According to the Children’s Defense Fund, in 2019, 651,505 children were victims of abuse or neglect (a decrease of 21,643 compared to the previous year). Those figures mean that a child within the foster care system is either abused or neglected approximately every 48 seconds in America (1,785 times per day). That’s a truly alarming statistic, but as data provided by the Children’s Defense Fund indicates, foster care abuse and neglect is not only prevalent but systemic: