Bethany Loerke went from living in a filthy trailer with neglectful parents to bouncing between 10 foster homes to being adopted into a family with a sexually abusive father. She is using her story to educate the world on the challenges kids face in foster care. The Tulsa World’s Ginnie Graham has more: “This fight […]

A two-year-old boy in Spartanburg, South Carolina is clinging to life after his mother’s boyfriend allegedly beat him. The Spartanburg Herald Journal has more on the boy’s life-threatening injuries: A Greenville Memorial Hospital physician told detectives on Wednesday that she and a neurologist believe the child has traumatic brain injury from having been shaken, beaten […]

Money for Arizona’s foster care system may fall victim to the state’s budget process if the legislature can’t come up with additional funds. Phoenix’s ABC 15 spoke to one foster family to get their reaction. Matthew and Cathy Barto have fostered six children over the last seven years, and they don’t understand why state lawmakers […]

Six-year-old Afton Allison died Sunday night and his father, Anthony Blake Viles, is currently under arrest for allegedly beating him to death. King 5 News has more on this heartbreaking story: Afton used to live in Washington with his mother and stepfather. After child protective services removed him from his mother’s home for neglect, they […]

Kentucky mothers who have lost children to child abuse are banding together to prevent any more deaths. The campaign, led by Kosair Children’s Hospital in Louisville, features powerful voices speaking out on what it’s like to lose a child to abuse, including Kara Mellick: “It kills me every time I think about it,” said Mellick, […]

More than 8,000 Arkansas children were abused or neglected in 2011, according to a report by the state’s Department of Human Services (DHS). The report shows a troubling upward trend in child abuse and neglect in the state, according to KARK 4 News: The number of true cases has increased every year for the last […]

There is a single phone number to call to report suspected child abuse and neglect in Michigan, now that the state’s Department of Human Services (DHS) has replaced its 83 county-based call centers with a centralized hotline. “The rollout of the centralized hotline is a major step forward in our campaign to reform Michigan’s long […]

Children’s Rights’ Founder and Executive Director Marcia Robinson Lowry sat down with Tulsa World reporter Ginnie Graham to talk about the reasons behind Children’s Rights’ legal action to reform Oklahoma’s foster care system and what U.S. District Judge Gregory Frizzell’s approval of the settlement agreement will mean for abused and neglected kids in Oklahoma. The […]

Kelly loved fostering babies and keeping them out of the local shelter. She loved getting to know the children and advocating for the care they needed. Most of all, she simply loved having babies around. What she didn’t love was the frustration that came from working with the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (DHS). Kelly’s […]

For most, turning 18 is a milestone to celebrate. But for thousands of kids in foster care it is a huge source of anxiety. In states throughout the country, when kids turn 18 they age out of foster care. After suffering abuse and neglect at the hands of family members, bouncing between foster families, group […]