Despite some progress, Kentucky’s child mistreatment rate is still nearly double the national average.
About 14 out of every 1,000 children were abused in Kentucky in 2024, according to the most recent report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Though the individual number of cases has decreased by about 13% since 2020, advocates are urging for more preventive measures.
Kentucky lawmakers previously passed bills to set up a non-emergency child/adult protective services reporting system, as well as requiring annual reports on child fatality or near fatality incidents in the state.
But this year, people working in the child advocacy space are encouraged by new legislative measures to try to prevent the abuse before it occurs.
Currently, a law that would make it a crime to groom minors is nearing passage.
“By recognizing grooming as deliberate and unacceptable behavior that requires serious intervention, this legislation gives parents, educators, and law enforcement the tools they need to intervene earlier and prevent abuse,” Prevent Child Abuse Kentucky Director Jill Seyfred said when the measure passed the Senate.
Shannon Moody, chief policy and strategy officer at Kentucky Youth Advocates, also has pushed for the bill.
“This is the first time we've ever seen [that bill] filed and seen grooming be pursued as something that we could hold criminally accountable,” Moody said.
She’s hopeful it will pass.
Other bills focusing on modernizing child care programs, such as HB 6, also are moving. One of the requirements in the bill would be annual training for child care providers to care for children with disabilities — something that Moody said many may not see as a child abuse prevention measure, but it is.
“Because what we know is that, unfortunately, children with disabilities are much more likely to be expelled from child care centers and are also four times more likely to experience abuse and neglect in general,” Moody said.
Separate from the legislative session, the Family Nurturing Center in Northern Kentucky provides prevention training for all age groups. The programs for adults are aimed at recognizing situations where child abuse might happen that often have been overlooked.
Prevention Supervisor Jenny Smith said for instance, summer camp organizers who’ve received the training look at their set up differently.
“ 'We're going to design our classrooms differently so that we don't have any blind spots,' ” Smith said. “ 'We're going to make sure that one adult isn't alone with one child.' ”
Family Nurturing Center President and CEO Jane Herms hopes prevention initiatives and campaigns, such as the April event where buildings around Greater Cincinnati will be illuminated with blue light to raise awareness around child abuse, help make the subject easier to talk about. She said just as parents talk to their kids about “stranger danger,” they should also talk about child abuse.
“We have to be just as comfortable talking to kids about that possibility as well,” Herms said.
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