The North Carolina House passed a revised version of Senate Bill 280, now titled the Dominique Moody Safety Act. The legislation was introduced in response to the tragic death of a six-year-old girl named Dominique Moody, who died in December 2025 following thirteen calls to Mecklenburg County Social Services for investigations into how Dominique Moody was being treated.

A medical examiner determined Dominique Moody had several injuries when she died, including burn scars and fractured ribs. Dominique weighed just 27 pounds at the time of her death.

In the years leading to Dominique’s death, Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services had opened and closed five separate welfare investigations. In April 2023 a family member of Dominique called Charlotte-Mecklenburg police to request a welfare check for Dominique and her younger sister, expressing concern that they were being abused.

Rep. Allen Chesser in a statement following the passage of the Dominique Moody Safety Act, “Dominique Moody should be alive today, and while this bill cannot fix that, it can prevent future children from becoming victims within a system that is charged with keeping them safe.”

Rep. Chesser has championed foster care reform this session, notably passing House Bill 612, the Fostering Care in NC Act, into law in June 2025. House Bill 612 gives NCDHHS more power to review cases in county level social services, and strengthens investigations into reports of abuse.

WBTV reported in May that NCDHHS recently conducted an investigation into Mecklenburg County Social Services and implemented a correction plan after it was found the County had problems in over half of the cases reviewed.

The Dominique Moody Safety Act would make several changes to the current child protection laws.

• Child Welfare Escalation Team would be created to assist counties with child welfare assessments regarding designated high-risk homes
• Training for child abuse and neglect training for child protective service employees and social workers
• Predictive risk modeling pilot program to identify patterns of abuse prior before more serious harm occurs
• Annual reporting to Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Health and Human Services
• Reducing the liability placed on the state and placing some liability on individual counties when the county department of social services fails to follow statutory requirements or state policies and procedures