More than 600 child abuse charges were filed in West Virginia last year, and 94% of alleged offenders were someone the child knew. That's according to a report by the West Virginia Child Advocacy Network.

West Virginia's 21 advocacy centers provide services in 44 of the state's 55 counties. The network's CEO Kate Flack said in 2021, centers saw more than 4,000 kids, a 40% increase over the last five years.

But due to school closures and other stay-at-home measures in the pandemic, Flack pointed out the numbers don't paint a full picture of the problem.

"So, we know that this is a conservative estimate of the number of kids who are actually experiencing abuse," said Flack, "but it's still an increase from our numbers the previous year."

According to the Just for Kids Child Advocacy Center, one in 10 West Virginia kids will be a victim of sexual abuse. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the costs of child maltreatment over a lifetime nationwide stretch into the hundreds of billions of dollars.

To report a suspected case of child abuse, call the "Childhelp" National Child Abuse Hotline at 800-352-6513, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The state has made some efforts to protect kids, including amending a 2018 law that shrinks the amount of time required to report suspected abuse from 48 hours to 24 hours. And in 2015, state lawmakers passed "Erin Merryn's Law."

Flack said it requires that public schools have programs to teach students age-appropriate ways to recognize sexual abuse and report it to a trusted adult, and educate teachers on how to handle suspected abuse cases.

"How can you help spot abuse?" said Flack. "What are signs and symptoms of abuse? How can you respond in a way that is affirming to a child, and helps them, and how to report."

Flack said she hopes the state can increase collaboration between child protective services, law enforcement and prosecution officials, and mental health and medical providers, to better help kids heal from their trauma.

"The goal is to have a child advocacy center officially serving every county," said Flack. "And so that means that every county, with all of the different multidisciplinary team members, all of those team members are working together to coordinate cases."

The report says 202 individuals were convicted for crimes against West Virginia children last year.

More than 3,500 foster children are available for adoption in Ohio, and state agencies are connecting with local faith congregations to help recruit families and place kids in caring homes.

The "One Church One Child" program is based on the idea that, if every congregation identifies one family who fosters or adopts one child, there would be fewer children without permanent homes.

Jennifer Kollar, public information officer for Mahoning County Children Services, said local churches often offer resources for adoption.

"It's our job to find safe, stable supports and placements for these children," Kollar explained. "The faith-based community has been long-standing in support of those endeavors."

Kollar added the agency has contracted with a community advocate to implement a local version of the One Church One Child program, by nurturing relationships with church congregations.

According to the Public Children Services Association of Ohio, the state continues to struggle with a placement crisis for children in its custody. Between the summers of 2021 and 2022, more than 500 children spent at least one night in county government offices because they had nowhere to go.

Kollar stressed the need for foster care and permanent homes is great, and the holidays can be an especially stressful and lonely time for children.

"Our agency has over 300 children in foster care," Kollar pointed out. "And there's over 51 children in our permanent custody, which means that those children's biological parents have had their parental rights terminated."

Kevin Milliken, public information specialist for Lucas County Children Services, said multiple factors continue to drive up the number of children who are unable to safely live with their biological parents.

"Mental health issues, opioid epidemic, job losses, a sustained poor economy, in all of those things have combined," Milliken outlined. "I don't think there's one root cause. It's a conglomeration of all those things that continue to be a problem, particularly in Lucas County."

People interested in adoption or fostering can find information online on the state's adoption website.


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By India Gardener / Broadcast version by Nadia Ramlagan reporting for the Kent State-Ohio News Connection Collaboration.

According to Attorney General David Yost's office, 15,335 children have gone missing in Ohio in 2023. There were 1,698 reports of missing children in October, up from 1,621 in September.

Ninety-five percent of missing children in Ohio have been safely found so far this year, said deputy press secretary Dominic Binkley. That's similar to the success rate in 2022 and other recent years. In general for cases where authorities know the circumstances, most missing children have either run away from home or are taken from their custodial parent by their non-custodial parent. But some children have never been found. One of them was Ashley Summers, who disappeared in Cleveland in 2007 at the age of 14.

"I think that unfortunately, our law enforcement failed us, especially in the beginning and to elaborate on that a little bit...they considered her a runaway and didn't do anything about her case for months," said Linda Summers, Ashley's grandmother. "It was nine months before she was put on any kind of state missing database and over a year before she was reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and when they did, they labeled her as an endangered runaway."

According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) report from 2013 to 2022, 94% of missing children from care were categorized as endangered runaways like Ashley was. In 2020, the NCMEC received around 30,000 reports of missing children, with 91% involving children who had run away. Around 77% of these endangered runaways were between the ages of 15 and 17.

When missing children are classified as runaways, it decreases specialized attention and resources crucial for locating individuals who might be in distress, potentially prolonging their absence and endangering their safety.

Summers advocates for measures that would increase the likelihood of missing children being found, including improved responses from police departments that are often short on staff.

"There are shortages, not only just statewide, but around the country," said Wilfredo Diaz, public information officer for the Cleveland Police Department. "The approach has to be consistent every missing person case that we receive has to receive the same investigative approach regardless of the situation."

Law enforcement agencies are forging partnerships with external organizations like Cleveland Missing, a nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness about abductions and human trafficking while offering vital support services to families and survivors.

"Law enforcement is doing a ton of work behind the scenes, and it's just things that we can't share with the public." said Devan Althen, law enforcement liaison of Cleveland Missing, "Seeing just the amount of collaboration between law enforcement families and organizations like ours trying to combat these is probably one of the biggest things that I've noticed in the last few months once these numbers have started rising."

According to the Black and Missing Foundation, nearly 40% of missing persons are people of color. A problem arises when examining missing Black children cases: the statistics consistently reveal a stark disparity in media coverage and law enforcement response times between cases involving Black children and their white counterparts.

"Runaways do not meet the criteria for an Amber Alert, and honestly, there isn't a sense of urgency in finding them because the perception in society is if a child runs away, whether it's a male or female, whatever happens to them, they brought it on themselves because they decided to leave," said Derrica Wilson, the co-founder of the Black and Missing Foundation. "We know that one in every three children who run away are solicited for sex, and we also know that human trafficking is a huge issue across this country but specifically in Cleveland."

During the first two days after a disappearance, a series of factors come into play that can significantly impact the child's safety and the chances of a successful recovery.

"Number one, we need to terminate the classification of runaways; they're missing and endangered," Wilson said. "Number two, we need to stop telling families to wait 24-48 hours when we all know the first 24-48 hours are the most critical moments when someone is missing."

The lack of equal attention and response time in missing children cases extends to the broader societal phenomenon known as "Missing White Woman Syndrome." This term refers to the disproportionate media coverage and public attention that missing person cases, particularly those involving white women, tend to receive.

Media coverage of cases like Gabby Petito's and those like Relisha Rudd's is evidence of deeply ingrained systemic biases. Gabby Petito's case received widespread media attention, drawing the nation's focus for weeks. In contrast, cases like Relisha Rudd's, which involve a missing child from the Black community, only receive limited coverage.

"There was research conducted by the Urban Institute, and they had the opportunity to interview traffickers," Wilson said. "During this interview, they admitted that they target Black women and girls for two reasons: Number one, they knew law enforcement would not look for Black women and girls. Number two, they knew they would get less jail time than if they targeted a white woman or child."

Like the well-known Amber Alert system for missing children, California will become the first state to institute an Ebony Alert in January 2024. The new system will alert communities regarding missing Black youth and women between the ages of 12-25.

According to the FBI's National Crime Information Center, over 140,000 Black children were reported missing across the country in 2022. Advocates for missing Black children in Ohio say an Ebony Alert might help draw attention to those cases.

"I think that if we were able to implement something like that [Ebony Alert] it would be beneficial because a lot of our cases are more from the marginalized community rather than someone who is not," Althen said. "Having those kinds of alerts could benefit the population we tend to see as runaways in the Cleveland area."


This collaboration is produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.


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A bill in Congress with a Connecticut House sponsor aims to reduce child labor in the United States.

Called the "Children Harmed in Life-Threatening or Dangerous Labor Act," its aim is to strengthen current child labor laws and increase civil penalties for companies violating them. And the bill puts a new wrinkle on protections: It allows the Secretary of Labor to label goods produced with child labor, and to issue a 'stop work' order for any person violating child labor laws.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the bill's House sponsor, described its importance.

"This is in response to industry, to have more workers -- more than likely who are underpaid -- and that they can get cheap labor for doing the jobs that they are doing, and taking risks with children," DeLauro explained. "There is a labor shortage, so they're looking to children."

The Economic Policy Institute reported 10 states introduced or passed bills rolling back child labor protections in the last two years.

The Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division concluded almost 1,000 investigations, uncovering child labor violations, an 88% increase since 2019. The bill has been introduced in both chambers of Congress.

Ultimately, the goal is to have stiffer penalties in place for companies that ignore child labor laws. DeLauro acknowledged backers of the bill expect some opposition, most likely from states rolling back protections and industries using underage workers.

"We've got a very strong meat packing industry -- I mention Tyson, JBS, Turkey Valley Farms -- and Packers Sanitation Services provides cleaning services at these meat processing facilities," DeLauro outlined. "I'm going to anticipate that we're going to see industry come out of the woodwork in opposition."

Some companies are already being held accountable with civil penalties. A meatpacking plant owned by Tennessee-based Monogram Meats Snacks was fined a little more than $140,000 for employing children. However, the company made more than $1 billion in 2021.