KY Child Abuse Deaths Top Nation; Law Needs Update

Kentucky had the highest number of child abuse-related fatalities in 2007. That’s according to a recent report from child advocacy organization Every Child Matters.  The report’s authors are hoping it spurs Congress to get around more quickly to reauthorizing a key child abuse prevention law.  Every Child Matters research director Stephen Clermont says the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, or CAPTA, needs more funding, especially when states have trimmed child welfare budgets.“It needs a lot more funding, and it’s a vehicle to say that we need to develop a national strategy to look at this problem, examine this problem, and see what ways both the federal government can help states and states can help families through a whole variety of programs we know that work," says Clermont.Clermont says some of those programs include home nurse visits for mothers of newborns and early childhood education.