Need for CASA

the facts:

A report of child abuse is made every 10 seconds

Child abuse is the #1 killer of preschool age children

Almost 5 children die everyday as a result of child abuse

More than 75% are 4 years old or younger

In 2009, 40,126 of Texas children were victims of abuse and neglect. On any given day in the Golden Crescent CASA eight county region, a child can be removed from their parents' care and placed in out-of-home care due to abuse or neglect. Stripped of all that is familiar to them, often separated from their siblings and without the comfort of their friends, they spend too much of their childhood being shuffled from group home to group home, foster placement to foster placement, having to adjust to new schools and new faces with every move.

The system designed to care for them and adequately provide for their future is overburdened with too many children. Social workers carry between 30 and 50 cases and each juvenile court judge is responsible for making life-changing decisions for over 700 children. Additionally, more than 87% of the children referred to CASA have been in the system for more than 6 months–and some much, much longer.

For those kids who “age-out” or emancipate from foster care at age 18, the outlook is quite bleak. National statistics reveal that within 18 months, 50% have not graduated from high school and are unemployed, a third end up in jail and a quarter become homeless.

Children who have been abused are 30% more likely to commit violent crimes as adults and are about 33% more likely to abuse their own kids.

To learn more about CASA programs, please also visit Texas CASA's web site.

Call the Texas Abuse Hotline at 1-800 252-5400 if you need to report abuse of a child.