Just before this story became public, the MA DCF was already taking a lot of heat because a 5-year-old boy in DCF custody disappeared; it was 2 or 3 months before anyone knew, and then it came out only because his sister told her teacher at school. I believe the social worker who was supposed to be checking on him and her supervisor were fired.
Then it became public that DCF revised its guidelines on who could be a foster parent, saying that a felony conviction (even for violent crime or soliciting sex from minors) should not be an automatic disqualifier. (A decision which Deval defended publicly, saying if someone had a police record from years ago for stealing a candy bar -- yes, that was the example he used -- it shouldn't be held against him.)
Then there was talk of the -- IIRC -- 100 children who died in DCF custody over the past 3 years. And another 100 or so missing children in DCF custody, but DCF kind of dismissed those, saying most of them had attained their teens and were considered runaways.
Deval has steadfastly refused to fire the head of DCF. She says she submitted her resignation, but he refused to accept it.
I find people that say they submitted their resignation but it wasn’t accepted to be hard to believe.
She could quit whether or not it was ‘accepted’.