Fixing CPS with greater transparency in Child Protective Services. This conversation is about the many things impacting the safety and wellbeing of abused and neglected children. The lack of transparency being discussed in West Virginia CPS applies to every state: A Meaningful Conversation (35 Minute Podcast). Discussed in this podcast: Kinship care partners, mentors, volunteers, stability,…
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.
The head of the Federal Administration for Children and Families (Adam Alex), is attacking LGBTQ+ Foster Families over youth gender identity. Life is hard enough for foster families and the struggling LGBTQ+ children trying to rebuild lives filled with abuse and neglect in their birth homes and a growing sense of unwelcome in our communities. Federal policies demonizing queer children gins up hatred and legitimizes fear and violence against almost ten percent of Americans.
If I had committed the crimes parents perpetrated upon their own children in my CASA guardian ad Litem cases, I would be writing this from jail.
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.
Portia died shortly after being brought into the operating room. Leroy called me early in the morning and told me that the surgery had been delayed too long. There was no way the doctors could save her at that point.
These pages tell the stories of thousands of children from communities all over the nation. From orphan trains to a COVID pandemic that kept children locked in toxic homes for over two years with no access to mandated reporters or safety. You will find that not much has changed
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.
At some point, we and our policymakers must recognize what a crisis 7.8 million children being reported every year to child protective services is. Research suggests the true number of abused children is likely twice as high due to the invisible nature of the epidemic. This life ruining crisis has been escalating for decades, making chronic generational child abuse and neglect one of the most misunderstood and under-addressed public health emergencies in our history.
37% of children overall and 44% of Black children are reported to child protection services in America
by the time they turn 18. (American Journal of Public Health 1.17)
7.8 million children a year are reported to child protection services.
The following CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) investigations demonstrate the cost savings and economic impact of CASA programs in child protection across the nation. They do not include the value a trained community volunteer brings to each child caught up in the difficult institutional court process of Child Protective Services. What’s it like being a…
On Wednesday I was part of a team invited to address judges, lawyers, professors and other officials from developing nations about child abuse, child trauma and specifically, the CASA guardian ad litem program that was of most of interest to them on their visit to Minneapolis. I have great hope that these smart, committed professionals succeeded on their extensive U.S. journey learning about the many moving parts of justice, child rights, courts, domestic violence, child protection systems, child advocacy, foster care/adoption and children’s mental health.
It was an honor to speak with these people and uplifting to know that the CASA guardian ad Litem program is identified all over the world as a powerful voice for children and that any nation can create this program to save vulnerable children.
For too long, the dire conditions facing Minnesota’s State Ward children have remained almost invisible to the public and to lawmakers.
Abused and neglected children are rarely seen or heard amidst the violence and chaos we see in our media every day.
The Star Tribune’s investigative report titled “IN HARM’S WAY” provides a rare glimpse into the world of Child Protective Services. This report illuminates the disheartening fact that children often do not have a right to safety.
Child Abuse & Prosecution More than 200 people were arrested and over 100 children rescued in Operation Soteria Shield, a North Texas FBI-led crackdown targeting online child exploitation crimes; charges included enticement of a minor, distribution of child abuse materials, and attempted trafficking
Watching mom beaten or raped is terror. Homeless mothers and children are many times more likely to be assaulted and molested.
Children of addicted and alcoholic moms and dads are beaten and raped more often too.
Trauma is *torture. Watching mom being raped is torture.
The U.S. system relies primarily on counts of investigations, confirmed maltreatment, foster care placement rates, and basic duration measures. There is very little standardized measurement of child well-being, stability, or parent feedback, and fewer independent audits of outcomes
There is no shortage of well-meaning volunteers and workers dedicated to improving the lives of the children they are serving as teachers, Guardians ad Litem, social & healthcare workers, law enforcement and adoptive/foster parents.
Emma and Michael expose the staggering economic cost of ignoring childhood trauma. With U.S. taxpayers absorbing trillions in health care, education loss, criminal justice, and reduced productivity, the data paints a devastating picture:
Think about being a foster child taken from the only home you have ever known because of the terrible things done to you by your parents. Waking up in a strange house or group home where you don’t know anyone. A different school, no friends or familiar faces, things, or routines to soften your day.…
Emma and Michael expose how childhood trauma is quietly devastating the lives of millions of children—some as young as toddlers—who are misdiagnosed, overmedicated, and left unsupported in overwhelmed systems.
Strong leadership in the Guardian ad Litem Program is very different from typical American industries. In manufacturing, managers drive output and profitability—metrics our culture worships.
In child protection, the stakes are human and long-term: it’s about children’s safety, trauma recovery, and the lifelong wellbeing
The Safe Passage Report on Child Maltreatment Deaths is a remarkable report – not in a good way. It demonstrates how common it is for Minnesota children to die from abuse in the home even after they have become known to CPS. This report is still only the the tip of the horrors facing abused children as;
DHS did not cooperate with the investigator,
Four counties did not respond,
Child deaths reported were only those that had court filings or had been reported in the media
Over 25 years ago the rest of the world (194 nations) decided that children have basic human rights and begin signing the International Rights of the Child Treaty. Under this document, children are to have the rights to education, safety and well being including not to be made soldiers, not to be enslaved).
America is the only nation that has not signed that agreement, largely because we still demand that southern states continue to militarize youth as young as eleven, through military schools.
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”
despite public rhetoric, America consistently underfunds, undervalues, and neglects the children it claims to protect. They expose how frontline workers like teachers, foster parents, and social workers are scapegoated while
free and discounted resources for foster and adopted children and families
how media coverage of child welfare too often focuses only on tragedy — fueling blame, misunderstanding, and reduced public support for the very systems meant to protect vulnerable children.
how foster youth are systematically failed within America’s education system. They expose how constant school changes, untreated trauma, and misdiagnoses isolate these children, often pushing them into special education, overmedication, or even the juvenile justice system
Today, Kids At Risk Action has two fully funded direct support programs for nonprofits to grow awareness and find support in their community. Share this with your nonprofit friends. In partnership with the nonprofit Seeds of Success, we’re offering two, high-impact programs designed to help your nonprofit organization increase donations, find volunteers, increase your capacity to raise critical awareness about child abuse in your community, and boost your chances at new grant opportunities:
Medicaid and SNAP cuts will disproportionately harm poor people and communities of color across the United States, with devastating statistical impacts:
Medicaid Coverage Losses: Over 13 million Black and more than 19 million Hispanic individuals rely on Medicaid for health coverage, with nearly 30% of Black and Hispanic populations dependent on it,
Nationally, cuts will deepen inequality, entrench generational poverty, and erode the foundation for future economic growth. This is not budget tightening—it is a deliberate dismantling of the infrastructure that keeps children safe and families stable. We will be a sicker, poorer, less educated, and less productive America, with the highest price paid by its most vulnerable children and the communities already struggling to survive.
The combined cuts to child friendly programs will impact some states more than other. This article presents a snapshot of what different states will be experiencing. Send KARA information concerning what’s happening in your state (send to info@invisiblechildren.org with CUTS in the subject line).
California:
Between DOGE cuts to child friendly programs and policies and the big beautiful bill, the cuts and service reductions described below will impact millions of children and families nationwide. In the foster care system alone, over 343,000 children are currently in care across the United States, with the largest numbers…
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
Many reading this post may not be in the job you are doing this time next year. DOGE and other Federal policy changes have determined that the work being done for at-risk children and families is either wasteful or like DEI the wrong approach to public policy. Attorney General Pam Bondi recently stated that significantly less than 20% of funding cuts will be reversed
the tragic case of six-year-old Eli Hart, who was murdered despite being known to Child Protective Services (CPS) and how a lack of transparency and accountability contributes to the ongoing crisis
For the next biennium, legislators appropriated 40 million dollars to modernize Minnesota’s Social Services Information System. This will create more training, collection of child welfare data, clarity, transparency, and best practices throughout the “life of a case” and shine a light on how well or poorly programs and policies are working. This upgrade of our…
the heartbreaking case of five-month-old Aaliya Goodwin, who died of positional asphyxia while under the care of her drug-abusing parents. Despite multiple reports of neglect, substance abuse, and unsafe conditions, Aaliya remained in the home due to systemic failures in Minnesota’s child protection system
Safe Passage For Children of Minnesota has helped bring the issue of transparency of child abuse death and near death into the light and Legislature in our State. In about three weeks, Minnesota will create a statewide child fatality and near fatality review panel to track cases of children dying and suffering egregious harm while…
This is a dangerous time to be an abused child in America. Slash and burn politics and religious organizations are dismantling a large percentage of government and non governmental agencies keeping children safe. The COVID lockdown kept defenseless children in horrific circumstances without access to safety or healing for two years. Services before COVID and…
47 years ago, the CASA volunteer Guardian ad Litem program came to Minnesota. At the time, some children were not able to have a CASA Guardian assigned because there were not enough volunteers to keep up with growing caseloads. This CASA remembers between 50 and 100 children throughout the year not having a CASA to…
What parents should do after a child’s suicide attempt? Answering caregivers’ frequently …
tell our child abuse and child protection stories (over and over) and work to improve the programs, people, and institutions that impact at risk children.
What’s it like for a two or five year child old watching mom or dad beaten or murdered in a drug fueled bout of domestic violence? How long does childhood trauma last? What happens to a child after being removed from the home and placed in foster care (podcast)?
KARA’s next book will be the gathered wisdom from those of us with stories about child abuse, child protection, and childhood trauma. Do you have a story you want to tell?
We invite writers to submit original work of 300-400 words for consideration in our upcoming book, (working title), CHILD ABUSE IN THE MIRROR.
KARA’s Foster Care System Podcast Series
In this episode of Kids at Risk Action, hosts Ashley and Alex discuss a heartbreaking case in which a 7-week-old infant suffered 13 fractures while in foster care, allegedly inflicted by the foster mother. This case highlights the systemic issues within the foster care system, including inadequate resources, lack of oversight, and insufficient training and support for foster parents.
There is an underappreciated reality that Child Protective Services is the only safe haven for children living with rape, violence and neglect as they are too young to defend themselves.
This is a snapshot of changes being made to the safety net for child protection, public health and education. Please take a few minutes and show your support for those programs and policies you know to be of value to the weakest and most vulnerable among us.