Research across foster care, ACEs, and maltreatment shows that abused and systems‑involved children face dramatically higher risks of self‑harm and suicide. This post walks through key studies and calls for concrete changes in child welfare policy and practice to prevent avoidable deaths.
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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?
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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…
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Big tobacco talks about a “smoke‑free future,” but its marketing tells a different story. This post gathers key videos and articles that show how major tobacco companies push vapes, nicotine pouches and heated tobacco to children and youth while claiming to care about health.
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Policies that keep children in homes with life‑threatening harm on the grounds of unproven or unscientific beliefs—account for avoidable homicidal deaths of hundreds of MN children and many more tortured and near-death experiences annually. When Child Protection becomes more transparent when studies like the one linked above become common, this reality will be recognized in all…
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School counselors are the vital bridge between struggling children and the support systems they desperately need. Positioned at the intersection of school, family, and community, they are often the first line of defense—sometimes the only one—against the silent epidemic of child trauma and abuse
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Child abuse doesn’t stop for holidays or election years. In just the first 45 days of 2026, sad stories and new statistics are already piling up. This post tracks those cases and numbers to show how many invisible children still need our protection.
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Some of the most dangerous products sold to children today aren’t toys or gadgets, but junk food, vapes, alcohol, gambling and loot boxes pushed through personalized digital marketing. This post explains how companies target kids online and why these tactics are so harmful.
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Teaching in America in 2026 means managing trauma, violence, long COVID, and historic shortages—all while trying to educate growing numbers of abused and at‑risk children. Drawing on recent data from Education Week, NCES, and school counselors nationwide, this draft chapter from Childhood Trauma – America’s Legacy explores what’s really happening inside classrooms, why teacher burnout and vacancies are soaring, and what it will take to make schools safer and more humane for kids and the adults who serve them.
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In 2007, nearly one in four of Uruguay’s 13 to 15 year olds used tobacco. By 2019, that had been cut in half. This post shows how strong laws and a historic win over Philip Morris protected children—while industry still looks for new ways to hook them.
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Aging Out of Foster Care: Hannah’s Story – Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. Short video about abuse, instability in care, and aging out at 18, stressing that teens are never too old to need a permanent family.
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Childhood abuse leaves epigenetic “scars” that behave like quantum events in a child’s developing brain—shifting the whole trajectory of a life and even echoing across generations. This post links trauma, ACEs, and America’s worst health, violence, and inequality statistics.
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Start a Kids At Risk Action campus conversation at your college or university about how ACEs, child abuse, and trauma impact children in your community. Short video.
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COVID school closures and ICE raids have combined to drive U.S. reading, math, history, and civics scores to historic lows. This post outlines national NAEP data, the states with the deepest learning loss, and what these trends mean for children’s futures, especially in immigrant and high poverty communities.
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Children in Texas are dying in homes, foster care, hotels, and treatment centers that CPS already knew were dangerous. This post highlights recent child deaths, official DFPS fatality data, and the federal lawsuit that says Texas still cannot keep kids safe
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Why Florida Child Abuse Reporting Matters: Florida’s child abuse and neglect is just one part of KARA’s reporting mission and our nation’s child‑death problem. Florida reviews hundreds of abuse‑related child deaths each year. This is an investigative report recently completed in Minnesota that needs to happen in all states.
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Over 48 years, CASA/GAL (Guardian ad Litem) programs have grown into a national network of more than 900 organizations with 80,000–100,000 guardian ad litem volunteers serving close to a quarter‑million abused and neglected children each year, according to National CASA/GAL program surveys and the association’s own history. In every state but North Dakota, these volunteers are often the only adults in the courtroom whose sole job is to stand for a child’s best interests—and they do it with intentionally tiny caseloads so each child gets more time, more attention, and more consistency than overloaded systems can usually provide
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Sweden cut child abuse and child death rates dramatically. The US has not. See what the data actually shows—and how you can push for Sweden level protection here.
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New Jersey’s recent child abuse tragedies—from Ne’Miya Duncan’s death days after a welfare visit to two brothers killed in Hillsborough—show deep failures in DCPP’s ability to protect children. This post highlights specific deaths, lawsuits, and state fatality data that reveal a child protection system still in crisis.
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the harsh realities faced by LGBTQ+ youth in the foster care system — a population far too often isolated, unsupported, and at devastating risk of homelessness, suicide, and trauma. They share staggering statistics, heartbreaking stories, and expose how
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Federal decisions on health care, food, child care, and social services are reshaping daily life for Minnesota’s children, especially those already at risk. When Washington freezes or cuts key programs like Medicaid, SNAP, Head Start, child care funds, SSBG, and TANF, the damage shows up in our counties, schools, clinics, and courtrooms. This post explains how national politics is putting Minnesota kids in harm’s way—and what we can do about it.
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The United States speaks loudly about freedom yet stands alone in refusing to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and in sentencing children to life without parole. This post explores how abused, neglected kids are denied rights, voice, and protection in our courts and public policy.
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Many children with high ACE scores cope through “bad” habits—aggression, shutdown, substance use, or even self‑harm. These are survival strategies, not moral failures. This post explains the behaviors trauma creates and what kids actually need to feel safe and change.
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This episode of KARA’s podcast tells the story of 5 month old Aaliya Goodwin, who died of positional asphyxia while in the care of her drug abusing parents. Drawing on the Safe Passage for Children investigation, we explore eight prior reports, repeated “Family Assessments,” and the systemic choices that left Aaliya unprotected.
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These short, powerful child abuse awareness videos (most 20–30 seconds) highlight the painful realities of foster care, trauma, and youth suicide. Share them widely so more adults understand their responsibility to protect vulnerable children.
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Recent California cases show children dying in foster homes, day care, and families long known to CPS, exposing egregious child protection failures. This post highlights specific deaths, audits, and multimillion dollar settlements that prove these are systemic problems, not isolated tragedies.
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Thank you for reading and sharing the KARA blog. Your attention to child welfare issues helps bring visibility to children who are too often unseen and unheard. Every post you read, share, or discuss strengthens this movement for safer, healthier lives for abused and neglected kids. We’re grateful to have you in the KARA community.
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the harsh realities facing foster youth aging out of the system and the failures of Extended Foster Care (EFC) programs
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Listen to KARA’s child welfare podcast on child death and public non-disclosure. Learn how secrecy laws and closed child protection records hide patterns of failure when children die—and what real transparency and accountability should look like.
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Listen to the powerful Invisible Children audio book and hear firsthand how our institutions fail abused and neglected children and learn what we can do to change the system. Hear the heartbreaking stories from CASA and guardian ad litem volunteers about children moved through multiple foster homes, children jailed instead of treated for trauma, and…
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free and discounted resources for foster and adopted children and families
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Isabella was taken into foster care when her birth home was raided by authorities for possession of drugs. She was found locked in a room by herself. She was silent – never spoke. Isabella had never been outside until she was placed into foster care at 7.
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Hundreds of children in Minnesota’s child protection system are waiting for a guardian ad litem – the only independent voice they have in court. Every extra month in foster care deepens trauma and drives up costs. This article explains how many children have no GAL, what it costs in dollars and human suffering, and why restoring and expanding CASA/GAL programs is both a moral and fiscal imperative.
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In 2014, Safe Passage for Minnesota Children reported that Pope County would face no legal penalty for its role in the slow tortured death of 4-year-old Eric Dean at the hands of his stepmother Amanda Peltier. Brandon Stahl presented Star Tribune readers with the sad fact that four Minnesota counties screen out 90% of child abuse calls. Read more for a review of child abuse death since Eric Dean.
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…the economic impact of untreated child abuse. The mental health issues and behavior problems of high ACEs children drive much of the violence, desperation, and dysfunction afflicting so many American citizens
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Child abuse crosses every community in America. This page gathers the strongest national statistics on maltreatment, CPS investigations, fatalities, and lifetime impacts on children’s brains and futures — along with links to leading data sources and resources for prevention, advocacy, and reform.
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Blaming severely disturbed people for their crimes is nonsense and solves nothing (it’s counter productive-no steps are taken to solve the problem if that’s all we do).
It would be much more useful to get to know a family that has tried to find help for a very troubled child. As a volunteer County guardian ad-Litem, I came to know many very troubled youth and their parents and other caregivers.
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Can a working relationship survive a fundamental disagreement about child safety? On our CASA board, a Black single mother and a white older man wrestle with whether CPS protects children or destroys families. This post explores that conflict and what it tells us about fixing a child protection system that is both racist and, at times, fatally timid.
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School boards wield profound power over the safety, healing, and long-term success of children. What they choose to fund, prioritize, debate, and champion can dramatically shape school culture and community expectations around trauma, mental health, equity, and student outcomes. Yet too often, boards are
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Funding cuts to programs for education, healthcare, poverty, hunger, disabilities, insurance, civil rights, nutrition, homelessness, discrimination, early childhood programs, child labor, and child abuse are all disappearing.
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MAAFPA’s stated goals emphasize preventing unnecessary removals and preserving African American and other disproportionately represented families, while the Safe Passage data show rising deaths—largely from neglect, substance use, and domestic violence—often in cases where CPS already knew the family.
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This is the longest and most powerful and articulate suicide note I’ve ever read and it has great meaning to me for its power to relate these two incomprehensible sorrows (abuse & suicide).
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A Minneapolis teacher describes a 17 year old who carries his U.S. passport everywhere after ICE raids—showing how immigration enforcement terrorizes children, families, and classrooms.
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Listen to KARA’s child welfare podcast on child death and public non-disclosure. Learn how secrecy laws and closed child protection records hide patterns of failure when children die—and what real transparency and accountability should look like.
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Minnesota’s African American Family Preservation Act aims to reduce racial disproportionality in child welfare. But underfunded “family preservation first” policies can leave abused children in dangerous homes or unsafe kinship foster care, with deadly consequences documented in Safe Passage fatality reports.
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It is an open secret that child labour is rampant throughout the supply chains of major chocolate brands like Nestle, Mars and Ferrero. Despite international guidelines and targets to eradicate child labour, a lack of political will and lack of strict corporate legal responsibility enables the continued use of child labour.
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Legally, there were no protections for children in the home or orphanage at the time (nor do they have legal status today). What became of orphan train children varied from finding loving homes to sex abuse and slave labor. Over an estimated 150,000–250,000 children rode these trains making this the largest child migration in U.S. history.
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Imagine being a child watching armed officers dragging children and teachers from your school and the chaos of citizen protesters risking violence to stop it. These attacks are destroying the fabric of your community and will make your next days, weeks, and months of classroom learning full of fear that it will happen again.
Targeting children in or around schools to enforce immigration laws is a profoundly traumatizing attack on children and ethical failure of a society’s duty protect minors.
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Parents unable to buy food for their child because of poverty are different from caregivers leaving their babies without food or care by absence, or because they are incapacitated by substance abuse or are the kind of parents who spend all their food money on drugs.
This parental distinction is also true for caregivers unable to bring their babies and toddlers in for medical appointments or court appearances. The difference between parents that would if they could and those that simply are too dysfunctional because of severe mental health or substance abuse issues are stark.
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There is a growing abolition / “dismantle CPS” movement in the U.S., but so far it is more rhetorical and advocacy‑driven than implemented in statute, and no state has fully “deregulated” or abolished CPS.
Advocates, scholars, and campaigns such as Dorothy Roberts’ abolition work, Operation Stop CPS, and related networks call for ending the current family‑policing model, sharply curbing investigations, and replacing CPS with community‑based supports.
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