© 2025 Kansas City Public Radio
NPR in Kansas City
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Missouri has thousands of backlogged cases of child abuse

There are more than 10,000 cases of alleged child abuse and neglect in Missouri that remain open, including over 3,600 in the Kansas City region. The NPR Midwest Newsroom found that investigators in the state's Children’s Division are overloaded and dealing with a shortage of case workers.

A high stress job with low pay has contributed to a shortage of cases workers and a backlog of more than 10,000 open abuse and neglect investigations in Missouri's Children's Division, a new investigation by the NPR Midwest Newsroom found. Jason Rosenbaum reports for the Midwest Newsroom.

Contact the show at news@kcur.org. Follow KCUR on Instagram and Facebook for the latest news.

Kansas City Today is hosted by Nomin Ujiyediin. It is produced by Paris Norvell, Byron Love and KCUR Studios and edited by Gabe Rosenberg and Lisa Rodriguez.

You can support Kansas City Today by becoming a KCUR member: kcur.org/donate

As a newscaster and a host of a daily news podcast, I want to deliver the most important and interesting news of the day in an engaging and easily understandable way. No matter where you live in the metro or what you’re interested in, I want you to learn something from each newscast or podcast – and maybe even give you something to talk about at the dinner table.
Paris Norvell is a freelance podcast producer for KCUR Studios,
KCUR prides ourselves on bringing local journalism to the public without a paywall — ever.

Our reporting will always be free for you to read. But it's not free to produce.

As a nonprofit, we rely on your donations to keep operating and trying new things. If you value our work, consider becoming a member.