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.
The United States ranks near the bottom of wealthy countries for child well-being, with higher child poverty, infant mortality, and firearm deaths than its peers. Learn what the data shows and why it matters.
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”
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 post addresses the healthcare burden children with high ACEs scores have on our communities and nation. What’s not obvious to many is that at risk children become at risk youth and at risk adults. 9-year 80% prison recidivism has been with us for over 20 years. This single statistic shines a light on the cascading and forever financial and social costs to our communities from one other American institution that is easily understood. The health care financial and social costs are more complex and harder to understand. The Cape Breton University study below brings clarity to this complex issue.
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).
he significant decline in critical student test scores since 2020 signals that millions of children across the country are falling behind on foundational skills, threatening both individual opportunity and the long-term vitality of entire communities
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…
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
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The KARA team is building an interactive, ai driven database platform for information and solutions. The demand for information and better solutions is high.
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
high-quality early childhood interventions deliver the highest public return on investment (ROI) of any government expenditure
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 staggering economic and societal costs of untreated childhood trauma, which exceed $12 trillion annually in the U.S.—more than half of the country’s GDP.
What parents should do after a child’s suicide attempt? Answering caregivers’ frequently …
In 2023, at least 32 children died from maltreatment in Minnesota – the fifth year in a row of increases. That’s almost three children per month who spent their final hours in crisis; their deaths were entirely preventable.
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)
2025 – A Happier New Year For At Risk Children
Many foster youth and abused and neglected children in toxic homes suffer especially during the holidays. There is no joy in being removed from your birth home or to continue living in a birth home with broken parents and the behaviors that come with abusive caregivers.
About 25% of the children and young adults in California foster care have attempted suicide. 41% of LGBTQ kids seriously thought of killing themselves last year.
How Child Abuse Impacts Your Community
How Child Abuse Impacts Your Community
Without help, most badly traumatized/abused children become troubled youth leading lifetimes as dysfunctional adults.
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)
2020, he child and teen gun death rate in the U.S. was more than 3 times higher than that in Turkey, the country with the next highest rate; 11 times higher than in Israel; 19 times higher than in Switzerland and 85 times higher than in the United Kingdom
Child poverty more than doubled between 2021 and 2022. Child poverty and near poverty in America was around 60% when I grow up in 1960’s. Compared to other industrialized nations we have never been a leader – always between 25th and 40th in child poverty rankings among our peers. From the 1960’s through the 1990’s, our childhood poverty rates hovered around 30% (significant multiple of the other advanced nations).
The COVID lockdown has kept at risk children in toxic homes for long periods without access to mandated reporters or the safety they provide. The traumas suffered and behavior issues that follow severe abuse need to be addressed for these young citizens to lead normal lives.