It's a sobering ranking.

Kentucky's child abuse and neglect rate far outpace the national numbers.

That's according to the Child Maltreatment Report for 2024, which was released last month by the Children's Bureau of the U.S.

Department of Health and Human Services.

We talked with officials to learn more about how children are faring across the state.

So in Kentucky, in 2024, there were 14,505 victims of child maltreatment during that reporting period.

It was a very slight increase from the last report we saw at just 21 more victims.

Kentucky continues to see just about double the national rate of child maltreatment, which is 14.1 per 1000 children, and the national rate is about 7.2 per 1000 children.

It's a complex web of factors that come together to put children like this at risk, and a lot of it is the environmental piece of that, whether it's housing money, transportation, substance abuse that sort of creates a toxic environment around the child that is going to put them at a much higher risk of getting abused and a child who's not exposed to an environment like that.

Most of what people would think from is physical abuse, where some injury occurs to a child as a result of the environment they're in.

There can be psychological abuse.

There could be sexual abuse.

And probably the biggest category, though is neglect.

What we know is that, a large majority of our victims of child maltreatment are little kids, young kids, foreign under and also one years old and under.

So that says to me that we have a lot of opportunity for prevention in supportive services for new parents.

So making sure that our, new parents know about access to programs like the Hands program, which is at home, visiting program for families to help support them through the first three years of a child's life, that our parents and caregivers have access to quality child care.

Those are that's critical.

It helps to reduce stress.

Some other things to consider around, prevention are just parents understanding developmental milestones for kids four and under.

That's a stressful time, especially for children who are not able to verbalize their needs.

Or if we have children in the home who have intellectual or developmental disabilities.

We all have a role in this.

Whether it's donating money to organizations that help with this kind of work, whether it is advocating for more social workers in the state, whether it is meeting your neighbor where they need something.

All those things help, and it's going to take an a monumental effort to make a dent in this.

But we owe it to these children.

Who else is going to speak for them but us?

Shannon Moody says state lawmakers have filed bills this session that, if passed, could make a difference in preventing child maltreatment.

One is House Bill 102, which would require continuous background checks and prohibit nondisclosure agreements related to misconduct involving school staff and students.

Another is House Bill four, which criminalizes grooming of minors.