I have sat in emergency rooms at 2 a.m. holding the hand of a child who flinched at every sudden sound, because of the things done to her at home. I have watched little ones arrive at foster homes with all their belongings in a trash bag, eyes wide and silent, trying to be “good” so no one will send them away again. I have seen teenagers scream, swear, and hit people, when what they really were was traumatized, terrified, and broken.
Enhancing Child Protection Awareness on Wikipedia: A Research-Based Approach to Expanding and Improving Information on Child Abuse, Policy and Protective Services Cavendish University Uganda
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).
Responding to the Presidential Order addressing Neglect: Keeping neglect as a primary gateway into CPS is essential because what looks like “just poverty” on the surface is often a pattern of chronic educational, emotional, and safety failures that permanently damages children and fuels intergenerational harm.
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.
The Netherlands’ Child Labor Due Diligence Act puts a legal duty on companies to make sure their supply chains are free from child labor. It aims to stop goods and services produced with child labor from entering the Dutch market, but raises questions about children’s civil rights, enforcement, competition, and how far corporate responsibility really goes. A deeper dive for those who want more detail is linked here.
The following articles illustrates how government policy and law has yet again failed to ensure the safety and well-being of children. Children continue to face sexual abuse, gendered based violence and health crises, among other disastrous circumstances. Advocacy by civil society and humanitarian aid is essential in order to support one of the more vulnerable populations of society.
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).
Child and youth interactions with police and courts differ dramatically between the United States and most advanced European nations, with major impacts on measurable outcomes for young people and their communities.
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).
This former CASA Guardian ad Litem is happy to see the saving and rebuilding of the CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) program in Minnesota. Thank you to Kathleen Blatz and the MN State GAL board for your hard work and dedication to this important program.
Dutch authorities establish a positive duty of care on corporations to ensure their supply chains and contractual relations for the supply and manufacture of goods and services are free from child labour. Critics however worry about the possible distorting effects on competition of Dutch companies and the Dutch economy due to increased administrative burdens. A Dutch company illustrates how even with compliance of the new due diligence law, supply chains may never be free from child labour.
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.
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! Child deaths classified as “unknown” or “undetermined” represent one of the most persistent gaps in child‑protection…
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.
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.
I grew up white in the 1960s—reckless. I drove drunk, grew marijuana two doors down from a cop and always went without punishment. On several occasions police brought me home and to let my mom know that I had misbehaved.
My resilience was rarely tested, because I never needed it.
For Black youth living lives parallel to mine, every day demanded extraordinary resilience
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.
how over decades, Northern European voters vote for child and family friendly initiatives compared to American voters. Following posts in this series dive deeper into programs and policies that are making life either better or more difficult for U.S. children and families. Sharing these posts with your State Representative will have some impact on the policies and programs necessary to improve the lives of at-risk children and families where you live.
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
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.…
Transforming the Guardian ad Litem Program Leadership for Lasting Change: With the guidance of leaders who refuse to cut corners and who hold public policy accountable Guardian ad Litem programs can move from mere compliance toward authentic justice and opportunity for every child who enters their care.
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.
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…
In this PODCAST episode of Kids at Risk Action, Emma and Michael expose the massive $14.1 trillion economic toll of untreated childhood trauma in America. They connect the dots between Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and long-term impacts on health, education, and the justice system
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…
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,
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…
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
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…
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…
These 2 minute Ms. Sarah Washington podcast interview snippets offer a narrative on institutions and child friendly policies you may not have heard before.
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.
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.
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.