New Linked In Group For Volunteer CASAs & All Guardian ad Litem (interactive)

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection, KARA News and Events, Reporting and News - MN Specific, Reporting and News - US Based

KARA’s New Linked In Group Guardian ad Litems Exchanging Learning & Ideas  is gathering and sharing information from the 950 CASAs (Court Appointed Special Advocates) in the U.S. and similar child advocacy models around the world. Please share this with your child advocacy friends wherever they may be: Search for: Guardian ad Litems sharing conditions,…

International Rights of the Child Treaty (& why jails are full)

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection, Children's Rights, Juvenile + Criminal Justice, Mikes Favorite Posts, Reporting and News - International

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.

Were Governor Walz State Board Members Misled About Volunteers (and what it could mean)?

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection, Child Protection, KARA News and Events, Reporting and News - MN Specific

There is a political battle being waged over the elimination of qualified community volunteers in Child Protective Services. There are too many pieces of this puzzle to include in this article, but one piece must be addressed to determine if wrongdoing has happened in the drive to eliminate the Court Appointed Special Advocate volunteers. KARA has sent two requests to Governor Walz Guardian ad Litem State Board members over the past few months requesting a conversation about their role in making this critical decision.

Highlights on Family Assessment and Child Death from Star Tribune Child Abuse Reporting Part I

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection, Child Abuse and Deaths, Featured Articles, Mikes Favorite Posts, Reporting and News - MN Specific

These highlights on Family Assessment and Child Death from recent Star Tribune Child Abuse reporting (1, 2, 3) are the tip of the iceberg. Read to the end to get KARA’s historical perspective of how Child Protective Services (CPS) has evolved over the years and its current iteration.

Thank You & Happy Holidays

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action

Dear Reader,    This year, KARA provided over $10,000 in Financial Literacy enrichment grants to program participants, executed three college and community center INVISIBLE CHILDREN CAMPUS CONVERSATIONS, 23 business and community presentations, and almost finished KARA’s new book AMERICA’S CHILDREN IN 100 CHARTS in 2024. As the year comes to a close, we want to…

Have Governor Walz State Board members been mislead?

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection, Child Protection, KARA News and Events, Reporting and News - MN Specific

Dear Reader,Allowing the State board to eliminate 10,000 future volunteers (over the next 40 years) at a time when we are reporting on children murdered by their parents may be an unfixable mistake costing even more children their lives.

Rebuttals to the State MAD report from several top child advocates here;

MN Children, Institutional Regression and Brain Surgery

Aces and Trauma, All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection, Child Abuse and Deaths, Reporting and News - MN Specific

When we say it’s not brain surgery it’s because a task is easy – it doesn’t demand much training or experience. There are times the phrase is meaningful and times it is painfully inappropriate. This article in the Star Tribune explains that corrections officers, human services technicians and staff in state veterans homes will not…

Rich Gehrman Rebuttal of MAD Volunteer Guardian ad Litem Report

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection, Reporting and News - MN Specific

The analysis by MAD is not, in my view, sufficiently compelling in some important respects to support the board in managing this risk.  While I understand from a previous board meeting I attended as well as a legislative hearing on the topic that the board has been guided in this deliberation by staff, this decision is yours alone, and you alone will be accountable for what happens in the future as a result. 

Saying Goodbye to the CASA Guardian ad Litem Volunteer Program

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection, Child Abuse and Deaths, KARA News and Events, Mikes Favorite Posts, Reporting and News - MN Specific

SAYING GOODBYE TO 1000’S OF VOLUNTEER CHILD ADVOCATES & Community Involvement & Trust In One More Community Institution. Since 1981, thousands of community volunteers have spent thousands of hours working to better the lives of Minnesota’s at-risk children.  End this program, they will disappear and no more will follow.

This will result in weakened community awareness, less community involvement and an incalculable loss of…

Child Murder by Caregiver While In CPS

Aces and Trauma, All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection, Child Abuse and Deaths, Reporting and News - MN Specific

The American Medical community has joined forces to declare a national emergency in children’s mental health, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Today’s declaration is an urgent call to policymakers at all levels of government — we must treat this mental health crisis like the emergency it is,” said AAP President Lee Savio Beers, MD, …

Remembering Young LGBTQ Lives & Moving Interview (guest post)

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Child self harm and suicide, LGBTQ, Rebuttals & Guest Posts, Reporting and News - US Based

How did you come to terms with your identity?

Being queer and the sexuality part wasn’t as hard for me. I always knew I liked women. The journey was then finding out who else I liked and what I didn’t like. I feel like when you first join the community, you’re not always presented with how many identities there are. I feel like a lot of people tend to come in uneducated, and I think that’s definitively how I came in. I come from a very homophobic town, so we didn’t have that many people that were out. I didn’t know much. I started identifying as queer because I’m still not sure. My gender identity took a lot longer…

AMERICA’S CHILDREN IN 100 CHARTS (read book draft)

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Child Abuse and Deaths, Child Protection, Featured Articles, Juvenile + Criminal Justice, KARA News and Events, Mental Health + Over Medication, Reporting and News - US Based

This is a book about childhood trauma, its impact on children and the impact traumatized youth are having on our communities and society. It is a guide to seeing and dealing with the most critical issues and causes of abuse, and solutions.

Minnesota Children Killed By Caregivers While Known to CPS (& how to stop it)

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection, Child Abuse and Deaths, Reporting and News - MN Specific, Their stories

 There is a real lack of data and transparency in CPS which makes it hard to know outcomes short of child death.
72% of of the 88 child maltreatment deaths studied (complete study below) were known to CPS. We do know that there were many reports of life changing violence, neglect and abuse but few follow ups. 

Suicidal Children & Hospital Beds

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Child Abuse and Deaths, Child self harm and suicide, Mental Health + Over Medication

For every six-year old foster child’s successful suicide (Kendrea Johnson), there are hundreds of attempts and many hundreds of self-harming incidents in hospitals and Child Protective Services (CPS) – many if not most of these incidents are never reported.

For every child killed while in child protection (recent Safe Passage investigative study of child maltreatment deaths) there are hundreds of children starved, beaten, raped and otherwise abused that  are never known outside the home

Metrics of Minnesota’s Child Protection (what does your state measure?)

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection, Child Abuse and Deaths, Juvenile + Criminal Justice, Reporting and News - MN Specific

Recent Star Tribune articles about juvenile justice and explosive growth of crime in our community miss the heart of the matter. We keep putting fires out that could have been prevented. The car jackings, transit crimes and other juvenile violence making life miserable for so many of us didn’t begin when these children became juveniles. It started with traumas suffered in the home mostly caused by parents that suffered the same violence and abuse as children.

Investing In Children Not Jails

Aces and Trauma, All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection, Children's Rights, Juvenile + Criminal Justice, Reporting and News - MN Specific

We the people are serious about continued investment in our punishment model.

Expelling kids from daycare and elementary school is common. Charging youth in adult courts is too. The nation’s Supreme Court recently reinstated lifelong (no chance for release) sentencing for crimes committed by juveniles.

Instead of investing in healing broken children we invest our tax dollars into courts that punish kids from traumatizing violent and toxic homes. Are we bad at math or pro growing crime, criminals and broken communities.

Criminalizing Elementary School Children

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Juvenile + Criminal Justice

When 14-year-old Ryan Turk cut ahead of the lunch line to grab a milk, he didn’t expect to get in trouble. He certainly didn’t plan to end up in handcuffs. But Turk, a black student at Graham Park Middle School, was arrested for disorderly conduct and petty larceny for procuring the 65-cent carton. The state of Virginia is actually prosecuting the case, which went to trial in November.

Changing the rules of the game requires federal, state, and local reforms. With little evidence that police in schools make students safer and plenty that they facilitate harm to students’ liberty and well-being, the Department of Justice should end the cops program’s SRO grants to districts. Taxpayers should not be on the hook for billions that promote unjust school conditions and put kids at greater risk of future involvement with the criminal justice system. And students should feel like they can talk to school officials when they have problems without forfeiting their constitutional rights and winding up in the back of police cars.

200,000 Youth Tried As Adults Each Year; Temple University

Aces and Trauma, All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Juvenile + Criminal Justice, Reporting and News - US Based

As former Supreme Court Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz so aptly stated, “the difference between that poor child and a felon is about eight years”

Vote for mental health services and child friendly programs for at risk children and call your state legislators and tell them to do the same. 

Once these very troubled children become old enough to impact their surroundings they do so in a most troubling manner. That’s why our jails are full and our schools are troubled.

From the study; “In other words, by one mechanism or another, more than 200,000 individuals under the age of 18 are prosecuted in criminal court each year. There are three trends in the data worth noting…

Tasered and Tried as Adults

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Juvenile + Criminal Justice

Expelled from elementary school, pregnant in junior high and facing a criminal justice system before they are able to drive a car.

The cost to society in taxes, public health, education and safety is astronomical and the people policing, teaching and caring for these children are stuck in centuries old punishment models that guarantee failure, perpetual pain and broken communities.

Let’s Stop Counties Stealing Money From Foster Children

Adoption, Foster and Kinship Care, All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection, Children's Rights, Reporting and News - US Based

Repurposing Federal Foster Care dollars have become a “revenue stream” for counties because taking foster child money goes “unnoticed” (from the article). In a perfect world, a County person would raise hell about repurposing foster child dollars to adults (but they don’t because they could lose their job). There is little reporting of and no transparency in the Child Protection System.

Childhood Trauma + Historical Trauma = Generational Trauma

Aces and Trauma, All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Mental Health + Over Medication

Terrible trauma (like generations of slavery) and the behaviors and conflicts it creates need to be identified and discussed if they are to be fixed. Do we want higher graduation rates and lower crime and recidivism rates for our at risk youth and families? 

Charlamagne Tha God has Launched a Mental Wealth Alliance Foundation to establish fundamental and far-reaching generational support for Black Mental Health. 

Share this widely.

Tennessee’s Child Marriage Bill & Taliban Doctrine

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Children's Rights, Religion, Politics + the Law, Reporting and News - US Based

Massachusetts has the lowest minimum marriage age with parental consent of 14 years old for boys and 12 years old for girls. Afghan parents sell their 7 year-old daughters into arranged marriages & the Taliban has for years practiced child sex abuse.

Tennessee may soon have child brides in common with the Taliban and Afghan parents.