When Rachel Marshall was growing up in Virginia, her parents kept a magnet on the refrigerator from a national homeschooling advocacy group, with a phone number to call if local school officials tried to interfere with their decision to educate their children at home.

鈥淵ou tell [the organization] the state鈥檚 after you, and they will come in with their lawyers and defend your right to homeschool and do what you want with your kids,鈥� said Marshall, now a licensed counselor in Utah. 鈥淭he state should be hands-off, that was their goal.鈥�

Marshall wishes the state had been more hands-on. When she was a child, she said, her education and her safety were at the mercy of her parents, who struggled with mental illness and addiction.

鈥淚t was an ugly situation,鈥� Marshall told Stateline. 鈥淏ut I think had there been some sort of regulation, some expectations from the state, I would not have been exposed to that as much.鈥�

As homeschool enrollment has risen in recent years, so have concerns about oversight.

Recent high-profile child abuse deaths in several states have led to renewed calls from lawmakers for stronger regulations. They warn that some abusers claim they are homeschooling their kids when they pull them out of school, but really want to hide their crimes from teachers and other so-called mandatory reporters in public schools. Mandatory reporters are legally obligated to speak up about abuse if they suspect it.

But the push has inflamed a broader debate over parental rights and galvanized hundreds of homeschool groups to rally at statehouses around the country.

In every state, parents or guardians can withdraw their children from public or private school to be homeschooled. States allow this even if the caregiver has been the subject of , according to the Coalition for Responsible Home Education, an advocacy group. Nearly every state allows parents to withdraw children in the middle of an active investigation, and most states don鈥檛 prevent  from homeschooling their kids.

Lawmakers in states such as ,  and  have attempted to pass additional reporting requirements to guard against child abuse in homeschool settings.

They鈥檙e running up against parents鈥� rights groups and homeschooling advocates who argue that such regulations treat all homeschooling parents as potential criminals and aren鈥檛 necessary because many children in such situations are already on the radar of social service agencies. They say the additional requirements don鈥檛 address problems inside child protection agencies that allow such abuse to go unaddressed.

鈥淲hen bad things happen, people feel compelled to do something, whether it makes a difference or not,鈥� said Connecticut state Rep. Anne Dauphinais, a Republican who opposes homeschool regulation. 鈥淚t鈥檚 often overreach of government, just because [lawmakers] want to feel good about doing something.鈥�

In West Virginia, Democratic state Del. Shawn Fluharty said in an interview that he鈥檇 lost track of how many times he鈥檚 tried to get a bill passed that would prevent a parent from pulling a child out of public school to homeschool if social services is investigating the parent for possible child abuse or neglect. According to Stateline鈥檚 sister publication, West Virginia Watch, this year will mark .

Fluharty calls his bill 鈥淩aylee鈥檚 Law,鈥� after an 8-year-old girl who died from severe abuse and neglect in 2018. Before her death, her abusers had pulled her out of public school after .

鈥淎t this point, I鈥檓 just pissed off,鈥� Fluharty told Stateline. 鈥淲e鈥檝e had at least two other circumstances very similar to Raylee鈥檚 situation since I鈥檝e been pushing this legislation.鈥�

Fluharty said he鈥檚 considering revising the law鈥檚 name to also memorialize Kyneddi Miller, a West Virginia 14-year-old who . Her mother had pulled her from public school in 2021 to homeschool her.

The bill passed the House twice in recent years, with bipartisan support, but died in a Senate committee each time. It faces opposition from homeschooling advocates in the legislature, he said, as well as lobbying efforts from national homeschool groups.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not a complex situation,鈥� said Fluharty. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a glaring loophole that needs to be closed. The longer it stays open, the more vulnerable children are in West Virginia.鈥�

Homeschool explosion

But interest is . In recent years, the 30 states that publicly report homeschool participation have seen those numbers grow. More than a third of those states recorded their  in the 2024-2025 school year, even exceeding pandemic-era peaks, according to a study published in November.

Homeschooling has increasingly been framed as a political and cultural choice, particularly in conservative circles where it鈥檚 promoted as a way to exercise control over children鈥檚 education amid anger over how schools address racial equity, gender identity and sexuality, school violence and vaccine requirements. Homeschool supporters praise its flexibility and safety. Others warn that minimal regulation can leave some children isolated from the visibility and protections built into public school systems.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, homeschool participation hovered around 2-3% of K-12 students. It exploded during the pandemic to a high of 11% of families, as learning outside of traditional schools became normalized. Now  in the United States are homeschooled, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The issue doesn鈥檛 always fall neatly along party lines. In Georgia,  prompted a  that prohibits caregivers from withdrawing a child from school for the purpose of evading detection of child abuse and neglect. It became law in 2019.

In Hawaii, Republican state Sen. Kurt Fevella filed a resolution in 2024 calling for the state to conduct a wellness visit for any child removed from school to be homeschooled. He was motivated by  in Hawaii who had been taken out of school for homeschooling. It died in committee.

Last year, Rachel Marshall gave testimony before Utah legislators who were considering a controversial bill that would remove part of a 2023 law requiring parents to attest they鈥檝e never been convicted of child abuse before they鈥檙e allowed to homeschool their children.

Marshall opposed the bill, worried the state was erasing one more safeguard protecting the small subset of homeschooled children who are at risk of abuse or neglect. But as she sat listening to the homeschooling parents speaking in favor of it, their words sounded familiar.

鈥淚 could hear the fear and rage that someone would take away your rights,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut I think if you are being investigated by [child protective services], you should not be allowed to withdraw your children from daily mandated reporters like schoolteachers.鈥�

The bill鈥檚 chief sponsor, Republican state Rep. Nicholeen Peck, said her goal was to remove a portion of state homeschooling law that was ineffective, had created confusion for school districts, and unfairly stigmatized homeschooling families.

The Utah legislature passed the bill and it was signed into law last spring.

Statehouse rallies

Studies are mixed on whether children who are homeschooled are more likely to be victims of abuse.

A  of homeschooled and conventionally schooled adults found homeschooled children aren鈥檛 necessarily more likely to report experiencing abuse or neglect.

But among abuse victims, isolation from mandated reporters 鈥� like school teachers 鈥� is a common thread. A  found that nearly half of child torture victims had been pulled from school to be homeschooled to evade suspicions of abuse. Withdrawal from school to homeschool under suspicious circumstances is  and is associated with higher risk factors for abuse, according to a report from the Coalition for Responsible Home Education.

More than 1 in 5 children withdrawn from school for homeschooling in Connecticut lived in families with at least one substantiated report from the state鈥檚 child services agency, according to a report released last year from Connecticut鈥檚 Office of the Child Advocate. The office based its findings on a sample of more than 700 children aged 7-11 who were withdrawn from school for homeschooling between July 2021 and June 2024.

For homeschooling families who鈥檝e been providing their children with a high-quality education without oversight, 鈥淚 can understand why they might feel they don鈥檛 need to be regulated,鈥� said Christina Ghio, Connecticut鈥檚 child advocate.

鈥淏ut as a state, we have an obligation to all children,鈥� she told Stateline. 鈥淲e know there are children whose parents say they鈥檙e homeschooling who are not. The challenge is, there鈥檚 one set of rules that has to apply to everybody.鈥�

Her office鈥檚 report recommended state lawmakers create requirements for annual assessments of homeschoolers.

The report was issued in the wake of a high-profile abuse case: A Connecticut man was rescued in February 2025 after authorities say he鈥檇 been  for two decades. His stepmother had pulled him from public school in fourth grade after  with concerns he was being abused.

But when lawmakers gathered for hearings on homeschooling regulation last May, after Ghio鈥檚 report, , most of them homeschool families, flooded the state鈥檚 Legislative Office Building to protest, according to the CT Mirror.

In Illinois, Democratic lawmakers introduced a sweeping homeschool regulation bill last year that, among other things, would have banned those convicted of sexual abuse crimes from homeschooling. It was  by an  from Capitol News Illinois and ProPublica into the state鈥檚 nearly nonexistent homeschool regulation.

But while the bill cleared its committee,  and supporters packed the Illinois State Capitol to oppose it. It never made it to a full vote in the House.

Despite pushback, Connecticut House Speaker Matt Ritter, a Democrat, has signaled his interest in revisiting some kind of oversight during this legislative session.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think this is a fight about homeschooling,鈥� he said during  earlier this month, citing cases like the highly publicized death of 11-year-old Jacqueline 鈥淢imi鈥� Torres-Garcia.

In October, the girl鈥檚 remains were found on an abandoned property in Connecticut. The family had  with the state鈥檚 social services, but her mother emailed school officials in July 2024 to tell them she planned to homeschool her daughter. Authorities say that less than two months later, the girl was dead. An autopsy confirmed her death was caused by .

Dauphinais, the Connecticut Republican, told Stateline she doesn鈥檛 believe any of the proposed homeschool requirements she鈥檚 heard from her Democratic colleagues would have saved children like Mimi Torres-Garcia.

鈥淚f you want to abuse your child, you鈥檙e going to abuse your child and you are never going to show up for any kind of annual evaluation,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey will game the system. We鈥檙e not talking about the 99.9% of homeschoolers doing it genuinely. We鈥檙e talking about people doing evil things.鈥�

Ritter said families that have been investigated by child protective services or law enforcement need more follow-up. But he was candid about the long road that regulation might face: 鈥淭hat might get really ugly, Republican versus Democrat. I think it depends on how it gets drafted.鈥�

National advocacy

In Utah, some of the speakers supporting removing reporting requirements from state law included representatives from the same organization that was on Marshall鈥檚 family鈥檚 refrigerator magnet: the Home School Legal Defense Association.

It鈥檚 one of the most visible homeschooling organizations in statehouses around the nation, fighting homeschool regulation of all kinds.

The group argues that the intent behind such regulation is good, but misplaced, and that such regulations unfairly burden homeschooling families without meaningfully overhauling the systems 鈥� like social services agencies 鈥� that are tasked with protecting kids from abuse.

Homeschool families struggle with 鈥渂eing treated as though they were being lumped in with felons, being lumped in with kidnappers, being lumped in with people who had harmed their children,鈥� said Peter Kamakawiwoole, an attorney with the Home School Legal Defense Association, during a Utah House committee  last January.

Also tracking such legislation are groups like the Coalition for Responsible Home Education, which was founded by former homeschoolers and advocates for oversight and accountability in homeschooling. The group drafted  it calls the Make Homeschool Safe Act that proposes certain state reporting requirements for homeschooling families. The Home School Legal Defense Association .

Fluharty, the West Virginia lawmaker, said that when he鈥檚 accused of 鈥済oing after homeschoolers,鈥� he encourages them to read the bill. He believes the national homeschooling lobbyists are lying to families about what his legislation really does.

The goal of such regulation isn鈥檛 to take away homeschoolers鈥� rights, said Marshall. It鈥檚 not even necessarily for the kids whose cases wind up in front of child protective services. Instead, she said, it鈥檚 for the kids that no one can see.

鈥淭hese kids are invisible,鈥� she said. 鈥淗omeschooling is inherently isolating. Other kids are going to school and have teachers in their lives, a bus driver in their life.鈥�

But for homeschooled kids, 鈥淚f you are being abused or your education is being neglected, your parents aren鈥檛 telling others that. Nobody knows. It feels like the state doesn鈥檛 care.鈥�

Death row inmate Tremane Wood鈥檚 sixth-grade English teacher was standing outside the gates of his Oklahoma prison praying for his soul 鈥� and thinking he had already been executed 鈥� when she got word that .

It was 10:01 a.m. Thursday 鈥� a minute after Wood, 46, was scheduled to receive a lethal injection 鈥� that Cindy Birdwell and other supporters in the crowd learned that Gov. Kevin Stitt had decided to accept the state Pardon and Parole Board鈥檚 recommendation and commute Wood鈥檚 sentence to life imprisonment.

There was 鈥渨hooping,鈥� tears of joy and jumping up and down, she said. Birdwell said she was humbled and grateful to have played a part in it, saying she represented educators when she spoke before the parole board last week on Wood鈥檚 behalf. She wanted the outside world to know the 鈥渓ittle Tremane鈥� that she knew back in Stillwater Middle School in the early 1990s, she said, and for other teachers to recognize 鈥渢hey have little Tremanes鈥� in their class, too.

鈥淪omeone who is quiet sometimes, who鈥檚 ornery sometimes, who doesn鈥檛 do their work quite up to their potential, who stays back because they want more of your attention, who wants to tell you something but can鈥檛,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e just have to slow down a little and say, 鈥業 see you. I hear you.鈥欌��

Stitt said he came to his 11th-hour decision not to execute Wood for his role in the 2002 robbery and murder of a young farmworker after It marked only the second time in the Republican governor鈥檚 seven-year term that he granted clemency to a death row inmate.

The from his family, religious leaders and many others were mounting as his scheduled execution drew closer. Among those closely watching were Dan Losen, an attorney and senior director at the nonprofit National Center for Youth Law, who dug deep into Wood鈥檚 childhood records and interviewed his former teachers and administrators to argue that Wood was a victim of the school-to-prison pipeline.

In a 23-page report shared with 社区黑料 and a letter sent to the parole board, Losen concluded that school officials ignored overwhelming evidence that Wood was being beaten and neglected at home and that he suffered from learning and behavioral issues, such as ADHD and post-traumatic stress disorder, as a result. Instead of reporting that abuse or having Wood evaluated for special education services, as the law requires, they severely punished him. In middle school, Wood was suspended for six months 鈥� the end of sixth grade and the entire first half of seventh 鈥� for acting out and chronic absenteeism.

鈥淚 am so deeply grateful to the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board for recommending clemency and to Governor Stitt for granting clemency to Tremane Wood,鈥� Losen said. 鈥淚 hope Tremane’s clemency, and the voices of similarly situated adults, will contribute to diminishing the unjust and disparate harm experienced by children due to inadequate training, supports and resources for schools. There are many schools that are doing a great deal to support traumatized youth, but far too many school districts, and far too many educators that still dismiss struggling students as 鈥榖ad kids.鈥欌��

Working with Losen were Birdwell and Alton Carter, the former assistant to Wood鈥檚 middle school vice principal, who was directly involved in disciplining Wood. He told Losen school officials knew the boy was 鈥渢raumatized, neglected and beaten鈥� and just wanted him out of school.

Carter has since gone on to be a child advocate and now he, Losen and Wood are planning to work together to better inform educators and school districts on how to support abused students.

鈥淗opefully, Tremane Wood’s story has already helped raise awareness of the importance of trauma-informed responses,鈥� Losen said.

Death row inmate Tremane Wood is set to be executed Thursday for a fatal stabbing he was . Now, in a last-ditch effort to save his life, the Oklahoma man鈥檚 sixth-grade teacher and a leading expert on student disability and the ties between school discipline and incarceration are calling on Gov. Kevin Stitt to spare him.

The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board recommended in a 3-2 vote last week that Stitt commute Wood鈥檚 sentence to life imprisonment. The 46-year-old is in a matter of days for the murder of a young farmworker that took place during a botched 2002 robbery, one that his older brother confessed to committing and was sentenced to life in prison for. 

While Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond maintains Wood is a callous killer, who carried out the fatal stabbing and whose life as a violent gangster continues today behind bars, his former English teacher Cindy Birdwell said Wood鈥檚 case is the result of an education system that failed him. 

In her testimony, Birdwell described how Wood was the victim of severe emotional, physical and sexual abuse as a child and expressed regret that she and other teachers at Stillwater Public Schools had missed the signs. The first time Birdwell visited Wood in prison, she said, she offered an apology. 

鈥淭he first thing I said to him was, 鈥業 am so sorry, Tremane. I am so sorry that I didn鈥檛 see your pain and tried to get you relief from that pain,鈥欌�� she said. 鈥淗e just looked at me with his kind eyes, he smiled and said, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 all right.鈥� He said that school had been his happy place, the place where he felt safe and happy.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

The argument that Wood鈥檚 public school and the adults there could have changed his life trajectory is the basis for a 23-page report by Dan Losen, an attorney and senior director at the nonprofit National Center for Youth Law. Losen, who sent a letter to the clemency board and shared his report with 社区黑料, had access to Wood’s education, medical, juvenile court and state Department of Health and Human Services records, and conducted interviews with numerous educators and administrators from a pivotal time when Wood was a student at Stillwater Middle School in the early 1990s. 

Losen concludes that school officials ignored overwhelming evidence that Wood was being beaten and neglected at home and that he suffered from learning and behavioral issues, such as ADHD and post-traumatic stress disorder, as a result. Instead of reporting that abuse or having Wood evaluated for special education services when the boy acted out in school or was chronically absent, they severely punished him. 

鈥淭hese failures all entailed choices by adults not to evaluate, not to investigate, not to communicate, and not to intervene, despite legal requirements to do so,鈥� Losen wrote. 鈥淭hese inactions by public school staff and administrators subjected Tremane to inadequate care and protection during his childhood, and had immeasurable negative consequences for his life.鈥�

It was during this period that the school decided to suspend Wood for an extraordinary amount of time, the last several months of sixth grade and the entire first half of his seventh-grade year. Losen points out that if Wood had been evaluated and classified as a student with a disability, there would have been legal safeguards in place against excluding him from school for that long and required provisions for educating him while he was suspended, such as placement in an alternative program. 

鈥淏ut when Tremane was only 12, rather than protect Tremane and find therapeutic ways to engage him in school, Stillwater school officials鈥� punitive response to his minor misconduct and chronic absenteeism caused Tremane to spend even more time in what school staff knew was a violent, dangerous, and neglectful home environment,鈥� he argued. 

The reasoning for all this, Losen said, came out in what he described as 鈥減erhaps [his] most revealing interview鈥� with Alton Carter, the assistant to the Stillwater Middle School vice principal three decades ago. 鈥淲ithout question [Wood] was traumatized, neglected and beaten,” Carter told Losen, and school officials 鈥渏ust wanted Tremane out.鈥�

Losen pointed to academic research findings that school suspensions are . The research has led to an effort by schools across the country to like suspensions and expulsions. 

A spokesperson for Stillwater Public Schools said Wood鈥檚 case is 鈥渁 deeply sad situation for everyone involved,鈥� but that federal student privacy laws prevent the district from divulging student records. Because Wood hasn鈥檛 been a student at the district for nearly 30 years, the spokesperson said, 鈥淚 could not locate any personnel who can speak to the events or circumstances of that era.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

鈥業鈥檓 not a monster鈥�

During Wood鈥檚 clemency hearing, which hinged primarily on whether he received adequate legal defense, Birdwell was one of only two outside witnesses who spoke on his behalf. 

The former teacher said she got involved in the defense of Wood, who is Black, years ago after prosecutors portrayed him with 鈥渨ords like sociopath, psychopath, blah blah blah,鈥� while an incompetent, appointed by the court failed to defend him before a nearly all-white jury. 

鈥淚 knew Tremane and I knew that he was not some soulless killer,鈥� Birdwell said in an interview with 社区黑料. 鈥淚鈥檓 a Christian and I believe that I felt a calling.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Wood was convicted of felony murder and in 2004 sentenced to death for the slaying of Ronnie Wipf, a 19-year-old migrant farmworker who was lured into a hotel room near Oklahoma City on New Year鈥檚 Eve in 2001 and robbed. While Wood acknowledges he participated in the robbery, it was his brother, Jake Wood, who fatally stabbed Wipf. Both were convicted at separate trials of killing the young man. Jake Wood died by suicide in prison in 2019.

Tremane Wood was found guilty under Oklahoma鈥檚 felony murder law, which holds someone criminally responsible for murder if they take part in a violent felony that leads to someone鈥檚 death. 

At the clemency hearing, members of the parole board appeared swayed by Wood鈥檚 lawyer, who noted that the court-appointed attorney defending him at the time had devoted just two hours to the case and, before his death, wrote an apology to Wood on the back of a business card: 鈥淚t鈥檚 not your fault. It鈥檚 mine.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

The factors that led Wood down a path of violent crime include 鈥渢he institutional failures of schools and juvenile services agencies to provide a sustained, therapeutic response to Tremane鈥檚 needs as a neglected and abused child,鈥� Amanda Bass Castro Alves, the assistant federal public defender, wrote in an email to 社区黑料. Prosecutors surfaced his experiences as a misguided teenager to support their case for the death penalty. 

鈥淚nstitutions often responded to Tremane鈥檚 acting out behaviors as a juvenile by punishing rather than helping him,鈥� she said. 鈥淗e was subjected to extended long term suspensions in middle school that left him vulnerable to the harmful influences that ultimately paved his pathway to prison.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

After the parole board vote, Drummond, the state attorney general, reemphasized Wood鈥檚 alleged misconduct since his incarceration. 

鈥淎fter this dangerous criminal took a young man鈥檚 life, he stayed fully active in the criminal world from behind bars,鈥� Drummond said in a statement. Prosecutors presented evidence during the clemency hearing that Wood was a gang leader who allowed drugs and violence to proliferate inside the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.

鈥淢y office will continue to pursue justice for Ronnie Wipf. We intend to make our case to the governor on why clemency should not be granted and why the death sentence, as determined by a jury, should be carried out.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Assistant Attorney General Christina Burns testified during the hearing that Wood鈥檚 murder conviction was based on a 鈥渟eries of direct personal choices,鈥� and that early warning signs from his youth showed that he could be 鈥渋mpulsive, aggressive, and acted out in an antisocial manner, which can ultimately lead to antisocial personality disorder as an adult.鈥�

鈥淧ersistent adult antisocial behavior generally begins in adolescence and it can be flagged in children with symptoms that include poor anger controls, early developmental issues, early behavioral problems, manipulation of others and a failure to accept responsibility,鈥� Burns said, pointing to evidence that incarcerated teens experience a .

鈥淎s this case and Tremane鈥檚 most current prison activities show, these concerning personality traits are unfortunately validated by his adult behavior,” she said.

Speaking from video feed via prison, Wood said he was 鈥渁 man who has deep flaws,鈥� who has made poor decisions 鈥� including behind bars. But he doesn鈥檛 deserve to die. 

鈥淲ith the pressures of your life hanging in the balance, it gets tough trying to balance it all,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut I鈥檓 not a monster. I鈥檓 not a killer.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Stitt, a Republican, to a death row inmate only once during his seven years in office while rejecting clemency recommendations for four others. A 鈥渄oes not take the process lightly鈥� and will meet with attorneys for all parties before making a decision this week.

Bright spots turn dark again

Wood鈥檚 very upbringing was rooted in violence and trauma. As a teenager, watching his father 鈥� a police officer 鈥� tie his mother to a chair, pour alcohol on her and threaten to light her on fire before beating his two sons. 

Twice during Wood鈥檚 young life he was removed from his violent home 鈥� and twice he did well, Losen documents. In 1994, Wood was placed in a therapeutic foster home in Cromwell, Oklahoma, where he attended Butner High School for his freshman year and had 鈥渘early perfect attendance, earned all As and Bs, and was a standout cornerback鈥� on the football team.

鈥淗is lengthy period of success provides a clear and positive picture of what Tremane might have experienced the rest of his childhood had his disabilities been identified, had support been provided, and had the pattern of abuse and neglect that he endured been ended permanently,鈥� Losen wrote.

Later, Wood was sent to a Department of Juvenile Justice residential program in Tecumseh and received 鈥済lowing reports of his cooperative good nature.鈥� Each time Wood was returned home from these more structured settings, Losen said, his problems resurfaced.

Losen cites documents in Wood鈥檚 record indicating that school officials suspected him of having a disability and being in need of services but they never evaluated him. Under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, any suspicion of a disability in a student should trigger a referral for evaluation. 

Oklahoma has 鈥渁 long history of non-compliance with the provisions of the IDEA pertaining to [identifying students with disabilities]  as well as a history of unjust discipline,鈥� Losen writes, citing a to the Oklahoma Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

It鈥檚 not alone. Losen refers to that notes an estimated 85% of young people housed in the juvenile justice system in 2007 had a disability, yet only 37% had been receiving any supports or services at school.

This is the population of public school kids that Wood now wants to help, Losen said. The researcher said he has already started working with the death row inmate to use his story to raise awareness among educators about the needs of traumatized children. It鈥檚 outreach that Alton Carter, the former vice principal鈥檚 assistant at Wood鈥檚 middle school, has already been doing and is now interested in teaming up with Wood as well, Losen said. 

The question now is whether Wood will still be here.

These tragedies are largely preventable. Groundbreaking tells us that nearly every instance of child sexual abuse takes place after the perpetrator has engaged in multiple grooming behaviors to form a trusting relationship with the child and then later exploit them.聽

If educators and parents know what to look for 鈥� especially the “red flag” behaviors that almost always coincide with abuse 鈥� we could save hundreds of thousands of kids each year.

Child sexual abuse is rarely an isolated or random incident. A recent study of over 1,000 victims confirmed that 99% of them experienced some form of grooming before their abuse. Of 鈥� ranging from gift-giving to seemingly innocent touching to sharing pornography 鈥� victims experienced 14 such behaviors on average before the actual abuse occurred.

In other words, there are typically more than a dozen distinct warning signs that could tip off a teacher, coach, parent, or other concerned adult that something isn’t right.

Certain are especially critical to recognize. that these high-risk grooming behaviors are overwhelmingly common in instances of child sexual abuse.聽

These behaviors include watching a child undressing, showing pornography to a child, talking to a child about past sexual experiences, and undressing or exposing oneself or encouraging a child to do so. But red flags also include behaviors that may not be as obvious, like isolating a child from family and peers or attempting to acclimate a child to their touch while distracting them with another activity, such as a hand “accidentally” brushing a private part while wrestling.

All of these behaviors always warrant intervention with the child’s parents or educators and often warrant reporting possible abuse to the authorities.

School staff and parents should commit each of these behaviors to memory, especially when children are joining an activity that involves a new adult in their lives. Teachers, for instance, can be especially vigilant at the start of a new school year or when students begin a new sport. In addition, parents should be especially alert when their children take music lessons, start other new classes or join a faith-based youth group. Parents and educators should discuss these behaviors with coaches, teachers, youth advisors, and each other.

Behavior such as hugging a child may be innocuous and healthy 鈥� or a precursor to something nefarious. It can be challenging to know when to intervene. But victims’ stories often take the form of “first A, then B, then C.” Grooming toward abuse is a cumulative process. It’s critical for adults to stay vigilant about whether an adult’s actions toward a child are progressing toward red flag behaviors.

That’s why we must also teach children the warning signs of grooming.

Parents shouldn’t shy away from discussing red flag behaviors with their children in developmentally appropriate ways. For example, book series like can help children of all ages learn about safe and unsafe touch, body boundaries, and trusting their gut when something doesn’t feel right.

Most states, but not all, supplement what parents teach their children with legislation like, which requires K-12 public schools to implement sexual abuse prevention education for children of all ages.

But states often lack rigor and consistency in how they enforce these laws. In Washington state, for example, an oversight board identified 38 different curricula in place statewide 鈥� a majority of which neglected to give educators resources for what to do if a student disclosed abuse. Every curriculum should include the latest evidence-based research on grooming.

Unfortunately, not every state requires prevention education for teachers, but that’s equally imperative. on one training program for educators, Darkness to Light’s Stewards of Children, found that teachers who completed the training increased their reporting of previously unrecognized abuse by 82%.

Teachers and parents alike should make sure kids know that they won’t be blamed for reporting behaviors that make them uneasy, since abusers often tell children to keep it a secret.

To stop abuse before it occurs, all adults in a child’s life must be able to identify potential grooming behavior, especially the red flags. With an average of 14 different grooming behaviors preceding each case of child sexual abuse, prevention is possible. We just have to know what to look for.

LINCOLN 鈥� Officials in public schools or other Nebraska political subdivisions could be held liable if they fail to protect children in their care through a proposal inching forward in the Legislature.

, introduced by State Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha, was the subject of multiple days of debate and negotiations that ultimately resulted in a replacement of Hastings State Sen. Steve Halloran鈥檚 on Tuesday to become Wayne鈥檚 LB 25. The changes also leaned closer in some provisions involving legal liability to from State Sen. George Dungan of Lincoln.

The amended LB 25 could allow lawsuits 鈥� in the case of child abuse or sexual assault of a child 鈥� against political subdivisions or their employees who have a duty to protect children against the crimes.

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The harm must be a 鈥減roximate result鈥� of the political subdivision鈥檚 failure or an employee鈥檚 failure to exercise 鈥渞easonable care鈥� to care for a child in their care or custody.

鈥淣othing is going to make these individuals completely whole,鈥� Wayne told the Nebraska Examiner after the votes. 鈥淲e鈥檙e just trying to provide the best remedy we can under the law.鈥�

Wayne offered the amendment, which was adopted . Lawmakers then voted to advance LB 25 on a , with eight lawmakers 鈥減resent, not voting.鈥�

Opening 鈥楶andora鈥檚 Box鈥�

State Sen. Carolyn Bosn of Lincoln, a former prosecutor, led opposition to the measure, arguing that if school officials have knowledge of wrongdoing and fail to investigate, which is required under 鈥渞easonable care,鈥� they can already be held accountable. She ultimately did not vote on LB 25 or any amendments.

Dungan and Wayne, who are also  lawyers, disagreed that the law Bosn pointed to would be adequate.

Bosn said she negotiated on a possible amendment with State Sens. Ben Hansen of Blair and Mike Jacobson of North Platte, possibly to cap recovery damages at $500,000.

Jacobson said those conversations also included whether to limit the scope of the bill to K-12 schools or add options for victims beyond lawsuits. Bosn said she wanted support on the front end and not after a harm has occurred.

LB 25 could favor attorneys representing families or children who have been harmed, Jacobson argued, as lawyers would be looking for 鈥渄eep pockets.鈥�

鈥淚鈥檓 just saying you鈥檙e opening up Pandora鈥檚 Box when you go this route,鈥� Jacobson said.

Dungan said there may always be 鈥渁mbulance chasers鈥� seeking money, but he joined Wayne in stating that lawyers have an ethical duty not to file frivolous lawsuits and noted that judges can throw cases out if they determine the actions are frivolous.

Goals of 鈥榩rotecting children鈥�

State Sens. Steve Erdman of Bayard and Julie Slama of Dunbar both criticized opponents to Wayne鈥檚 bill who have said they want to protect children but voted against Wayne鈥檚 bill.

Erdman, who often is closely aligned with Halloran, defended the effort as targeting schools that aren鈥檛 doing everything right. If they are, 鈥渢hey have nothing to fear.鈥�

He said he couldn鈥檛 understand why LB 25 was controversial and that when he returns to his district in western Nebraska, he can say he did everything to protect Nebraska鈥檚 most vulnerable while some of his colleagues thought protecting the state was more important.

鈥淲hen you vote, you will clarify to the voters, to the public, where you really stand on protecting children,鈥� Erdman said.

Slama pointed to other bills that were debated this session with a stated goal to protect children from or to based on students鈥� sex at birth. The introducers of those bills, State Sens. Joni Albrecht of Thurston and Kathleen Kauth of Omaha, opposed Wayne鈥檚 amendment and voted against advancing LB 25.

Halloran told the Examiner he was happy there would be some parity to hold public schools accountable when similar lawsuits are already allowed against private schools.

Some opponents argued allowing lawsuits against public schools would increase property taxes.

Slama challenged opponents on that point.

鈥淗ow many child molesters is your school district employing if it鈥檚 going to impact your bottom line?鈥� she asked.

Accountability and recovery

State Sen. Christy Armendariz of Omaha said she supports suing any entity if its employees  commit crimes against children but wanted LB 25 to be more refined, such as more closely targeting criminals.

鈥淲e have very little, if any, control over policies, hiring, employee practices within a school building,鈥� Armendariz said. 鈥淭o reach out to the taxpayer to pay the financial penalty would be extremely ineffective at changing the culture we鈥檙e trying to change.鈥�

Armendariz told the Examiner that LB 25 is an opportunity to put everyone on notice that harming a child is 鈥渁bsolutely not acceptable,鈥� but she said the bill 鈥渃ompletely misses that point.鈥�

She said holding employees financially accountable could change a culture and suggested that lawmakers should allow victims to go after funds the employee may be connected to, such as employee unions or health care and pension plans.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 outside of the box thinking, but maybe those pension funds need to be held accountable to the offenders that they support,鈥� Armendariz said.

Wayne said once a perpetrator is behind bars, there may be no financial recovery left, but he said a bigger issue is whether schools, cities or counties are aware that harm is possible and that if they don鈥檛 act, that should come with some liability.

鈥淚鈥檓 proud of this Legislature today, and I think we鈥檙e passing a bill that can help kids,鈥� Wayne said.

With three days left in the legislative session, LB 25 will need to return for debate sometime Wednesday. If it advances, the final vote will be taken on the last day of the session: April 18.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nebraska Examiner maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Cate Folsom for questions: info@nebraskaexaminer.com. Follow Nebraska Examiner on and .

The complaint argues that these warrantless actions, which often include strip-searches of children and multiple, traumatizing return visits by case workers, violate the Fourth Amendment. The city鈥檚 Administration for Children鈥檚 Services is charged with investigating all reports of child abuse and neglect.

鈥淎CS caseworkers lie to parents and withhold information from them about their rights, threaten to involve the police when police are clearly not needed and even directly threaten to take parents鈥� children away from their care 鈥� all to pressure parents to give ACS access to families鈥� homes and strip-search their children,鈥� states a press release announcing the Feb. 20 filing of the litigation in U.S. District Court. 

The attorneys bringing the case point out that these practices inflict disproportionate harm and trauma on Black and Hispanic families, who are the subject of 80% of ACS investigations, and that in 70% of those inquiries, allegations of parental abuse and neglect are determined to be unfounded.

Calls to reform the nation鈥檚 child welfare system have been growing, often spurred by the work of reporters uncovering abuses. The NYC lawsuit cites the investigative reporting of former 74 staffer Asher Lehrer-Small, which revealed the extent to which unfounded reports of suspected parental abuse and neglect were made by NYC teachers and a pattern of retaliation against special education parents , who were reported to ACS after speaking up on their children鈥檚 behalf.

• Exclusive Data: Educators鈥� 鈥楥areless鈥� Child Abuse Reports Devastate Thousands of NYC Families
  
• They Stood Up to NYC Schools For Their Disabled Child. Then Child Protective Services Arrived
  

A spokeswoman for ACS that the agency would review the lawsuit and is 鈥渃ommitted to keeping children safe and respecting parents鈥� rights.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

鈥淲e will continue to advance our efforts to achieve safety, equity and justice by enhancing parents鈥� awareness of their rights, connecting families to critical services, providing families with alternatives to child protection investigations and working with key systems to reduce the number of families experiencing an unnecessary child protective investigation,鈥� spokeswoman Marisa Kaufman said. 

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of nine plaintiffs, but could grow much larger. It asks that ACS鈥檚 practices be deemed unconstitutional, that the agency remedy how it investigates families and conducts searches, and that the plaintiffs be awarded compensatory damages.

鈥淭his may be one of the most important lawsuits in the field in the last [50]  years,鈥� Martin Guggenheim, an NYU law professor and children鈥檚 rights and family law expert, said in the release.

Read the 49-page complaint here

Between August 2019 and January 2022, only 24% of investigations prompted by calls from school staff found evidence of abuse or neglect compared to a citywide rate of in 2020 鈥� meaning K-12 workers make allegations that do not get substantiated far more often than most other professions.

Teachers, with whom children spend most of their day, misreport more than any other school staff: Two thirds of their calls to the state hotline are unfounded, according to data obtained by 社区黑料 through a public records request.

Meanwhile, families say the investigations plunge their lives into deep uncertainty and inflict lasting traumas on their kids. Parents describe children with recurring nightmares, fearing every knock on the door may be a caseworker looking to snatch them from their home.

Darcey Merritt, associate professor of social work at New York University, regularly engages with families impacted by the child welfare system in her work and research. She also serves on the Child Maltreatment Prevention Committee of the .

Over the years, Merritt has come to see the system as overly punitive toward poor families who love their children but may struggle to meet their basic needs due to lack of resources. 

The expert believes it鈥檚 time to reimagine child welfare to better support those families: 鈥淲e need to start the whole thing over,鈥� she said.

社区黑料 spoke to Merritt to learn what issues she sees in child protective services 鈥� and what can be done.

This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

社区黑料: What should people who work in schools understand about the child welfare system?

Darcey Merritt: We can’t disentangle neglect from poverty, it’s inappropriate to do so. 

On any given day, 76% of the children and families that are exposed to child welfare are there because of some form of neglect. And neglect is tethered to poverty: supervisory neglect, physical neglect, which refers to people not having appropriate food, clothing and housing. 

A lot of these issues related to neglect are structural issues that are outside the control of parents. Yet [child protective services] is blaming parents for their unfortunate, involuntary socio-economic statuses. So that’s a problem. 

Teachers are mandated to report out of an abundance of caution if they feel like a child is unsafe for whatever reason. But there’s got to be a way where mandated reporters first figure out how to be more useful in addressing the actual problem. If a child has dirty clothes consistently every day, let’s figure out what to do about that without getting CPS involved. 

I think there needs to be changes in state mandating laws, so [reporters] are encouraged, maybe even required, to first figure out how to address the problem. If they don’t have enough child care, well, then let’s find child care. If they don’t have enough food, let’s find food. Laundry machine is broken and they can’t go to the landlord because they鈥檙e behind on their rent? Let’s figure that out. These are all things that are happening. 

What might those changes look like?

We need to start the whole thing over and reserve child protective services for those kids who have been physically and sexually abused. We need to have a separate institution, a separate agency or organization, working with communities and neighborhoods to provide support for all the other kids so that the go-to response isn’t to report a child who’s poor. It all comes down to money and what our society is willing to do to make sure that people have a standard level of resources and support to be able to raise their families.

We need to really have more respect for these parents because they love their children and they are victims of an inequitable society.

To make sure I’m understanding correctly, are you saying child protective services should not be the ones responding to neglect charges?

I do not think they should be handling neglect charges. I think that some other agency that’s not connected to the stigma of having a CPS case should respond. Whatever support we put in place, it needs to be untethered from the institution of child protective services.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t help these families. I’m saying the child protective services is not the agency to handle neglect cases that have to do with poverty.

New York State law, as of 2021, requires implicit bias training for mandatory reporters. Does that rule go far enough to mitigate some of these problems?

I don’t think it goes far enough. You can’t just do a training and call it a day. You have to have something in place so that when people are making decisions, you can check whether or not this decision was made because of some unseen bias. For example, 鈥極h, this child’s parent has been involved with the carceral system. Go ahead and report this one.鈥� That’s how people continue to cycle in between these harmful punitive systems. 

We have our own Western idea of what safety and family well-being means and it’s all from a deficit lens. Rarely do we look at family dynamics and functioning from a strength-based perspective. I interview a lot of moms for my research and all of them say, 鈥榃e love our children, but we needed help.鈥� 

It’s a really serious problem and the racial disproportionality is going to continue (because impoverished parents have no choice but to rely on the government for welfare). Black children are highly disproportionately involved with the child welfare system and before Black children, Native kids have the highest disproportionality of involvement. People don’t even pay attention to that.

Interesting. I didn鈥檛 know that.

The highest is Native American children, then Black children, then Latino children. White children are not overly represented in the system.

Some parents have told me they can鈥檛 help but know about child protective services, or, in New York City, the Administration for Children鈥檚 Services, because either they鈥檙e personally impacted or they know someone who is. Meanwhile, other families are completely oblivious. Have you seen that difference between communities?

It’s true. Once you’re involved, you know what that looks like. Parents鈥� language is even institutionalized. Have you heard people who are involved with the carceral system say, 鈥極h, somebody caught a case.鈥� These ACS-impacted moms literally say, 鈥榃ell, I caught an ACS case.鈥� That language is a thing. 

And another group doesn鈥檛 have any idea what ACS is.

What are the harms of overreporting and what are the harms of underreporting [to child protective services]? 

The obvious harm of underreporting is that we may miss children who are in actual danger from parents that abuse their children. 

This whole issue of, 鈥榦ut of an abundance of caution, we need to report anything that we suspect might be problematic,鈥� that’s where the rub lies. We have to figure out how to pull out those issues that are related to poverty. 

The harm of overreporting is that when CPS comes knocking at your door, you are immediately traumatized. The very minute a child is taken from your home for any amount of time, you are immediately traumatized. They then have workers coming in on a regular basis, they’re being mandated to do certain groups and therapy, all kinds of things that don’t relate to the fact that maybe they need some money.

I personally renamed CPS the 鈥榗hild poverty surveillance.鈥� That’s my own little term I’ve made up for them.

You have to be subjective when you’re making a decision about whether or not a child is in danger. And one needs to be really, really reflective about their implicit biases, because [the worry is] a poor Black child will be treated differently than a poor white child. 

You live and work in New York City. Do mandated reporters, like school staff, lean more toward over or underreporting? 

They lean more towards overreporting. 

What messages are those people receiving when they get trained? Is it 鈥榃hen in doubt, report?鈥� Is it, 鈥楾ake every precaution before you do?鈥� What are folks hearing?

I think they’re hearing, 鈥榃hen in doubt, report.鈥� I think that’s what they’re hearing. 

For the most part, folks are afraid because if you don’t report something and the child ends up really harmed, then the liability is on the mandated reporter. I think they’re being given a double message: 鈥榃hen in doubt, report,鈥� but on the back end, 鈥楤e careful, because there might not be a need for CPS to be involved.鈥� 

In schools, especially those that are under-resourced, they don’t have the means to help a family with their basic needs and their financial needs. [Instead], teachers are by law required to report to child protective services. It just makes no sense. The solution does not match the problem. And it causes harm in the meanwhile.

Given the system as it stands, if you are a mandated reporter in a school setting, how do you respond in a way that both protects a child in real danger, but also won’t jeopardize a family for no reason? How do you weigh that judgment call?

It’s hard. 

I had this conversation with my partner who teaches in Philadelphia. He’s not a social worker. I’m a social worker. But he [has to play the role of] a social worker, because he has to do social work as a teacher. 

When something’s going on with a child, my recommendation is to find out what’s happening from the family first. I recommend taking more caution before making a phone call [to the state hotline]. See if you can come up with a solution first. 

That puts a greater burden on teachers because then they end up being social workers as well. So it’s a very fine line, finding out what resources one has at the school, if the nurses or the climate officers or whoever the people are at the school [can help]. 

I’m only speaking about cases where neglect is related to poverty. Now, there are other cases of neglect where a parent intentionally left the child with a child abuser. All the neglect I’m talking about is unintentional. 

Child protective services should not be the go-to for cases of unintentional neglect related to poverty. That phone call should not be made to CPS but to another agency that we just don’t have yet.聽

When child protective services investigated Shalonda Curtis-Hackett鈥檚 family for neglect in 2021, the Brooklyn mom could measure the personal toll in pounds lost: 20. 

She tried to fight the clawing thoughts that her caseworker 鈥渃ould try and snatch my kids,鈥� a vision she says she still can鈥檛 escape in her nightmares.

Though the agency eventually found no evidence her children were malnourished 鈥� her husband is a professional chef 鈥� the process of having a welfare worker inspect their Bushwick apartment, check the fridge for food and ask prying questions deeply disturbed her children, who are now 8, 10 and 15.

鈥淢y children are happy-go-lucky kids and I鈥檝e had to adultify them and tell them about the world much faster than I wanted to,鈥� Curtis-Hackett said. 

The mother, who was also PTA president at her younger children鈥檚 school at the time, believes the report came from a K-12 staffer who said her kids鈥� bones were sticking out, an observation made while the children were attending class via Zoom at the time.

If so, the family is among the thousands of New York City households 鈥� disproportionately Black, Hispanic and low income 鈥� subjected to unfounded investigations into abuse or neglect initiated by calls from their children鈥檚 school. 

In fact, between August 2019 and January 2022, city school employees made over 13,750 false alarm reports to the state child abuse hotline, according to data obtained by 社区黑料 through a public records request to the Office of Children and Family Services. 

Over that time span, the vast majority of school-based reports were ultimately unfounded, including at least 58% of calls from guidance counselors, 59% of calls from principals and 67% of calls from teachers. Less than 1 in 3 teacher reports led to any evidence of wrongdoing.

鈥淭eachers, out of fear that they’re going to get in trouble, will report even if they’re just like, 鈥榃ell, it could be abuse.鈥� It could be. It also could be 10 million other things,鈥� said Jessica Beck, a middle school English teacher in the Bronx.

Those reports spur investigations that, at their most dire, can lead children to be separated from their parents 鈥� a trauma associated with elevated risks of . Even when closed and dropped, investigations can stay on parents鈥� records for years afterward and erase job prospects in youth-serving fields.

Kamaria Excell is a social worker who has helped dozens of parents recover from the damaging process. She led a 12-week healing program with the community-based organization . The vast majority of participating parents 鈥� 95%, she estimates 鈥� had investigations that were ultimately dismissed. But the shame, anger and eroded trust did not fade.

鈥淔amilies deal with the repercussions of careless [child welfare] investigations for years after,鈥� she said.

When a case gets closed, Curtis-Hackett, the Brooklyn mom, added, 鈥渋t doesn鈥檛 stop the PTSD.鈥�

鈥榃hen in doubt, report鈥�

In total, only 24% of investigations prompted by calls from school staff found evidence of abuse or neglect compared to a citywide rate of in 2020 鈥� meaning K-12 workers, teachers especially, make allegations that do not get substantiated far more often than most other professions. (Another 16% of K-12 calls led to an alternate response for children determined not to be in imminent harm and 59% were dropped outright.) Even that rate likely overstates the true level of maltreatment, family law attorney David Shalleck-Klein said, because it鈥檚 a metric the agency determines 鈥渦nilaterally鈥� and includes cases that may ultimately be dismissed in court.

The issue extends beyond Gotham, with similar rates of unsubstantiated reports from school staff nationwide. Among mandated reporters, K-12 workers are the most likely to report abuse or neglect and the least likely to have their allegations find evidence of wrongdoing, show.

Like most states, New York requires educators, child care providers, law enforcement officers, health care professionals and social workers to call a hotline if they believe a young person may be experiencing abuse or neglect. But, in practice, that decision is always a judgment call, said Beck, the Bronx middle school teacher. And in NYC schools, it鈥檚 a call made by teachers who are mostly white about students who are mostly Black and Hispanic.

鈥淲hat looks like neglect to a teacher who has privilege might actually be poverty,鈥� said Beck, who is white.

For example, educators are trained that poor hygiene can be a sign of neglect. But if a kid in her class smells, the teacher will speak with the parents rather than immediately calling in a report, she said. Some colleagues in the same situation, though, may call the state hotline, plunging that family鈥檚 life into the havoc of a neglect investigation.

The ethos is 鈥渨hen in doubt, report,鈥� said Darcey Merritt, an associate professor of social work at New York University.

鈥淚nstead of immediately reporting a suspected neglect situation, find out how to address that need that’s being unmet first,鈥� she suggests.

That is not what a social worker at a Bronx transfer high school 鈥� small schools designed to re-engage students who have dropped out or fallen behind 鈥� sees on the ground, unfortunately. She asked not to be identified for fear of getting into trouble at work.

鈥淚t鈥檚 totally C-Y-A, cover your ass. If you鈥檙e unsure, just call,鈥� she said.

鈥淭hey never provide information on what happens after the call,鈥� she continued. 鈥淢andated reporters don’t know that, many times after making a call, 24 hours [later] someone’s going to show up to this person’s house 鈥� and start conducting an investigation: a search of their home, checking counters, checking their cabinets, strip searching their young children to check for any bruises or marks, depending on the allegation.鈥�

Instead, the training sessions she has attended have begun by projecting the names and pictures of young people who have died by parental abuse, the social worker said, a tactic she considers 鈥渇ear mongering.鈥�

The Department of Education said it cares deeply about the well-being of students and is committed to providing support and care at the earliest opportunity.

“While every NYC Public School member is a mandated reporter, we are focused on connecting with children and families who may be in need, providing them access to the vital interventions, supports and services they need to stay safe,” DOE spokesperson Suzan Sumer said in an emailed statement.

The Administration for Children鈥檚 Services, the city agency that investigates suspected abuse and neglect, said it is working to cut down on unneeded reports. Overall, school and child care-based reports fell 17% from spring 2019 to spring 2022, it said.

As per a , mandated reporters are required to undergo implicit bias training. And this fall, ACS will hold a series of five-hour trainings in collaboration with the NYC Department of Education to help school staff better understand the citywide resources they can refer families to rather than calling the child abuse hotline, the agency said. Only one representative from each school, however, is required to attend.

鈥淲e take our mandate of protecting children and supporting families seriously, while simultaneously being committed to reducing unnecessary child protection involvement with families, particularly families of color,鈥� a spokesperson wrote in an email.

Of in 2020, 36% found evidence of abuse or neglect and 86 children died, according to the . The large majority of those deaths 鈥溾�嬧�媤ere unrelated to abuse or neglect,鈥� the agency wrote. However, when a child is killed as a result of being beaten or neglected by a family member, the agency frequently for failing to investigate or properly follow through on earlier reports of abuse.

鈥楽chool-to-ACS pipeline鈥�

In New York City and across the nation, involvement with child protective services breaks decisively along racial lines.

Citywide, some of children named in ACS investigations are Black or Hispanic, while, together, those racial groups make up 60% of NYC young people. Even among neighborhoods with similar poverty rates, those with greater shares of Black and Hispanic residents face higher rates of investigations, shows.

Child protective services involvement becomes so normalized in many low-income communities, Merritt has noticed, it changes people鈥檚 vernacular.

鈥淭hese ACS-impacted moms literally say, 鈥榃ell, I caught an ACS case,鈥欌�� as if they鈥檙e referring to the criminal justice system, the social work professor said.

Meanwhile, more privileged communities are often unaware of the disastrous effects that system can have, said her NYU colleague Anna Arons, assistant professor of law.

鈥淚t is really easy to be a person with money in this country, 鈥� particularly white, and not have any sense of child welfare services as anything more than people who are genuinely helping children,鈥� she said. 鈥淵ou might never know there are 50,000 investigations every year in New York City, which is really an astronomical number.鈥�

Curtis-Hackett, for her part, has taken the situation into her own hands. After being reported to child protective services, she no longer wants her family to participate in a system she calls the 鈥渟chool-to-ACS pipeline.鈥�

Last year, she pulled her kids from the public school system. Now, they homeschool.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 trust the [Department of Education],鈥� she said. 鈥淚 will not allow my children to be collateral damage.鈥�

Correction: An earlier version of this story stated national figures for the number of children in 2020 who had died, suffered abuse or neglect, and been reported to CPS by any source, not just educators. Those contextual data have been corrected to reflect New York City’s rates.

Morris Jenis Jr.鈥檚 father knew only his son, a Native American student at the Genoa Indian School in Nebraska 100 years ago, had not been seen in a year. 

Morris ran away from the school in 1921 鈥� 鈥渄eserted,鈥� according to the militaristic language school officials used 鈥� like hundreds of other young Indigenous children who resisted the boarding school policies that forcibly stripped them of language and identity, often hundreds of miles from home. 

鈥淭he father鈥s very anxious to see where his son has gone,鈥� a school clerk wrote the superintendent on the father鈥檚 behalf. 鈥淗e recently heard that a student from Genoa was killed in Montana by a horse and he fears that this may be his son.”

Public archives do not provide any answers about Morris, nor his age and tribal affiliation. The school told his father that they could not find 鈥�,鈥� and reportedly returned the $26 鈥� worth about $450 today 鈥� his family previously paid to send him home. 

The plea is among thousands of stories made public by the Genoa Indian School Digital Reconciliation Project, one to digitize elusive school, state and federal records, to bring the stories of Indigenous survivors and those who never made it home back to their families and tribes. 

Last summer, the discovery of more than 900 child graves at former Canadian residential schools tore through international media and reignited investigations of U.S. boarding schools; reports focused on brutal abuse and quantifying death. 

Archivists and community members have continued to retrieve haunting letters, student and local newspapers, photographs and other school documents that paint a poignant picture of resistance and survival in day-to-day student life in the boarding schools. 

Still, many records remain out of reach to descendants, and those that are accessible can be traumatizing. Some collections sit dormant, held by churches or universities with no plans to return them to tribal communities; others require extensive time and . 

鈥淣ative people have never had easy access to their records. And that in itself has continued to contribute to the genocide,” said Tawa Ducheneaux. a citizen of the Cherokee nation working as an archivist at Oglala Lakota College鈥檚 Woksape Tipi library on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, where she raised her family for 19 years. 鈥淵ou’re not having access to relatives and descendants that can educate you more about who you are and where you come from.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Among the archived collections are receipts for music lessons, requests to use funds to buy shoes, picture contests 鈥� a glimpse into students鈥� interests and how they spent very limited leisure time. Others include letters from parents pleading that their child be allowed to travel home for the summer 鈥� a trip families were required to pay for.

Student discipline records and letters show many of such requests denied for lack of funds or because children had to continue building 鈥渟trength of character,鈥� as a punishment for bad behavior or running away. 

Parents encouraged runaways, hid their children, and, when students were able to return home for summers, would teach children their language, culture, and ways of life as a way to undermine the schools鈥� assimilationist aim. Families would not legally be able to deny placement in off-reservation schools until 1978, after over a century of resistance, with the passage of the . 

For those working to find and make material more accessible, the retrieval and research is exhausting, but a necessary step toward healing and reckoning with historical trauma.

鈥淚t’s painful especially when you recognize relatives鈥� names or people that you know … I kind of learned to reconcile with that and just understand that, OK, well, maybe my involvement is that these children, they need help to have their stories come to light,鈥� said Genoa Project co-director and historian Susana Geliga, a member of the Rosebud Sioux tribe and of Taino descent.

鈥淭hey insisted on their humanity:鈥� Student life as seen in archives

The material that has been made available in digital archives is largely from an official government or school perspective. Yet there are phrases, quotes and clippings from students pointing to how they lived and survived. 

Running away became a common occurrence among students fleeing the conditions of the boarding schools, eager to find a way home, like Susie Romero. Before leaving for Genoa one night in 1933, Romero composed a theme song 鈥� 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to go to school here.鈥� In just one year at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, at least 45 boys did the same. 

鈥�…That tells you a lot about the children’s point of view 鈥� that they were running away from this,鈥� said Margaret Jacobs, co-director of the Genoa Project and historian at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. 

The documents suggest Romero was discovered and returned to Genoa, but some did find their way back home. In 1920, one student left Genoa for good after a teacher struck him in the face, breaking his nose.

鈥淗e can prove it was done for personal reasons,鈥� an acting superintendent wrote in a letter seeking guidance. 

Student newspapers, common at the boarding schools, though likely heavily scrutinized by school officials, also reveal how students kept themselves informed of local and national news and found ways to make .

When compared to how student deaths were reported briefly in the local Genoa paper, student publications shared more detail on their peer鈥檚 life and personality. One student, whose name has been redacted out of respect for descendants who may not yet know the information, was described as an 鈥渦nusually bright child and the little ones among whom his lot was cast will miss his fair example.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Jacobs said the student newspapers, 鈥渋nsisted on their humanity. They insisted that we matter, and you might not care about us, but we care about each other.鈥�

Some 90 students, in one account published in the Genoa student newspaper, were reportedly in attendance for a funeral at the school 鈥� a detail not lost on Geliga.

鈥淭hey were so policed and monitored with everything that they did 鈥� from the time they woke up until the time they went to bed every day 鈥︹�� she said. 鈥淭hose instances where you can catch their own perspective coming through, they’re really heartwarming because there’s so few and far between 鈥� when you find them they kind of pull you into the moment.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Archives also reveal another facet of student life: the 鈥溾�� system, where children were assigned to white families and expected to work in fields, on ranches and in local homes as part of their 鈥渃ivilizing鈥� process. Piloted at Carlisle, the practice was later adopted by other off-reservation schools including Genoa and the Sherman Indian School in Riverside, California. 

Lorenzia Nicholas, a student at , once refused to return to the family she was placed for outing because of 鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Though they were paid minimally, students were often forced to go on outings during summer vacations instead of returning home to their respective lands and families. The practice grew popular in communities surrounding the schools: children were a source of cheap labor 鈥� girls often cleaned homes and looked after white children, while boys were often placed in undesirable harvest jobs that were , exploitative and dangerous.

On campus, labor did not stop. Children as young as 9 were forced to , likely, Carlisle archivist Jim Gerencser told 社区黑料, to save on infrastructure costs. Half of their school days were devoted to learning vocational trades; photographs show students fixing roofs, washing clothes in 鈥渓aundry class鈥� and fashioning utensils. 

Expanding access to archival records, family history

In and the United States, churches are holding onto an untold number of records. Many religious institutions received schools until 1928, yet according to the Department of the Interior鈥檚 investigation, must independently decide to share documents. 

Ducheneaux added tribal governments only recently have had the infrastructure or resources required to retrieve and disseminate records held in various public and government archives 鈥� tribal colleges and universities have been working at returning access since at least the ’60s. 

Some records have been passed on to private universities like Augustana and Marquette instead of tribal communities and descendants, presenting another barrier to access: fees. Marquette has held a including at least 10,000 images from the Red Cloud Indian School for nearly 14 years, only having digitized about 10%.

鈥淸It] is maybe the only collection that might have images of certain individuals’ relatives 鈥� There’s no known images of that person except possibly within that collection,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd I couldn’t ever get anywhere with them. We have to do justice to all these people that are contacting us asking if we have anything about their relatives.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

An intergenerational legacy: 鈥淚t鈥檚 part of the blood that鈥檚 in us鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Justin Shedee, a member of the Apache nation also known as Corn Cobb Smoker, entered the Carlisle Industrial School in Pennsylvania at 16. Though a letter in his own handwriting expresses his desire to leave, school documents say he 鈥渃onsented鈥� to stay enrolled.

鈥淭he reason is I have been so long enough here, about six years now. So I am very anxious to [go] home. That is all I want to ask you,鈥� he wrote in the spring of 1890, requesting to leave the school. 

He would not leave for three more years, 鈥渄ischarged鈥� on July 5, 1893 for 鈥渋ll health.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Shedee鈥檚 desire to return home lives on in descendants. Community members, scholars and activists describe the weight of their ancestors’ experiences as intergenerational trauma that impacts their current health and ways of life. 

Native American communities and over 80 U.S. representatives are advocating for l on Indian Boarding School Policies to create a commission to investigate nearly two centuries of boarding school policies. 

Among the policy recommendations that have been floated are reparations, a hotline for those experiencing intergenerational trauma, and reformed child welfare adoption practices to prevent 鈥�.鈥�

鈥淲e’ve been subjected and our ancestors have been subjected to such atrocities and such attempts to wipe us out that we’ve sort of normalized suffering, in a way,鈥� said Stacy Bohlen, CEO of the National Indian Health board and member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, during a webinar hosted by the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition. 

鈥淚t’s part of the blood that’s in us and the blood of our ancestors that we know was shed for our survival.鈥�

This story was made possible by the archives and archivists at the Genoa Indian School Digital Reconciliation Project, Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center, and National Archives. 

More than a third of high school students reported experiencing poor mental health during the pandemic, more than half reported being subjected to emotional abuse at home and a quarter said a parent or another adult at home had lost their jobs, according to results from the first nationally representative survey of high school students鈥� mental health and well-being during the pandemic.

Faced with sudden school closures, social isolation and the fear of family loss or illness, 66% of students reported that schoolwork became more difficult to complete after the pandemic shuttered campuses nationwide in March 2020.

Even before the pandemic, survey data suggests that youth mental health had grown bleeker and suicide was already a leading cause of death among teens. The new CDC data point to a situation that鈥檚 grown even more dire, especially for LGBTQ youth and girls, two groups that reported particularly high levels of poor mental health during the pandemic.

In response, public health experts called on policymakers to act with urgency to reverse the trend.聽

鈥淵oung people and their families have been under incredible levels of stress during the pandemic,鈥� Kathleen Ethier, director of the CDC鈥檚 division of adolescent and school health, said during a press call Thursday. 鈥淥ur data exposes cracks and uncovers an important layer of insight into the extreme disruptions that some youth have encountered.鈥澛�

The results come from the Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey, which was completed by a nationally representative sample of 7,705 public and private high school students. The CARES Act-funded questionnaire was conducted online between January and June 2021. Since then, the country has entered a new phase of the pandemic as mask mandates and other public health measures are lifted, but while the . Public health officials acknowledged it鈥檚 unclear how youth well-being has fared since the survey was completed.

The figures are key to understanding the pandemic’s effects on the health and well-being of American youth. Previous evidence has suggested the pandemic has had a deleterious effect on youth and contributed to trends like a surge in teen depression and anxiety, but the national survey is the first to asses the national prevalence of disruptions and adversities like parental job loss, personal job loss, homelessness, hunger and the extent of emotional or physical abuse at home.

They also reveal a promising strategy that school leaders can leverage to put youth on a better trajectory. Youth who feel connected to their school, the survey found, were significantly less likely than those who did not to report feeling hopeless or attempt suicide. Yet fewer than half 鈥� 47% 鈥� of teens reported feeling close to the people at their schools during the pandemic, when millions primarily experienced learning remotely.聽

鈥淎lthough our latest findings present an often-grim picture and there is much work to be done, it is clear that right now young people need all the support we can give them,鈥� Ethier said.

During his State of the Union address earlier this month, President Joe Biden addressed the youth mental health crisis, declaring that students 鈥渓ives and education have been turned upside-down.鈥� His released this week seeks $1 billion to double the number of counselors and psychologists in schools.聽

Based on the CDC鈥檚 survey data, these six charts show the challenges students faced during the pandemic 鈥� while also revealing promising strategies that could help them recover from more than two years of life-altering disruptions.聽

As the pandemic shuttered businesses, many teens were forced to live through the hardships of an economic crisis.

Nearly a third of students reported that a parent or another adult at home had lost their job while 22% of teens reported experiencing job loss themselves. A quarter of teens reported experiencing food insecurity. Among white students 18.5% reported experiencing hunger while 32% of Black students said they lacked enough food to eat. In total, 2% of students reported experiencing homelessness.聽

Teachers and other school officials are generally considered mandated reporters, putting them on the front lines of spotting issues like physical abuse at home. Remote learning heightened concerns that such abuse could go undetected at a moment when pandemic-induced stressors could exacerbate the problem. Indeed, the CDC data suggest that the physical and emotional abuse of teens has grown more alarming during the public health crisis.

More than half of respondents 鈥� 55% 鈥斅爎eported that a parent or another adult at home had subjected them to emotional abuse and 11% said they faced physical abuse. Black students experienced the highest prevalence of physical abuse by a parent, at 15%, compared to 9.8% of white students.聽

Those figures are substantially higher than pre-pandemic levels, when 13.9% of students reported experiencing emotional abuse in and 5.5% reported being subjected to physical abuse by a caregiver. These differences, CDC researchers concluded, highlights a reality that 鈥渋ncreased stress contributes to violence.鈥�

The pandemic鈥檚 devastating emotional toll on high schoolers was clear in the data. Overall, 37.1% of students reported experiencing poor mental health during the pandemic and an even larger share 鈥� 44.2% 鈥斅爏aid they felt persistently sad or hopeless during the 12 months prior to completing the survey.

And while a teen suicide crisis has been billowing for years, the new CDC data show the extent of the problem. While 19.9% of students reported that they seriously considered dying by suicide, a staggering 9% had actually tried.聽

The pandemic-era mental health crisis was particularly grim for girls. Nearly half of girls reported having poor mental health during the pandemic compared to nearly a quarter of boys. Similarly, 5.3% of boys reported attempting suicide compared with 12.4% of girls.聽

A widely reported found an increase in youth emergency room visits due to suicide attempts during the pandemic. In February and March 2021, suicide-related emergency room visits were 50.6% higher for girls and 3.7% higher for boys than they were during the same period in 2019.

Even prior to the pandemic, youth mental health was a critical public health concern. Among high school students nationwide, 26.1% reported feeling persistent sadness or hopelessness in 2009. By 2019, that rate jumped more than 10 percentage points to 36.8%. During that same period, there was a 5 percentage point increase in students reporting having seriously considered attempting suicide and a 2.6 percentage point increase in youth reporting having attempted suicide.聽

CDC data suggest the pandemic has been particularly challenging for students who identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual. Perhaps more troubling, the data were released at a moment when Republican lawmakers have championed legislation that critics say would make life harder for LGBTQ youth. Just this week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis , a controversial law that bans educators from offering instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity to children in grades K-3.聽

Nearly three-quarters of gay, lesbian and bisexual teens reported experiencing emotional abuse at home, compared to roughly half of their straight classmates. Similarly, more than a quarter of gay, lesbian and bisexual teens reported an attempt to die by suicide in the last year compared to 5.2% of heterosexual youth.

Although the survey doesn鈥檛 highlight the experiences of transgender youth, previous surveys suggest they also faced heightened risks during the pandemic compared to their cisgender peers, Ethier said.聽

Between January and June 2021, 31.6% of respondents reported using tobacco, alcohol or marijuana, or misusing prescription opioids. Nearly a third of students who said they鈥檇 used such substances before reported using more of them during the pandemic.聽

However, CDC survey data suggest that overall teen substance use decreased during the pandemic. It鈥檚 possible, researchers concluded, that students who attended schools virtually had limited access and greater parental supervision.

Students who attended schools virtually, the survey revealed, were less likely than those who attended in-person to use substances like tobacco and alcohol. For example, a quarter of in-person students reported using tobacco compared to just 9% of remote learners.聽

Because youth get tobacco products from social sources such as friends, access to those products likely decreased during the pandemic, researchers concluded. However, more open alcohol policies like home delivery may have lowered barriers for youth attempting to purchase booze.

The CDC survey highlights the steep obstacles that teens have had to navigate during the pandemic, but it also recommends strategies that could offer a brighter future. While remote learning likely hindered students鈥� feelings of connectedness at school, experts stressed it鈥檚 not too late to make positive changes.聽

The CDC survey reveals that feelings of connectedness at school are critical to youth mental health. More than a quarter of youth who felt connected at school reported poor mental health during the pandemic compared to nearly half of those who said they did not feel close to others at their schools.聽

Youth who said they experienced racism during the pandemic and those who are gay, lesbian or bisexual were less likely than other student groups to report feeling connected at school.聽

To foster greater connectedness and promote positive school climates, the CDC recommended that districts implement programs that focus on social-emotional learning and professional development centered on classroom management and fostering positive relationships between students, their families and school staff. Districts should also analyze school disciplinary policies to ensure they鈥檙e implemented equitably across racial and ethnic groups, researchers recommended.

鈥淭here is much that can be done to make sure that LGBTQ youth and youth from racial and ethnic minority groups feel safe, supported and connected in their schools,鈥� Ethier said, noting the importance of such school efforts specifically designed to improve the mental health of LGBTQ youth and reduce their risk of suicide. 鈥淲hen schools are less toxic for youth at increased risk for severe outcomes, schools are less toxic for everyone.鈥澛�

The most obvious early effects of COVID-19 were the ways in which it shrank the spheres of life, work, and school. Within a few months of its emergence last winter, hundreds of millions of Americans found themselves stuck together in crowded homes, adults often sharing couch space with children stranded from their classrooms.

It was an atmosphere, many worried, that could drastically increase the dangers of domestic violence. As parents were left to ride out the economic instability brought on by sudden business closures, most K-12 students were no longer in direct contact with teachers, who are among the most common reporters of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse to children. Worries only grew as complaints of abuse during the pandemic鈥檚 early weeks, with advocates warning that serious mistreatment was likely going unnoticed.

More than a year later, researchers are sounding the same alarm. Studies of both local child welfare agencies and national emergency room visits suggest that while total child abuse reports declined significantly last year, the cases that arose were more likely to result in medical exams and hospitalizations. And with more kids set to return to in-person classes in September, the findings raise the question of whether school systems will be prepared to assist large numbers of children who have suffered invisible trauma over the preceding 18 months.

Jodi Quas, a professor of psychological and nursing science at the University of California, Irvine, is currently studying patterns of abuse in a large, unnamed Southern California county. In an interview with 社区黑料, she said that it 鈥渕akes sense, when you think about family stress and economic insecurity,鈥� that child abuse and neglect would grow more severe during times of intense upheaval.

鈥淲e have just one county, but it does look like kids are more at risk,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t’s the stress and uncertainty. It’s parents either losing their jobs or trying to work at home while engaged with kids in online school. All of those stressors, we’re guessing, contributed to increased anxiety with fewer resources and support systems available.鈥�

With co-authors Stacy Metcalf, a doctoral candidate, and Corey Rood, a pediatrician, Quas leveraged two sets of data 鈥� monthly reports of suspected child maltreatment from the county鈥檚 social services agency, as well as records of medical evaluations at a local child abuse clinic 鈥� to compare the trends between March and December 2020 with those of the same period in 2019. While their research is still under review and must therefore be read cautiously, the figures indicate that the number of abuse reports fell during the spring (-33.2 percent), summer (-13.1 percent) and fall (-24.5 percent).

The decline appears to be related to school closures: While one-third of abuse reports in the county came from school and daycare staff in 2019, the data show that just one-sixth did in 2020.

In , school employees like teachers and nurses are mandated reporters of abuse. A from researchers at Cornell University and the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas found that time spent in school increases the likelihood that abuse will be noticed and documented. Educators鈥� prominent role is illustrated by the fact that reports typically decrease during the summer. Given the swift separation of students from schools during the past year, Quas said, it was predictable that reports were 鈥渁bsolutely going to drop, and you saw that in the first months of the pandemic.

Though complaints to social services fell, Quas and her team found that the number of children who received medical evaluations at a local child abuse clinic increased by 30 percent. They also measured an increase of seven percentage points in the proportion of children who received examinations once they were referred to the clinic 鈥� in essence, a sign that the cases of serious, hard-to-ignore abuse grew as a percentage of total reports.

鈥榃hat happens in the fall?鈥�

That finding corresponds with evidence from released in December by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That research found that, in the four weeks immediately following President Trump鈥檚 COVID-19 emergency declaration last March, emergency room visits related to child abuse and neglect fell by more than half compared with the same period in 2019. The decline was apparent across all children and adolescents, with visits for kids between ages 5 and 11 dropping by 61 percent.

But the most concerning of those visits, those resulting in hospitalization, stayed steady throughout September 2020. In total, the percentage of all maltreatment-related ER trips that led to hospitalizations of children jumped significantly, from 2.1 percent in 2019 to 3.2 percent in 2020. That average includes increases from 3.5 percent to 5.3 percent for the youngest children, and a near-doubling (from 0.7 percent to 1.3 percent) for children between 5 and 11.

Dr. Elizabeth Swedo, a CDC researcher and one of the brief鈥檚 authors, warned in an email that because of the massive disruptions to the medical system that occurred last year, the hospital data needed to be interpreted with care. Even in normal circumstances, hospital trips can vary substantially by season, and in 2020, the swings were .

鈥淰isits for almost all non-respiratory diseases and conditions dropped precipitously in March 2020,鈥� Swedo wrote, “in large measure due to patients being more reluctant to travel or seek medical care during the pandemic.鈥�

鈥淭hese denominator shifts presented challenges for interpreting data and communicating complex findings,鈥� she added.

Swedo said that local research of the kind that Quas and her collaborators are conducting 鈥渞eally help contextualize the findings from our national study,鈥� adding that it would be critical to incorporate future data released by national resources like the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data Center and the National Violent Death Reporting System.

It鈥檚 still unclear how the factors that may have contributed to worsening abuse and neglect have responded to the gradual improvement in the economy and public health conditions. have shown that quarantines, and particularly lengthy ones, can lead to fear, anger, and symptoms of PTSD. Studies looking specifically at the COVID era suggest that the workers most affected by the pandemic to their mental health, and living under a stay-at-home order loneliness and anxiety.

Even with COVID cases and deaths back on the upswing in recent weeks, more adults and kids are beginning to resume their pre-pandemic routines. But Quas noted that school districts might need to get ready to identify and provide services to a sizable group of students who spent the 2020-21 school year not just isolated from teachers and friends, but also under threat from adults in their homes.

“What I’m thinking about is, what happens in the fall? Not that the pandemic is fully over, but by fall, I think more kids are going to really be back in school after a pretty long period. How do you prep for what we think might be an increase in reporting that could happen then, as kids go back to school more consistently?”