Thousands of children go missing from state care every year. The government's own auditors have confirmed it.
In 2023, the HHS Office of Inspector General audited missing-from-care reports from 2018–2020. What they found was a systemic reporting failure.
NCMEC reports that 1 in 7 children reported missing from care is assessed as a likely sex trafficking victim.
And thanks to the broken reporting exposed by the OIG audit — these are only the ones we know about.