Harmony Montgomery's father was plainly unable or unwilling to care for her — yet in February 2019, a Massachusetts Juvenile Court assigned him full custody without properly considering her safety and well-being. Just months later, she went missing. Her father has since been sentenced to 45 years in prison for beating 5-year-old Harmony to death.

A string of failures within the Department of Children and Families and the Juvenile Court system led to this heartbreaking tragedy. This bill would create a commission to investigate exactly where things went wrong in Harmony’s case, study our current system more broadly, and make recommendations on how the Legislature can change our laws to ensure that a parent’s rights are appropriately balanced with a child’s needs. The creation of this commission is based on the first recommendation made in a report published by the Office of the Child Advocate.

The Senate previously passed a version of this commission as part of its Fiscal Year 2023 budget, however the language did not make it into the final legislation.