Save Children’s Lives Now

Hundreds, even thousands, of American children’s lives can be saved each year by protecting those at highest risk for death due to abuse and neglect, according to the final report of the Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities.

The panel’s findings and recommendations, contained in a 170-page report and accompanying fact sheet, are due to receive prompt and serious consideration from Congress, as well as the current and future administrations.

 

Every Child Matters welcomes the report and its findings. Our founder and past-President, Michael Petit, has served as a Commissioner throughout the Commission’s exhaustive fact-finding and public hearing process.

The report’s recommendations for a public health approach that engages community agencies to identify the best strategies to keep children safe are a mandate for the federal government – as well as for state, local and tribal governments – to devote necessary resources and facilitate change that could save the four to eight children who die each day from abuse and neglect.

Every Child Matters helped lead the coalition of children’s advocacy organizations – the National Coalition to End Child Abuse Deaths – who mobilized public support for passage of the Protect Our Kids Act of 2012. Signed into law at the end of 2013, that legislation authorized creation of the commission.

The Commission’s report today is a triumph for kids. It must be followed immediately by determined action on the part of the children’s advocacy community, Congress and the Administration to save children’s lives.