America does not have a single trusted home for child abuse data. Instead, families, advocates, and lawmakers are forced to hunt across federal reports, state dashboards, and scattered academic studies to understand what’s happening to vulnerable children.
To make that easier, KARA’s “Child Abuse Statistics (and the best resources)” page gathers links to the strongest local, state, and national data sets—along with frontline organizations, helplines, and research centers working on prevention, mental health, and child protection reform. These include federal Child Maltreatment reports, leading child abuse and trauma centers, and our own National Child Abuse Information & Solutions Platform, built to make real‑time information and resources easier to find.
If you’re a CASA, foster parent, educator, health professional, or policymaker, this is your starting point: the numbers, the context, and the best places to turn for evidence‑based help.
If this exploration of the transparent reporting of child protection
in America resonates with you,
don’t stop at awareness.
Share this article with your networks and
talk about it in your schools, faith communities, and civic groups.
Contact your local and state representatives to support the resources that will make CPS more effective and demand the policies that strengthen families—income supports, housing, childcare, mental health care. Volunteer and or donate to community‑based, BIPOC‑led organizations that are already doing the work of healing, advocacy, and prevention, and use whatever platform you have to insist that U.S. children deserve strong rights, strong families, and a system engineered for safety instead of harm.
For a Deeper Dive:
After a decade shaping children’s policy in Europe, KARA cofounder David Strand came home to a hard question: why is the United States so far behind in protecting its most vulnerable citizens? At Hamline University he turned that question into his 1996 PhD thesis, Nation Out of Step—a rigorous statistical study of how other advanced nations treat at‑risk children and families, and how their processes and outcomes differ from America’s.
KIDS AT RISK ACTION / KARA / INVISIBLE CHILDREN
