17 April 2008

School Based Abuse and Neglect Reporting Works

About 85% of the 160 children who died in Colorado from abuse or neglect in the past five years were under the age of five, according to a new report on the failures of Colorado's child welfare system, despite the fact that less than 30% of children in the state are under age eighteen.

Part of this is a consequence of the fact that younger children are fragile and less able to protect themselves. But I suspect that another important factor is that school systems credibly report abuse and neglect in situations involving school aged children, something that doesn't happen with pre-schoolers.

No comments: