A colorful figure behind window bars in a sketch style.

Child Abuse & Prosecution in Texas: Kids, Courts, and a Broken System

Child abuse and prosecution in Texas tell a complex story that goes far beyond headline grabbing stings. Operation Soteria Shield rescued more than 100 children and led to over 200 arrests in a major FBI led crackdown on online child exploitation, while new state laws now require Texas schools to report educator misconduct and abuse more rigorously. At the same time, federal investigators have found unconstitutional conditions across Texas juvenile justice facilities, including sexual abuse, excessive force, and prolonged isolation, and judges have called the state’s use of psychotropic medications on foster youth “appalling,” with many children prescribed multiple powerful drugs without adequate oversight. Rising youth violence, racial disparities in child welfare and school discipline, and a documented child to prison pipeline mean that prosecution alone cannot keep children safe. This KARA report brings together data and sources on child abuse cases, foster care failures, juvenile justice, mental health, and recent legal reforms in Texas—and calls for trauma informed services, diversion programs, and stronger accountability to truly protect vulnerable children instead of merely reacting after the harm is done.

A fiery solar flare erupting from the sun's surface.

In Texas 2024, only 10 Children Died of Abuse (248 died of neglect)

Texas child neglect fatalities 2024: The Most Common Cause of Child Death in Texas Isn’t defined as Abuse. The Center for disease control defines child abuse with clarity as any act of physical, sexual, or emotional harm including neglect, done towards a minor under the age of 18 by an adult that holds a custodial or parental role (About Child Abuse and Neglect | Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention, 2024).

Bougainvillea climbing white wall by door

SMART JUSTICE – Mental Health Police in Texas

A friend sent me this today and I think it would solve many of our nations troubles and is worth sharing (widely). San Antonio Texas and Bexar County have saved 50 Million dollars and made life safer, more just, and much kinder for their citizens. The jails aren’t full today because the officers are dealing with the mental health issues that are getting people shot and beat up by other police departments.

Instead of facing more awful stories about how police departments are causing their communities to fear them, this department has recognized that jail is ineffective in treating mentally unhealthy people involved in low level crime and they came up with a better way. Read the whole story below (with audio).

Watch & Share these 2 minute trailers from KARA’s TV documentary project (help us BUILD KARA & spread the word)

Young boy leaning against wooden post

The State Of Child Protection in Texas (655 under-reported deaths of abused children)

With one of the nation’s largest child abuse agencies, 2.5 billion dollar budget, & 8000 employee, Texas struggles to keep up with the increase in child protection cases, not enough quality foster and adoption families, and cases that stay in the system far too long (federal lawsuit).

For a long time now, Texas has ranked last or near last among the states for prenatal care (50th), low birth weight babies, health care expenditure (48th), spending on mental health (49th) graduation rates (45th), SAT scores, child abuse deaths, uninsured children, births to teen moms, WIC benefits per person (50th), 4th highest in women living in poverty, and 6th highest in child poverty (2013 Texas Legislative Study Group/83rd Regular Session of the Texas Legislature).

Texas is also first in executions, 2nd in larceny, theft, and property crime rate, 4th in rate of incarceration, and personal bankruptcy filings, (March 2013).

Nearly half of the 655 under-reported child deaths occurred to children on CPS radar. That’s what happens with extraordinarily high caseloads, too few resources for existing cases, lack of transparency & reporting.

Each year, over 100,000 Texas children between the ages of 7 & 17 go missing, many of them while in child protective services.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children estimates that 60% of children likely to be victims of sex trafficking have fun away from foster care or group homes.

The high turnover in child protection workers and broken foster care and daycare system are just the tip of the iceberg of at risk children in the state.

Child protection workers and children did not make the mess and they can do little to fix it. Lawmakers, voters, and concerned citizens need to look to other states and nations to find solutions.

26% of Texas population (1.7 million Texas children) live below the federal poverty level & Of the 804 Child fatalities reported in 2013, 156 were related to child abuse or neglect according to Child Protective Services.

Fishing boats and trawlers docked at harbor

Child Protection News – Your State Here (Texas and Florida are tied once more)

Medical News Today – October 09, 2014
More than half of federal and state prisoners are parents of nearly 1.5 million minor children, and one-fifth of prisoners have children under the age of five. Children of incarcerated parents are more likely to have witnessed criminal activity and/or the arrest of the parent, both of which have been shown by researchers to have unique effects undermining children’s socio-emotional and behavioral adjustment. Also: Empowering Our Young People, and Stemming the Collateral Damage of Incarceration: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/10/08/empowering-our-young-people-and-stemming-collateral-damage-incarceration Information Gateway Resources: Children in Out-of-Home Care With Incarcerated Parents: https://www.childwelfare.gov/outofhome/casework/children/incarcerated.cfm
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/283562.php?tw

US: Childhood psychological abuse as harmful as sexual or physical abuse
EurekAlert! – October 08, 2014
Children who are emotionally abused and neglected face similar and sometimes worse mental health problems as children who are physically or sexually abused, yet psychological abuse is rarely addressed in prevention programs or in treating victims, according to a new study published by the American Psychological Association.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-10/apa-cpa100814.php

Simple black silhouette of three people standing close together.

It’s Worse In Texas

Minnesota is reacting to a very rare and thorough investigation of abused children (thank you Brandon Stahl).

This is the first time in 30 years (since three year old Dennis Jergens tortured murder) that well written and multiple child abuse stories from our cities major media are forcing our community to consider how shallow our commitment to at risk children is.

As a volunteer CASA guardian ad-Litem, I worked with dozens of children with toxic and painful home lives very much like Eric Dean’s home. None of my caseload children ever made the paper – not the girl who had the bottom half of her body scalded off, not the boy sexually abused, tied to a bed & left alone for days, starved and beaten for four years, not the suicidal four year old, the prostituted seven year old, or the small boy who walked back home from Cambridge on a ten degree night in a T shirt because he was thrown out of a group home as punishment for his mental health problems. Their stories, and a million others every year, are never in the newspaper, never told on TV or radio, and rarely spoken of by the people that know them.

These are awful and uncomfortable stories that we would rather not speak of and the children themselves rarely know just how wrong what has happened to them is. Nor do they know the life long damage that has been done to them.

But I know.

I also know, that until the rest of the community cares enough about the horrific damage done to thousands of abused children every week (and not just the tortured dead children that make the newspaper) to have in place a child protection system that identifies and deals with children needing services, reporting, and policies to keep them safe, our prisons will remain full, our schools to fail, our communities unsafe, and children will be traumatized in their homes on a daily basis.
Without Brandon Stahl’s Star Tribune reports, Governor Dayton would not have ordered a joint county-state investigation of Minnesota’s child protection services and Adrian Peterson’s son being beaten with a stick and forced to eat leaves would not have been a news item any more than the guardian ad-Litem cases I have written about in this article and Adrian would still be playing football as a star for the Vikings.

Silhouettes of a family with two adults and one child.

Texas Wins Again (Criminalizing 300,000 students / year)

Cursing, farting, or an honors student spraying perfume on her neck, all valid reasons for being arrested in Texas schools (citations to six year old’s even).

Does the nation need more disadvantaged youth in the criminal justice system? Texas thinks so.

Texas, the state eliminating higher order thinking from it’s schools & teaching that premarital sex has fatal consequences, and that getting plenty of rest and avoiding condoms saves one from sexually transmitted diseases (& leads all states and many third world nations in the incidence of STD’s among youth) now rests comfortably ahead of all states and the rest of the world in criminalizing students.

Texas also leads in Executions (including of the mentally ill – ignoring federal mandates), juvenile incarceration, uninsured children, child poverty (including food insecurity/starvation of children), preteen pregnancies (and the highest rates of repeat births to teen moms).

Silhouettes of a family with two adults and one child.

A KARA Guide To Understanding Texas Approach To Education

begin with a puritans early world view that corporal punishment & abstinence works (think Cotton Mather & the WitchCraft trials) and denouncing the teaching of “higher order thinking”.

In 2011, Representative Michael Villarreal proposed that sex education taught in public schools be medically accurate (the bill never made it out of committee). In its place Texas Republicans approved Corporal punishment, refusing federal funding for schools, and denying pre-school and kindergarten, as a step forward for Texas children.

At least 3 Texan school districts teach that;

Premarital sex can have fatal consequences,

If a woman is dry, the sperm will die,

3 of the 4 text books used in 30% of Texan school districts never mention condoms but do promote “getting plenty of rest” to avoid contracting Sexually Transmitted Disease.

Silhouettes of a family with two adults and one child.

Focus On Texas, California, & Florida Child Welfare

CA: Programs for transitioning San Diego foster youth
San Diego Entertainer Magazine – November 26, 2012
Just in Time for Foster Youth (JIT) envisions a future in which every youth leaving the foster care system has a community of caring adults waiting for them after 18. We believe consistent, long-term help from the heart is the foundation for the success of our youth so that they can thrive and enjoy productive, satisfying lives.
http://www.sdentertainer.com/lifestyle/just-in-time-for-foster-youth-steve-sexton/

Silhouettes of a family with two adults and one child.

Fix Texas For Children; Remove Judge William Adams

U.S. states where children are worse off than if they lived in emerging nations. http://boingboing.net/2011/11/02/video-judge-beats-disabled-daughter-for-using-the-internet.html Pass this on & support public advocacy for at risk children (they need your help).     Support KARA’s effort to stop punishing children; sponsor a conversation in your community (invite me to speak at your conference) / Buy our book…

Silhouettes of a family with two adults and one child.

Autism, Child Protection, & Insurance; Texas could save 2Billion$ by treating autistic children

This well written article on the success of early aggressive treatment for autistic children AAUTISM CURE CITY PAGES 1.26.11 makes the overarching logical, ethical, and financial argument about the wisdom of treating children early on with proven methods and saving 18 years of special ed, additional health care, and the very real costs of home, social, and school disruption and personal pain.

Child trapped in a pill bottle with scattered capsules.

KARA Digital Toolkit: Free and Low Cost Tech for Traumatized Children and Teens

KARA’s Digital Toolkit brings together free and low cost apps, trainings, and tech tools that help abused and neglected children cope with trauma and behavior problems. These resources are designed to support—not replace—professional care and can be shared with youth, caregivers, schools, and advocates.

A woman with a serious expression holds up her hand as a stop gesture.

“Safety” at Home, Rape in Secret: The Long Shadow of Caregiver Sexual Abuse

Sexual abuse of a child is rarely a single “incident” or the act of a stranger in the dark; for many children, it is years of rape by the caregivers who are supposed to protect them. Most child sex abuse occurs in the home. This CASA Guardian ad Litem has experience two four-year-olds coming into…

Logo for Kara, Kids at Risk Action organization.

America’s Child Abuse Emergency: 546,000 Victims, 2,000 Deaths, and a System That Chooses This

Child abuse in the United States is not rare or random — it is the predictable outcome of policy choices. In 2023, about 546,000 children were confirmed victims of abuse or neglect and an estimated 2,000 were killed, roughly five children every day. Most are hurt by their own parents, often after prior contact with Child Protective Services. These numbers vary wildly by state, proving that our systems can choose to protect children — or not.

Two hands gently holding each other in a comforting gesture.

Tip of the Mental Health Iceberg (podcast)

Kids at Risk Action, the hosts address the growing mental health crisis in child welfare, particularly in emergency rooms and foster care systems. They reveal alarming statistics, such as the significant rise in ER visits for children’s mental health crises and the systemic failures that leave many without proper care.

Silhouettes of a family with two adults and one child.

Recruiting Child Soldiers (yes, we do)

This article from 2013 is still true today with no signs of changing. It needs to be shared with your states lawmakers: The United States is the only nation that has not signed the United Nation’s International Rights Of the Child Treaty of the 1980’s.  A primary reason we refuse to sign the treaty is…

Silhouettes of a family with two adults and one child.

Deep Dive Into Northeastern University Child Welfare Crisis Research

This deep dive expands on KARA’s child welfare crisis post by walking through five Northeastern University capstone projects. Together, they use national data, infant mortality models, county level forecasting, and poverty analysis to show where children are most at risk—and how KARA AND YOU can use this research to drive policy change.

A black face mask with the phrase 'GIVE KIDS A VOICE' printed in white.

Family First & Child Neglect Studies and Reporting

Contrary to a common assumption, neglect is not less damaging than abuse. Research shows neglect victims have lifelong problems because they miss developmental milestones around language, self-control, and bonding with others.

A constant dilemma in neglect cases is whether to traumatize children by removing them from their families, or leave them in situations where their brains aren’t developing normally.

Quality Early Childhood Education (ECE) programs can make it possible to leave children at home while helping their parents improve parenting skills.

This study documents that neglect victims who got ECE moved quickly from having a language deficit to the normal range. Language development is critical to academic success and positive interpersonal relationships.
ECE can help many children avoid foster care and still obtain the baseline skills they need to thrive.

Join the Discussion on Facebook

Make a difference for the children of Minnesota today,
Donate Here!

Illustration of trauma's impact on person, family, and people, emphasizing decontextualization over time.

Sometimes People Get Shot

• “From Cedarbluff, Mississippi, to parties in Houston and homes in Indiana, early 2026 brought mass shootings that briefly made headlines and then faded. This essay connects those tragedies to a deeper crisis: how our systems ignore childhood trauma, underfund mental health, and invest billions in punishment instead of care—creating adults who are dangerous because we failed them as children.”

A black face mask with the phrase 'GIVE KIDS A VOICE' printed in white.

Family First & Child Neglect Studies and Reporting 2

Contrary to a common assumption, neglect is not less damaging than abuse. Research shows neglect victims have lifelong problems because they miss developmental milestones around language, self-control, and bonding with others.

A constant dilemma in neglect cases is whether to traumatize children by removing them from their families, or leave them in situations where their brains aren’t developing normally.

Quality Early Childhood Education (ECE) programs can make it possible to leave children at home while helping their parents improve parenting skills.

This study documents that neglect victims who got ECE moved quickly from having a language deficit to the normal range. Language development is critical to academic success and positive interpersonal relationships.
ECE can help many children avoid foster care and still obtain the baseline skills they need to thrive.

Join the Discussion on Facebook

Make a difference for the children of Minnesota today,
Donate Here!

Two hands gently holding each other in a comforting gesture.

From Classrooms to Homeless Shelters: How Our Choices Hurt Children

Compared to other advanced nations America treats children and the people who care for them as an afterthought and then acts surprised when our schools and child‑welfare systems are overwhelmed with troubled children suffering from health and mental health issues.

Black T-shirt with bold white text promoting kids' voices.

America’s Child Protection Crisis: Last Week’s Most Alarming CPS Cases and Reforms

Each week, children are escaping brutal homes, being harmed in foster care, and caught in CPS systems that too often miss clear danger or punish families without proof. From multimillion‑dollar settlements and court battles in Texas, Washington, New York, and Illinois to new laws and policies that could reshape how abuse and neglect are investigated, this roundup highlights the most urgent child protection stories advocates, professionals, and concerned community members need to see right now.

Logo for Kara, Kids at Risk Action organization.

The Physics of Child Protection in America

Child protection in America behaves like a complex system engineered for surveillance, not support. Poverty, racism, and weak safety nets keep generating the same tragedies. What would happen if we rebuilt it around children’s rights, prevention, and healing?

Silhouettes of a family with two adults and one child.

A Closer Look At Child Fatality and Egregious Incident Reporting

Child Fatality & Egregious Incident Reporting: A U.S. Overview America’s approach to exposing and understanding the gravest harms done to children—fatalities, near-deaths, torture, and catastrophic agency failures—reveals a nation deeply divided by geography, law, and political will. The result is a patchwork of minimal transparency. Some states shine a light on information that has been…

Silhouettes of a family with two adults and one child.

Dissecting President Trump’s Child Protection Executive Order (share this widely)

Trump’s recent Presidential Order appears in its entirety below in the Read More section of this post. Added to the order today, is conflicted and confusing language that will have a terrible impact on the quality of life for millions of America’s abused and neglected children, families, and the communities they live in.

Silhouettes of a family with two adults and one child.

What Happens if “Child Neglect” In Child Protective Services Is Removed or Diminished

National and federal data show that child neglect is the primary allegation in a clear majority of CPS cases, so removing neglect from CPS as an entry criterion would likely eliminate investigation for roughly 60–75% of the children who are currently investigated or substantiated, with some variation by state. About 7.8 million children / year are reported abused and neglected to CPS.​ Because child abuse is invisible, it is likely that at least that many children remain unseen and unreported. The Trump child welfare executive order leans heavily into language about “unnecessary removals” and “overreach”

A young girl with messy hair looks sad in front of a blackboard with emotional writing.

Weaponizing of Trump’s Presidential Order

While Trump’s child welfare orders do not delete “neglect” from law, they lean heavily into language about “unnecessary removals” and “overreach” that can be weaponized by parental rights, MAGA, and some religious groups to argue that neglect rarely justifies CPS involvement.​

How the order’s framing minimizes neglect

Young girl with red hair in a white dress, surrounded by darkness.

Responding to Richard Wexler’s Child Neglect Imprint News Article

Richard Wexler’s Child Neglect in America article uses a Swedish child neglect study to make sweeping claims about “American child neglect and poverty,” even though childhood conditions in the two countries are radically different. In the Nordic welfare states, far fewer children live in deep poverty and families receive broad supports like child benefits, paid leave, subsidized childcare, and universal health care, while U.S. child poverty is roughly twice as high and basic needs often go unmet without thin, means‑tested programs

Young girl with red hair in a white dress, surrounded by darkness.

Trump’s Child Protection Order & “NEGLECT”

President Trump’s new framing—that most child neglect cases “don’t belong” in CPS because they are “only poverty”—ignores a very large body of evidence that (1) poverty and neglect are tightly intertwined but not identical, and (2) chronic school un‑readiness, absenteeism, and school failure are core manifestations of serious harm that drive lifelong poverty, crime, and substance abuse.

Logo for Invisible Children, focusing on kids at risk.

KARA Concerns About Trump’s Child Protection Order (deep dive)

This post gets at the meaning of President Trump’s Presidential Order bringing change to America’s Child Protection System. If you support the work KARA is doing to improve the lives of abused and neglected children and at-risk families, read to the bottom and send this link to your State Representative (find them in the link below).

Close-up of a child's face with braided hair against a dark background.

Why We Are Failing To Save At Risk Children

There is little transparency in Child Protective Services. If there were, more people (and legislators) would know and we might have the laws, programs, and support these children need. Today, access to information that should be public often requires a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA).

Teacher standing in a classroom with blue chairs, holding a notebook.

Personal & National Level Child Advocacy (guest post)

Children who face poverty, neglect, or violence often lack a voice in systems meant to protect them. Advocacy — speaking up and acting on their behalf — is one of the most powerful ways individuals and communities can help these children find safety, stability, and opportunity. Whether through mentoring one child or pushing for nationwide policy reform, everyone can play a part.

A woman with a serious expression holds up her hand as a stop gesture.

When Is Child Abuse a Crime ?

WHEN IS CHILD ABUSE A CRIME?
AT THE HANDS OF THEIR PARENTS

If I had committed the crimes parents perpetrated upon these children, criminal child abuse laws would send me to jail. How can it be that because caregivers delivered the beatings, rapes and other traumas, the abuse was not a crime and children were all returned to their parents for more of the same (these Minnesota children died).

Silhouette filled with negative self-descriptive words representing low self-esteem.

The Importance of Foster Youth Rights (find your State here)

This article is derived from Hana Ikramuddin’s excellent Imprint News Article about Fosters not being notified of their rights – Read the Imprint article here.

Hana tells us the story of AIayna Ghost’s years in Foster Care from ages 7 to 18 and how she ran away almost every year looking for her family. From the article: In foster care, she did not learn she had an older sister until a social worker told her at age 13.

Logo for Kara, Kids at Risk Action organization.

Egregious Child Death in America Today

There are few states that report out egregious harm or death of children at the hands of their parents. Minnesota Nonprofit Safe Passage for Children of Minnesota has recently compiled this report on 88 of the 200 children dying at the hands of caregivers. It should be a model for all states. How they died, why they died, and what wasn’t done that allowed these children to live such tortured lives and die so tragically. Share the report with your State Representative with a note about keeping at-risk children alive.

Silhouettes of a family with two adults and one child.

Terminating the CASA Volunteer GAL Program Will Cost Children’s Lives and Taxpayers Money

On Tuesday, 4.22.25 National CASA/GAL received notice that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has terminated (CASA National) federal grant awards – among 360 notices of termination the DOJ issued this week. All 12 million dollars.

In this fast moving effort to “cut waste” and “save money”

Stone Hindu sculpture of Shiva and Parvati

A Closer Look At Child Fatality and Egregious Incident Reporting

Child Fatality & Egregious Incident Reporting: A U.S. Overview America’s approach to exposing and understanding the gravest harms done to children—fatalities, near-deaths, torture, and catastrophic agency failures—reveals a nation deeply divided by geography, law, and political will. The result is a patchwork of minimal transparency. Some states shine a light on information that has been…