting, and limited visibility
• Oversight failures and accountability breakdowns
• The impact of high caseloads and system strain
• The gap between what children experience and what systems record

Rather than focusing on isolated incidents, this book connects patterns-revealing how structural issues shape outcomes across the system.

Protection Failed does not rely on assumption or exaggeration. It is a careful, direct examination of how a system designed to protect can, in some cases, fall short of its purpose.

This is not just a book about foster care.

It is a book about systems, accountability, and the difference between intention and reality.