Investigative Journalism | Exposing What Lies Beneath
The investigation into federal adoption incentives is broadening, revealing over $1 billion in bonuses and $52 billion in Title IV-E funding. Key findings include decreased foster care caseloads and increased adoption payments. Riptide Investigations is examining state funding patterns, policy changes, and the effectiveness of financial incentives in achieving child welfare goals.
Since 1997, the federal government has paid states over $1 billion in adoption incentives, encouraging adoptions instead of family reunification. While foster care numbers declined, adoption assistance payments surged by nearly 43% in recent years, highlighting a troubling financial structure favoring permanent separations over reunifications.
Follow the money: how $1 billion in federal bonuses built an incentive to separate families Read More
When Georgia State Senator Nancy Schaefer dared to expose the cash-for-kids corruption inside Child Protective Services, she uncovered more than bureaucratic mismanagement—she revealed a government-funded machine incentivized to destroy families. Months later, she was found dead. Labeled a murder-suicide by authorities, her death silenced one of the only voices willing to call CPS what it had become: a taxpayer-backed child trafficking operation. But the rot doesn’t end there. From family courts to federally funded NGOs, a sprawling web of secrecy and profit thrives—shielded by immunity, powered by incentives, and enforced through silence.
The Silence of the Brave: How Nancy Schaefer’s Death Unmasked a Web of Government Corruption Beyond CPS Read More