Simplified: Sioux Falls saw 584 kids impacted by abuse and neglect last year. It's about an elementary school's worth, as Sioux Falls Area CASA Program CEO Stacey Tieszen put it. While that number hasn't seen a big change year-over-year, what is changing dramatically is the number of obstacles the parents of those kids are facing that keep them from caring for their children.

Why it matters

  • CASA, short for "Court Appointed Special Advocate," is a nonprofit that helps children who've been abused or neglected navigate the court system. Volunteers work to understand as much as they can about the environment kids are coming from to better inform public defenders and judges deciding ultimately where those kids end up.
  • In 2023, the Sioux Falls Area CASA Program started tracking more data to help them better understand the obstacles parents face in caring for their kids. They looked at each petition filed with the court and categorized the various challenges from drug use to homelessness to criminal history.
  • That data shows a more than 53% increase in the obstacles parents face between 2024 and 2025. On average, each parent who has a kid in the child welfare system is facing four obstacles. That means, for example, one parent might be dealing with alcohol addiction, homelessness, mental illness and domestic violence.
  • Tieszen said the data shows the complexity of what's going on in some Sioux Falls households. And it matters that the community pays attention because the kids these parents have can fall into the same challenges and obstacles when they become parents themselves.
"At the end of the day, there's nothing more important than supporting the needs of our children and helping ensure they don't repeat patterns as they become parents," Tieszen said.

Tell me more

Per CASA data, some of the most common themes found in court documents related to child abuse and neglect cases include parents dealing with:

  • Meth, alcohol and other substance abuse,
  • Domestic violence,
  • Mental illness,
  • Criminal history or prior interaction with the justice system,
  • and a history of interactions with Child Protective Services or previous termination of parental rights with a different child.

Each of these things on its own can be a tall mountain to climb for parents, but with co-occuring challenges, the path to reunification with their kids is often too steep.

"We talk a lot about people being lazy people not wanting to have a job ... But if you start talking about where the mental health falls in and you combine that with domestic violence and combine that with lack of social supports, you have people who can’t make it simply because they have no one helping," Tieszen said.

That's evidenced by the number of kids who enter the foster care system and are never reunited with their birth parents.

  • Over the last two years, more than half of the kids helped by CASA had their legal journey end with their parents facing a termination of parental rights.

Ok, but isn't it better for kids to be taken out of those homes?

Certainly removing kids from harmful situations is best.

But the data on outcomes for kids who are placed in foster care also show an increase in negative outcomes for those kids as they become adults.

  • National data from CASA shows that kids in foster care are more likely to be incarcerated, use drugs, and have overall poorer physical health.

For Tieszen, it illustrates the impacts of generational trauma. The kids who were taken from their parents because their parents were unequipped to care for them may then go on to repeat the pattern.

"Most of the parents who have their kids currently in state custody experienced the same trauma they’re currently inflicting on their kids," she said.

So, what am I supposed to do about this?

It starts with awareness and recognizing the problem, Tieszen said.

It's no one person's or one agency's job to solve these struggles, she added. Rather, the community needs to take a more holistic approach at supporting kids to help them break cycles of addiction, abuse, etc.

Tieszen referenced a recent campaign to encourage more volunteers in Sioux Falls schools that set out to get 75 volunteers and ended up with only 36. There's room to improve the support systems for kids in the Sioux Falls community.

"You can stay at home watch the news and be horrified," Tieszen said, "or, you can step up and say what can I do what can I help."