Missouri has thousands of backlogged cases of child abuse

By Nomin Ujiyediin,

Published September 12, 2023 at 4:00 AM CDT

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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 than10,000 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.

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