KARA Tracks & reports on the issues facing America’s at-risk children From time to time, we share important resources like CWLA reporting when we find the information compelling. This information is compelling
The director of a Guardian ad Litem program must operate with a keen understanding that human lives, not mechanical products, are being shaped by their agency’s decisions. Directors know that their staff and volunteer advocates impact the safety, healing, and future success of children navigating trauma, mental health and behavior challenges, and disruption.
KARA is a volunteer organization and does not have staff to respond to requests for help.
Please use our current resource page Here
The KARA team is building an interactive, ai driven database platform for information and solutions. The demand for information and better solutions is high.
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
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…
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.
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
Compared to other government expenditures, early childhood programs are uniquely cost-effective. K–12 education spends ~$15,000/student annually with diminishing returns; prison systems cost $40,000/inmate yearly with high recidivism. Meanwhile, early childhood interventions like Head Start save $4.8B–$16.1B per
the harsh realities facing foster youth aging out of the system and the failures of Extended Foster Care (EFC) programs
dive into the “ground truth” of the foster care system — exposing the often-unseen hardships children face even after being placed in protective care. Through heartbreaking stories like Alex’s and alarming statistics on abuse
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…
the alarming failures within the child welfare system, focusing on the story of Yanelin Montalvo-Valdez, a woman who grew up in foster care and faced immense trauma, only to be further failed by the system as an adult
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…
the tragic story of Sally, an 8-year-old girl who suffered abuse by her biological father and her mother’s boyfriend, Joe
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.
It also means that children growing up in toxic homes steeped in violence, abuse, and severe neglect are about to have the only chance they have of escaping life changing childhood trauma evaporate.
Kids at Risk Action, the hosts discuss the critical issue of funding cuts to Child Advocacy Centers (CACs) in Minnesota, which are essential in providing support for abused and neglected children. CACs offer services like forensic interviews, victim advocacy, and medical exams, but with the loss of 80% of their federal funding, these centers could be forced to close, leaving thousands of children without protection.
Jessie Van Berkel wrote a very strong piece about the CASA Guardian ad Litem program in the Star Tribune recently. She brought attention to how a few bad decisions from new management can almost end a community volunteer institution at a time when it is most needed.
If you ran an institution that found it hard to keep up with the demands being met in it you would most likely have only one or two choices to meet those demands. Find ways to do the work by simply making people do more with less, or, find more people to provide the service you have been mandated to provide.
Imagine you ran an office full of Guardians ad Litem with different talents and these people worked hard to fix the problems of people with a wide range of complex problems.
It would be useful to allow your talented worker bees to select those cases that fit their requests and talents
Because KARA calls on CASAs around the country, we have discovered Child Protection Policies that work along with things that don’t work and some practices that are harmful.
Kids at Risk Action, Michael and John examine the staggering costs and human impact of child protective services (CPS) and the interconnected child welfare and juvenile justice systems. They highlight troubling statistics, such as the high number of children reported to CPS each year, the underreporting of abuse, and the alarming link between CPS involvement and later incarceration.
Kids at Risk Action, Katie and Jenna explore the deep, lasting effects of childhood trauma through the lens of a survivor’s 77-year journey. They discuss how childhood abuse, often unrecognized, rewires the brain and shapes a lifetime of emotional struggles, relationships, and self-worth issues.
Kids at Risk Action, hosts Alex and Jordan explore the profound impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and how childhood trauma can affect individuals throughout their lives, much like PTSD in veterans.
APRIL IS NATIONAL CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION MONTH-Register for Child Advocacy Events on April 1 and 7 with Safe Passage for Children Day at the Capitol here.
APRIL IS NATIONAL CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION MONTH-Register for Child Advocacy Events on April 1 and 7 with Safe Passage for Children Day at the Capitol here.
Ethan was removed from his parents at a young age. I have only come to know him briefly through the course of my work with him at an inpatient facility.
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.
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.
KARA follows investigative reporting on child death and near death by caregivers while the children are known to CPS (Child Protective Services). Please send us links to the reports in your state and we will make them available to a larger audience.Parental Drug Use Killing Children in Pennsylvania at High Rates (investigative report)
Spotify Episode # 30 Click Here For the Audio: What it’s like Being a CASA Child Advocate Summary: This is a short description of one Community CASA Guardian ad Litem’s experience being a child advocate in the Child Protection System.
Josh and Maya share a powerful story of a young boy on the brink of being locked up, not because he was dangerous, but because the system lacked transparency
This Thanksgiving, over 13 million American children are living with their grandparents (four times what this it was in 1970).
It is estimated that for every child in foster care with relatives, there are 20 living outside of care with relatives (usually grandparents).
WHEN YOU Share KARA’s reporting with FRIENDS, INSTAGRAM & FACEBOOK and most of all, your State Representative (find them here) change will come a little bit faster. 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 work with a small monthly donation: CLICK…
Child Abuse Data and Better Decision Making
America’s Children In 100 Charts
Child abuse is invisible. It is a core problem in every American community impacting all of us, our institutions, and every aspect of our quality of life every day.
Let’s imagine a government that controls (1) automobile safety standards, (2) the state inspection for compliance with automobile safety standards (3) the automobile repair industry, all within the same department, and all done in official secrecy so as to protect the privacy of would-be drivers.
And let’s also suppose that the people who drive automobiles are, 98% of them, poor and very young people, who have no effective political voice.
Child Protection/CPS: If Lawmakers Only Knew (why they don’t – & why they should) Not many lawmakers come to the job understanding child abuse and what happens to children in CPS (Child Protective Services). Few legislators have experienced childhood trauma or the institution (CPS) that protects children from growing up in homes of life-threatening harm.
Minnesota Child Protection News May 2024 Share these articles with media contacts,
lawmakers and other changemakers. Change won’t come without you.
KARA’s Google Ad Grant Initiative for CASA’s
The U.S. has 950 CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) organizations consisting of community volunteers trained as County Guardian ad Litems advocating for abused and neglected children in Court within Child Protection Services.
Sign up HERE for KARA’S free Friday updates Support KARA Programs Here KARA Maintains this site with the hope that this information will compel you to share it with media contacts, lawmakers and other changemakers. change won’t come without you. KIDS AT RISK NONPROFIT EIN: 510570258 INVISIBLECHILDREN – KARA (KIDS AT RISK ACTION Who represents me in…
New Child Fatalities Database (thank you Safe Passage for Children of MN)
CASA of Rock County’s Break The Cycle Luncheon
Celebrating Minnesota’s CASA Guardian Ad Litem Progress