Abused and neglected children don’t have a voice in their homes, the media, State House or any say in the politics and policies that rule their lives. They are at the mercy of our politicians and institutions that serve them. Children and youth suffer most when institutions providing them safety and services fail to be supported. They cannot defend themselves against mean politics and bad policies.
Children in crisis cannot wait for lawmakers to “get around” to them. Every day that legislators delay strengthening child protection, real children stay in dangerous homes, cycle through failed foster placements, or age out of care without healing or hope.
Why your voice matters
When constituents speak up, child welfare stops being an invisible line item and becomes a moral priority. Lawmakers consistently say they act when they hear clear, persistent stories and data from the people they serve, not just from agency lobbyists. Your emails, calls, testimony, and op-eds are the pressure that turns “good intentions” into statutes, funding, and oversight.
Silence is a policy, too
When the public stays silent, systems that are already underfunded and overwhelmed are allowed to fail in the dark. Abused and neglected children pay for that silence with their bodies, their mental health, and often their futures. Speaking out is not charity; it is accountability for a government that has already promised, in law, to keep children safe.
What you can do this month
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Call or email your state legislators and tell them that stronger child protection laws, funding for trauma-informed services, and real oversight of CPS are priorities you will vote on.
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Share one of KARA’s concrete stories or statistic that shows what happens when we fail children, and ask for one specific action: support a bill, fund child advocacy centers, or create independent oversight.
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Join KARA’s team for monthly outreach to lawmakers focusing on preventing child abuse and strengthening families; coordinated voices move legislation further and faster than isolated ones.
Children cannot walk the halls of the capitol or draft bills. If the public does not stand between them and indifference, no one will.
All of our institutions are working with 20th century practices and policies keeping them from keeping up with the growing demands of a struggling and confused public. Dissatisfaction with our struggling institutions is growing. What to do?
Blaming the people doing the work is less than useless. Many good people have left and are leaving these fields because of the overwhelming nature of the work and poor results being achieved. Those that are left have high turnover rates in positions that take years to train to proficiency (very costly both in dollars and public service). Support them, get involved, or at least spread the word.
You and I and our legislators need to solve this problem.
It is the only way it will be solved.
WHEN YOU Share KARA’s reporting with FRIENDS, INSTAGRAM & FACEBOOK and most of all, your State Representative (find them here) change will come. When enough of us become informed and speak up for abused and neglected children, we will improve their lives and our communities!
Please support KARA’s reporting and programs with a monthly donation:
Dollar costs of high ACEs in the Read More below
There is not yet a single, widely cited U.S. study that cleanly states “the dollar cost to the education system of high‑ACE children,” but several national and state analyses get close by quantifying ACE‑related costs and clearly tying high ACEs to expensive education outcomes like chronic absenteeism and special education.
What exists now
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A 2023 national analysis in JAMA estimated that adult health conditions associated with ACEs create an annual U.S. economic burden of about 14.1 trillion dollars, mostly in lost healthy life‑years and medical spending, but it did not break out a separate “education” cost line.
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State‑level ACEs cost reports (for example, California and Tennessee) quantify billions in ACE‑related annual costs and sometimes list education and special education as specific categories, but usually as part of broader maltreatment or ACEs costs rather than a stand‑alone “high‑ACE student” education bill.
Evidence on ACEs and education outcomes
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Large ACEs–education studies show that higher ACE scores are linked to lower school engagement, more absenteeism, more grade repetition, and higher use of special education or individualized education plans, which are among the biggest drivers of added education spending.
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New research on ACEs and chronic absenteeism finds a clear dose‑response relationship: each additional ACE significantly increases the odds of health‑related chronic absenteeism, which in turn predicts poor academic performance and graduation rates.
Using current data in your advocacy
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For now, the strongest evidence frame is: ACEs drive education‑relevant problems (attendance, behavior, achievement, special‑ed use) and are already known to impose very large macro‑economic costs, even though no one has yet fully priced the K–12 line item alone.
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You can legitimately say that ACEs impose documented multi‑billion‑dollar burdens on states, that special education and absenteeism are significant pieces of that burden, and that a precise national “per‑student education cost of ACEs” remains a research gap—one more reason lawmakers should invest in prevention and better data systems.
Health outcomes: Adults with high ACE scores have dramatically higher rates of depression, substance use, suicide attempts, and chronic disease; one classic finding is around a 10‑ to 12‑fold increase in key health risks at 4 or more ACEs.
Education and workforce: Higher ACE exposure is tied to lower test scores, more grade repetition, more behavior problems, and reduced graduation and college attendance—directly undermining the future workforce lawmakers say they want to build.
Evidence that prevention policies work
Policy levers: State‑level policies that strengthen family economics, parental supports, and access to health and family planning services are associated with lower maltreatment rates, showing that policy changes can move the numbers.
Prevention education: States that mandate school‑based child sexual abuse prevention programs see significant increases in reports by educators, indicating more disclosure and earlier intervention.
Be a voice for an at-risk child that has no voice and share these Child friendly bills with your state representative. Email them this post and a note about why this is important to you. Find your State Rep HERE
Support strengthening training for mandated reporters (HF 1346 Nash | SF 2350 Draheim)
Discouraging young children’s exposure to fentanyl (HF 897 Knudsen | SF 456 Utke)
Maintaining safety standards for relatives providing foster care (HF 1424 Hanson | SF 1786 Maye Quade)
Assessing state dollars toward child protection (HF 2135 Pinto | SF 1898 Kunesh)
This post provided by former CASA volunteer Guardian ad Litem MikeTikkanen
KIDS AT RISK ACTION / KARA / INVISIBLE CHILDREN
