children

A new report found many families earn too little to qualify for the $2,000 federal benefit, which is tied to a family’s earnings and income taxes. Nearly a quarter of the Missouri children who fall into the gap are Black — higher than the state's overall population of Black kids.

A company hired to clean meatpacking plants in Missouri and other Midwest states is accused of illegally using children for potentially dangerous jobs. Plus: Eric Schmitt is heading to D.C. as Missouri's next U.S. Senator, but he'll be entering a very different legislative environment than the one he's used to at home.

Cases of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, have been surging among children in the Kansas City area and around the country. But locally, cases could start heading in the opposite direction.

A 58% rise in Black infant mortality in Kansas in 2020 sent researchers and community groups searching for answers and solutions.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, fentanyl overdose deaths rose 350% between 2019 and 2021. That makes fentanyl overdoses the leading cause of death in this country for people between the ages 18 and 45.

Kansas in 2020 settled a lawsuit over the way the state’s foster care system treated children. Has the state lived up to its promises? Plus: A federal program aimed at helping low-income communities access food pays its own employees so little that some workers qualify for food stamps themselves.

Care for children in Kansas' foster care system has been scrutinized for years. Department for Children and Families Secretary Laura Howard says the state is making progress improving the system.

Pediatricians are worried about kids losing Medicaid coverage when the federal COVID emergency declaration ends. Plus: Why the Biden administration and Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly don't agree on proposed new rules for a popular weed killer used by farmers.

Missouri is the only state that chose not to participate in a federal program allowing parents and kids in low-income areas to pick up free meals and take them home — resulting in a dramatic drop in the number of meals distributed to low-income children.

Of the titles depicted on the iconic 26-foot-tall book spines on the Kansas City Public Library's parking garage, 11 have been banned or challenged in the past.

The Division of the Child Advocate, an office less than a year old, has already closed seven cases and found some troubling handling of foster care.

2020 brought a sharp rise in the already-dire rate of Black infant mortality in Kansas. Black babies are now nearly three and a half times as likely to die in their first year of life as white babies.