Kansas City has thousands of open child abuse and neglect cases and too few investigators

By Steve Kraske,

Published September 8, 2023 at 9:18 AM CDT

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Two women sit in a radio studio. The woman on the left is talking and gesturing with both hands. — Rep. Keri Ingle, left, talks on KCUR's Up To Date with Lisa Mizell about the backlog of child abuse cases in Missouri.

As of August, Kansas City had 3,636 open investigations into child abuse and neglect. Across the state, there are more than 10,000 cases that have been open more than 45 days after being reported. Missouri officials acknowledge the problem and that fixing it isn't easy.

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.

Missouri state Rep. Keri Ingle, a former case worker, said there have been committee discussions to raise the pay.

"My fear is that the legislature tends to be very reactionary," Ingle said. "I hope, I really truly hope it doesn't take a tragic occurrence, something really, really tragic happening for them to realize how important it is to pay investigators what they're worth.

Jason Rosenbaum, politics correspondent, St. Louis Public Radio
Mo. State Rep. Keri Ingle, D-Lee's Summit
Lisa Mizell, president and CEO, Child Protection Center