fall through/between the cracks

phrase

variants or less commonly slip through/between the cracks

: to fail to be noticed, assisted, or included with others

Parents are concerned that children who have trouble in school will fall through the cracks in the school system.

The program is meant to help workers who may have slipped through the cracks because of their age.

Examples of fall through/between the cracks in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

As software engineers continue to be put under pressure to use AI for their work — or else land on the chopping block — many errors could fall through the cracks. — Victor Tangermann, Futurism, 19 Mar. 2026

Instead, the state must take action to help the children who fall through the cracks of the public education system. — Christopher Keating, Hartford Courant, 11 Mar. 2026

The system uses chatbots to triage tenant requests around the clock and actively tracks follow-ups with maintenance providers so that jobs don’t fall through the cracks. — Jeremy Kahn, Fortune, 25 Feb. 2026

When the system adds friction, families fall through the cracks. — Uché Blackstock, Time, 8 Jan. 2026