Project: Children in Peril: Child Abuse
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.
Arkansas is the only state in the country in which two separate state departments conduct non-criminal investigations of suspected child maltreatment.
Project: Hot line calls screened first
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.
Project: 'One suicide is too many'
Kids need help, frank talk, experts say.
Project: Children in peril
Arkansas child gun-death rate among nation's 10 highest. Toddler Tacari Briggs was one of the youngest.