Arkansas ranks high in child abuse, deaths. COVID-19 has made it worse, officials say.
Arkansas Children’s Hospital saw an increase in the number and severity of child-abuse-related cases last year, a troubling pattern in a state that had high rates of child maltreatment before the onset of the covid-19 pandemic.
This is what happens when the hot line receives a report of alleged child maltreatment, according to interviews with Arkansas State Police and Arkansas Department of Human Services officials, state documents and state webpage.
Arkansas is the only state in the country in which two separate state departments conduct non-criminal investigations of suspected child maltreatment.
A Wyoming treatment center where California had long sent troubled youth will shut down in March, following a Chronicle and Imprint investigation into violent abuse at its campus and others operated by Sequel Youth & Family Services.
— The evidence is unclear; some see the pandemic as a chance to revamp systems toward prevention
County officials across California are scrambling to find new homes for more than 100 children with mental health and behavioral issues, following the state’s landmark decision to stop shipping these young people to faraway facilities.
California sent more than 1,000 vulnerable children to out-of-state facilities run by a for-profit company. Reports of rampant abuse followed. Now, confronted with a Chronicle and Imprint investigation, the state is bringing every child home.
The lack of consistency in screening abuse reports is concerning enough for state legislators to consider changes to North Carolina’s system.
A review of thousands of pages of inspection records, incident reports, complaints and emails shows licensors are reluctant to step in when youth facilities have faced troubling accusations of rampant child abuse.
