backpack as they entered the school.

According to the Norton Children's Hospital.

Kentucky is ahead and of the national average for child abuse in the country with roughly a dozen of every 1000 children in the state becoming victims of abuse.

The annual kids are worth it.

Conference organized by prevent child Abuse.

Kentucky was held in Lexington this week.

The event brought together social service workers, mental health professionals, law enforcement agents and many others to discuss and share information to help reduce child abuse in the Commonwealth.

This year's conference all several ongoing factors that often lead to abuse coming into focus.

>> We know the opioid use disorder is still going to be an issue.

We're making progress, but we still have a long ways to go.

We know the Internet crimes against children will still be an issue.

And we know that mental health and domestic violence.

>> Will unfortunately still be issues that will need to tackle the issue of parent engagement, you know, involving the people who are most impacted by the policy decisions and buy decisions regarding their Karen recovery continues to be an issue that's at the forefront of a lot of providers, fines.

>> During Tuesday's keynote address at the conference members of the Kentucky State Police.

>> Put on a demonstration with specially trained K 9 units used to help assist and cybercrime cases.

Event.

Organizers say brain to gather the state police and other groups for networking is an important tactic in fighting child abuse.

>> It's important for folks to attend an event like perhaps first and foremost, isn't it the networking that happens?

It so important for everybody to know?

You know, here's what's happening in eastern Kentucky.

Here's what's happening in western Kentucky.

We don't want to work in silos.

We know that we cannot come place this work by her.

So I would be hard pressed to say that anybody here thinks that they have all the answers.

So it's important to learn from other folks who have either gone through that particular experience or provided a particular service so that we can know what the pitfalls are.

We can know what the successes are and we can all learn from each other.

Prevent child abuse.

Kentucky says information gathered at this year's kids are worth it.

Conference could help determine the types of topics covered