While news of the recent death of a 3-year-old Barrow child touches the hearts of many, it is just one incident in a much larger picture, one that challenges communities across Alaska and puts the state in the top five states nationwide for number of children neglected and abused per capita.

In 2010, the State of Alaska’s Office of Children's Service received more than 4,500 allegations of child abuse impacting 2,871 children across the state that were later substantiated. Last month alone, 1,774 children were in placement in Alaska. It's a problem that will only improve with the attention and dedication of all Alaskans, those working with the problem say.

"Unfortunately, child abuse is happening in Alaska every day in every community, among every ethnicity, and every socioeconomic group" said OCS Director Christy Lawton. "It really does cross all lines, and that isn't something the community always wants to acknowledge because it's painful and people don’t want to hear about cases of child abuse and neglect."

Lawton said every time there is a case of animal cruelty, it makes her cringe. Often, the public pays more attention to the animal cases than it does to cases of child neglect and abuse. Even worse, while most cases referred to OCS don't wind up as criminal cases, those that do often result in lighter sentences than those dealt to animal abusers.

So what is the biggest thing that Alaskans can do to prevent child abuse? Any time you have a feeling a child might be neglected or abused, report it, says Lawton. In that regard, the department feels like it might be making some headway. Last year, there were more than 16,000 reports of child neglect and abuse -- a 15 percent increase from previous years, Lawton said.

Disproportionately high number of Native Alaskan children

The increase in reporting may be a result of several cases around the state that received media attention of late. Or perhaps a media campaign encouraging people to consider it their job to keep Alaska's children safe is having an impact.

And while the increase numbers of reporting are great, even better would be a lowering of the child abuse figures statewide.

"That number represents 9 percent of the total child population of the state that has had a report of child maltreatment," Lawton pointed out, adding that only 39 percent of all reports are investigated.

Substance abuse is a huge problem in these cases, Lawton said, with some 80 percent of cases connected in some way to substance abuse.

"These are families that under other circumstances, without substance abuse issues, would have been doing a fine job of parenting," she said.

Also an issue for the state is the fact that some 61 percent of the children in care are Native Alaskan -- a disproportionately high number. That may be in part because Alaskans may be more willing to report concerns about children in certain ethnic groups versus white, middle class families. In addition, high rates of substance abuse and other struggles faced rural villages work against them.

"I think that some of the well known complex trauma issues that many of our communities are facing in terms of generational kinds of issues and struggles are a factor," Lawton said. "There are a lot of hurting people, so it just continues the cycle."

Lawton said OCS works heavily with tribal partners, and tribal organizations are involved in many cases. Children are often far better served by their tribal organization than they would be by the state, she said. A recent survey of tribal partners indicated that while they felt the tribes were included in decisions about how and where to place children, challenges still presented themselves in areas like providing opportunities for continuity of Native values, foods and traditions.

Lawton said OCS has struggled in rural Alaska in two ways: First, it is difficult to keep staff in the rural communities, and at times, those areas will have as many as half of their positions unfilled. Second, it is difficult to find Native Alaska foster families.

Lawton said she's not sure why the latter is true -- perhaps it's leftover feelings from past actions by OCS on families, or perhaps it's something else. But whatever the reason, it doesn't serve the children, who would benefit from the consistency of care in a Native family setting.