Making CPS Work For Everyone part 2
Child Protective Services (CPS) can’t keep children safe (or alive) in opposition to State and Federal law.
Who Will Speak For Abused & Neglected Children? video
Abused and neglected children cannot speak for themselves. Watch KARA’s award‑winning video and learn how CASA volunteers and informed adults can speak up, protect kids, and push lawmakers to improve child protection systems.
Volunteer CASA Guardians ad Litem spend their days with abused and neglected children that have been raped, neglected, beaten, and tortured by other means.
Child Protection in the Dark: How Our Blind Spots in CPS Are Costing Taxpayers, Children, and Communities
Child Protective Services is one of the least understood and least transparent systems we fund, even though childhood trauma drives enormous costs in education, health care, crime, and prisons. This KARA article argues that taxpayers, children, and communities are all paying for our blind spots around CPS, shows how negative narratives and politics are pushing the system into crisis, and calls on readers to demand real data and trauma-informed reform.
Childhood Trauma, Suicide, and a CPS System Flying Blind
Repeated childhood trauma does cruel things to children. Things that never go away. Those things (behaviors/thoughts/self-harm/suicide) can be managed with help. Without help, depression, pain and sadness often become overwhelming.
Resources and What You Can Do For Foster and At Risk Children
What To Do For Foster and At Risk Children (a list of important things)
If you are concerned about at-risk children where you live, Check it Out!
Self-Destructive Habits of Institutions
Using KARA’s friend Ned’s “backwards car” analogy, this post explains how Child Protective Services is structured to protect its own bureaucracy rather than children. Conflicts of interest, secrecy, and missing metrics mean CPS often produces what it was designed to stop. The fix starts with transparency and informed legislators.
Minnesota Children Killed By Caregivers While Known to CPS (& how to stop it)
2023 Investigative Report on MN Children Killed
by Caregivers While in Child Protective Services
Overwhelmed Institutions & Public Policy
To be fair, what does an overwhelmed institution do when caseloads double and budgets are cut in half? Rural counties will always be underfunded, understaffed and unable to provide the level of service larger urban areas can with their larger budgets giving them more options.
Thank You Cyndy Etler (don’t lock them up)
shining a light on child advocacy,
Childhood Trauma Is a War Injury: How ACEs Rewire the Brain and Fuel Crime
Childhood trauma and Post‑Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in war veterans look different on the surface—but biologically, they are strikingly similar. We accept that a soldier torn apart by bullets or standing next to a friend killed by a bomb will carry invisible brain injuries. Yet we still struggle to see how growing up in a violent, chaotic, or deeply neglectful home can damage a child’s brain in many of the same ways.
The Real Cost of Child Maltreatment, CPS, and Recidivism
Child maltreatment does not end when a CPS case is closed. The same children who enter child protection often show up later in juvenile justice and adult prison, driving recidivism rates of 70–80% and an estimated cost of more than $1.3 million per child. These numbers expose a foster care‑to‑prison pipeline and a massive misuse of public funds—money that could instead be invested in proven early childhood and trauma‑informed programs that break the cycle of abuse, crime, and incarceration.
How One Letter Saved a Child (KARA Podcast)
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
Child Endangerment (Star Tribune “IN HARM’S WAY”)
Minnesota’s child protection system is repeatedly returning severely abused children to unsafe homes — and some are dying as a result. Drawing on the Star Tribune’s “In Harm’s Way” investigation, Safe Passage’s child fatality data, and my experience as a CASA guardian ad litem, this post exposes how opaque CPS practices, ignored warning signs, and a lack of accountability keep kids in danger. Learn what’s going wrong, why it matters for every Minnesotan, and how you can help push lawmakers to finally put children’s safety first.
All About Adverse Childhood Experiences: Trauma, Testing, And Resilience (podcast)
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.
Foster Child Self-Harm & Suicide June 2025
Childhood trauma, suicide and self-harm among American youth are at historic highs, with alarming increases among fosters, preteens, girls, LGBTQ+ youth, and children of color. Suicide is now the second leading cause of death for ages 10–24, and nearly one in five high school students has seriously considered suicide in the past year. Rates of self-harm, especially among young girls and LGBTQ+ youth, have surged, with emergency room visits for self-injury rising dramatically since 2020
Federal Chafee Changes vs. Minnesota Reality: Are Foster Youth Getting What They Need?
For years, young people aging out of foster care have told us the same story: they are expected to become independent adults overnight, often without stable housing, reliable income, or consistent adult support. Minnesota has made some important strides—extended foster care, Northstar payments, education vouchers, and youth advocacy organizations—but the lived reality for too many youth is still homelessness, interrupted education, legal and financial barriers, and parenting without support.
“Illiteracy and Incarceration: What Ruben Rosario Got Right”
85 percent of all juveniles who come into contact with the juvenile court system are functionally illiterate. So are 60 percent of all prison inmates. Inmates have a 16 percent chance of returning to prison if they receive literacy help, as opposed to 70 percent for those who receive no help
Free and Discounted Resources for Foster Youth
free and discounted resources for foster and adopted children and families
Child Abuse Statistics (and the best resources)
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.
MN Children, Institutions, and Politics
Abused and neglected children don’t have a voice in the politics and policies that rule their lives. They are at the mercy of our politicians and institutions that serve them.
Millions of Abused Children, 2 Powerful Programs, 1000’s of Volunteers—and Little Public Awareness”
Because CASA and Children’s Advocacy Centers remain largely unknown, at‑risk children and families lose critical lifelines they don’t even realize exist. Low public awareness means fewer mandated reporters, neighbors, teachers, and relatives can to turn when they suspect abuse—or how to push for a CASA volunteer or a CAC referral when a child enters the system. It depresses volunteer recruitment for CASA and philanthropic support for both models, limiting how many children can be served. It also allows policymakers to underfund these services…
What Child Neglect Does (and how long it lasts)
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.
KARA Concerns About Trump’s Child Protection Order (deep dive)
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).
High Cost of Ignoring Childhood Trauma (Podcast)
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:
America’s Childhood Trauma and ACEs Impact (podcast)
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.
ACES Economic Burden on Healthcare (PODCAST)
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
Things I Know at 77
Both my parents were abused as children. Child abuse is epigenetic – like hair and eye color. My childhood went away when the abuse started. I lived in a constant state of fight or flight, freeze, or fawn and when there was no escape the only thing left was to FAIL. A child trapped in inescapable child abuse trauma fails all the time.
This year’s Budget, Bills, and Abused Children
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…
A Win For Abused Children of Minnesota
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…
Powerful Stories From The Atlantic Journal
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.
Domestic Violence and Child Death at the Hands of Caregivers
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)?
Other Perspectives Podcast
These 2 minute Ms. Sarah Washington podcast interview snippets offer a narrative on institutions and child friendly policies you may not have heard before.
Kids At Risk Action History
KIDS AT RISK ACTION / KARA / INVISIBLE CHILDREN HISTORY
The End Of Child Protection
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.
National CASA Federal Funding Terminated – Share this with your lawmakers
National CASA Federal Funding Terminated
The Beatings Will Continue
Yanelin Montalvo-Valdez (yesterday Star Tribune) personifies the pain and punishment heaped upon the 50 innocent children I advocated for as a CASA Guardian ad Litem volunteer
(CASA Guardian ad Litem) Be a Voice For Abused Children Where You Live
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.
2025 – A Happier New Year For At Risk Children
2025 – A Happier New Year For At Risk Children
Suicide, Child Abuse and Christmas
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.
Thank You & Happy Holidays
Dear Reader, As the year comes to a close, we want to thank you for following our Saturday INVISIBLE CHILDREN updates. Your readership is helping KARA spread awareness of child abuse and trauma, and the work that needs to be done to save and heal at-risk children. KARA relies on the generosity of our…
Budget Surplus Fund For Children (how to make a Christmas Miracle)
Peter Hutchinson’s recent Star Tribune article points to how the current MN budget surplus could fully fund programs that would make children healthier, better educated and (ALL OF US) safer.
Why Children Need Mandated Reporters
http://invisiblechildren.org/2013/07/04/mandated-reporting-or-basic-responsibility-its-absence-is-killing-wisconsin-pennsylvania-children/ Facebook Replacing Mandated Reporters for Child Abuse? Don’t Blame The Mandated Reporter (why child abuse reporting is sporadic) Fear and Firing of Mandated Reporters of Child Abuse Being A Mandated Reporter (and what it means) Reporting Maltreatment Of Children; How Minnesota Does It (State Statute – 626.556) Tolerating Child Death in Minnesota (thank you…
COVIDs Impact on CPS, CASA volunteers, & Guardian ad Litem Staff
COVIDs Impact on CPS, CASA volunteers, & Guardian ad Litem Staff
One Question KARA Survey
What topic needs more attention on KARA’s website?
Email you answer to info@invisiblechildren.org with SURVEY in the subject line.
Child Welfare News Fall 2024 (compiled articles)
KARA compiles child abuse and neglect stories and data about
abused and neglected children
America’s Children In 100 Charts (draft preface)
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.
What Teachers Are Facing Today and Tomorrow
Teachers feel undervalued and overwhelmed.
Turnover his high and a number of states are using
unqualified people to fill positions.
Fetal Alcohol Births (and a very big policy change)
Minnesota has ended criminalizing fetal alcohol birth mothers with the hopes of better results by recommending treatment instead of mandatory programs and prosecution for failure.
KARA Presentation Janesville CASA (heart of the matter)
KARA Presentation Janesville CASA (heart of the matter)
Child Protection work is hard. Community CASA volunteers (Court Appointed Special Advocate) speak for abused and neglected children in County Child Protection.
Volunteer CASA Guardians ad Litem spend their days with abused and neglected children that have been raped, neglected, beaten, and tortured by other means.
Parsing the Data (how child abuse impacts your community)
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.