Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s scrutiny of psychiatric prescribing to children brings renewed attention to questions AbleChild put before Congress more than two decades ago: who authorized treatment, what protections were enforced, and where are the records showing outcomes?

Kennedy examined foster child research and burial practices in The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health. Investigative journalist Celia Farber, who researched the documentary Guinea Pig Kids, visited Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York. Kennedy’s book recounts the investigative reporter’s work: “I found the mass grave at Gate of Heaven cemetery in Hawthorne, New York.” In that report, the graves were believed to contain children used in clinical drug trials. The questions extend beyond one cemetery and one isolated investigation.

Georgetown University’s Forgotten Children Initiative identified more than 1,000 children buried at or near 40 youth correctional institutions across 29 states. At Maryland’s House of Reformation, more than 230 Black boys are believed to be buried nearby, most in unmarked graves. Children as young as five were confined for poverty, homelessness, or being orphaned; others were labeled “incorrigible.”

Georgetown’s national survey identified a child who died in the 1950s. Recorded causes at the Maryland institution included tuberculosis, pneumonia, and exhaustion. Researchers documented incomplete records and failures to inform families. These findings raise a question about government’s treatment of children today. What has changed?

For children with no parent available to challenge the government institutions, who independently represented their interests? Who investigated the death? Who authorized burial?

Maryland established a commission to investigate the House of Reformation and provide a public accounting. The law took effect July 1, 2026. These historical records concern correctional institutions. The clinical-trial records concern all children under government authority.

On May 18, 2005, AbleChild submitted written testimony to the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Resources hearing, “Protections for Foster Children Enrolled in Clinical Trials.” The submission by Sheila Matthews and Gloria M. Wright entered the official federal record.

Matthews submitted a Hartford Courant investigative news report identifying 396 Medicaid-covered children younger than four who were prescribed psychiatric drugs, including some younger than one. It quoted Yale Child Study Center psychiatrist Dr. Andres Martin: “I can’t make any sense of why a 1-year-old would be on Prozac.”

Who were these children? How many were in state custody or enrolled in a clinical research study? These questions remain unanswered.

The Vera Institute of Justice’s review of New York foster-child research identified 532 children who participated in 88 HIV/AIDS clinical trials and observational studies. Vera documented consent and authorization failures. Eighty children died while in foster care; 25 died while enrolled in a medication trial.

The government’s own prescribing reviews added another warning.

In 2011, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that hundreds of Medicaid-covered children in five states received five or more psychiatric drugs simultaneously. Its clinical experts found no evidence supporting that regimen in adults or children. However, the data obtained by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights International, (CCHR) shows some serious conflicting indications of the potential overlay of drug prescribing categories.   The data appears to conflict with the clinical experts’ findings.  The drug-category counts exceed the reported total number of children, indicating overlap across categories and suggesting that some children received more than one type of psychiatric drug simultaneously during 2023.

Who authorized those combinations, if any? What risks were disclosed? Which agencies reviewed the outcomes? Where are the records showing corrective action?

According to data obtained through a freedom of information request by CCHR, its March 2026 report compiled 2023 data from 32 states: 2,999,084 Medicaid-enrolled children ages 0 to 17 were prescribed psychiatric drugs, including 270,196 ages 0 to 5, with associated spending of $1.78 billion.  CCHR identified 18 states as unreported.

CCHR identified 1,423,643 children prescribed ADHD stimulants, 920,411 prescribed antidepressants, and 465,559 prescribed antipsychotics. How many received multiple drugs simultaneously or prescriptions outside FDA-approved ages or indications?

The prescribing totals do not identify clinical-trial participation; however, these cocktails of psychiatric drugs have never endured a clinical trial.  The bottom line is that the psychiatric drug combinations have never undergone clinical trials in which manufacturers jointly tested their drugs for adverse effects or fatal outcomes.

Government has the testimony, prescribing reviews, and spending records. What remains missing is a complete public accounting of what happened to the children and the verifiable outcomes.

The accompanying chart shows gaps in death reporting. Incomplete records leave unanswered questions about custody, treatment, and clinical-trial participation, and about the lack of a cause and manner of death.

An “undetermined” finding needs further clarification of exactly how the child died. The large gaps in reporting across the nation, year after year, certainly support Secretary Kennedy’s human rights concerns and the need for more clarification on the category of undetermined deaths.

Accountability requires examining who supplies the data and who independently verifies it, particularly when providers or researchers benefit from government contracts.

Government must produce the custody, treatment, research, consent, and investigation records. Where records are missing, it must identify what is missing, why, and who was responsible for maintaining it.

Children’s identities can remain private. Government decisions cannot remain beyond scrutiny.  “Undetermined” is not an accounting. Account for every child.