Give investigations the capacity to act
Establish current staffing, forensic capacity and case delays before making funding decisions. Target resources to the documented gaps, with survivor support and due process built into the response.
Save Our Kids
Safe to grow.Free to be kids.A future to protect.
Our children deserve more than a response after something goes wrong. They deserve safe homes, someone who listens, and help that reaches them in time.
Not just numbers.
Our children.
About 450 children in Yellowstone County are in foster care, according to CASA. Behind that number is a child who needs safety, stability and an adult who will keep showing up.
CASA estimates our county accounts for about a quarter of Montana’s foster children. The need is local. So is our responsibility to pay attention.
CASA of Yellowstone County, reviewed October 3, 2026. Approximate website figures, not a dated administrative census.
About
450
children whose next chapter
should be a safer one.
Children, not case files. Families, not political talking points.
Safety cannot
mean waiting.
Getting a child out of danger is not the finish line. Children need a safe, permanent home and a system that does not leave them waiting.
The March 2026 federal review reported that only 36% of children in Yellowstone County’s entry measure reached permanency within 12 months. That was the lowest share among the eight Montana counties averaging at least 50 foster-care entries a year.
This is the review’s county indicator, not a measure of the current 450 children. Permanency can include safe reunification, adoption or guardianship.
Montana Child and Family Services Review, March 2026. The county comparison does not specify its fiscal-year cohort in the accompanying text.
36%
36 of every 100 in the reported Yellowstone County measure. Each square represents one percentage point, not an individual child.
What else the foster-care data tells us
CASA reports an average of 18–24 months in local foster care. Its website also lists 246 children with a CASA advocate out of a separate 380-child count. Because that denominator differs from its headline count of 450, we do not calculate a current advocacy gap from those figures.
Hill County’s corresponding 12-month permanency measure was 88% in the federal review. Different caseloads and family circumstances matter; the comparison identifies a question to investigate, not a simple ranking of workers’ effort.
Fewer filings.
More referrals.
These numbers move in different directions. They measure different parts of the system, so fewer court cases alone cannot tell us whether fewer children are being harmed.
Yellowstone County District Court · Annual filings
−58%from 2021 to 2025
Montana Courts, 2021 and 2025; intervening years reproduced from the supplied child-safety chart.
Billings · Annual reports received, not confirmed victims
+57%from 2024 to 2025
BPD annual reports: 2023, 2024, 2025. Changes rounded to whole percentages.
Why these charts are not a count of child victims
Court filings and police reports cover different geographies, processes and periods. A report is not a substantiated finding or a conviction. These charts do not prove that abuse rose 57% or fell 58%.
The brief’s 2024 forensic-interview figure is flagged as conflicting, so that comparison is not charted here. The assignment figures below show another part of the response that deserves public explanation.
660 cases reported.
110 assigned.
Billings Police’s 2025 Investigations Division summary lists “DPHHS cases-660; 110 assigned.” That is about one in six listed as assigned.
A child’s safety depends on what happens after a report. We need a clear explanation of how these cases were screened, what follow-up occurred, and whether investigators and family services have the capacity to respond.
This is a BPD assignment count, not DPHHS’s investigation rate. The report does not define “assigned,” report completed investigations, or explain the disposition of the other 550 cases. Those cases cannot simply be labeled “not investigated.”
BPD 2025 Annual Report, Investigations Division, PDF page 8. Assignment share: 110 ÷ 660 × 100 = 16.7%, rounded.
2025 · Reported cases and the subset marked assigned
16.7%listed as assigned
in BPD’s summary
in BPD’s summary
The 110 assigned cases are part of the 660 total, not additional cases. These figures alone do not establish why a case was not assigned or prove a staffing shortage.
Listen to what
our kids tell us.
The 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey puts young people’s own experiences in front of us. The Yellowstone County results show serious needs around sexual violence, mental health and substance use.
17.3%
of surveyed Yellowstone County high school students reported sexual violence in the past year.
Being forced to do sexual things they did not want to do, during the preceding 12 months. This is different from the survey’s lifetime forced-intercourse question.
OPI 2023 county results and statewide results. Figures reproduced from the supplied brief.
Same survey year and question. County and state results are estimates, not counts of every teenager.
More findings and how to read this survey
| Measure | Yellowstone | Montana |
|---|---|---|
| Sexual violence, past year | 17.3% | 13.6% |
| Physically forced intercourse, ever | 15.5% | 14.1% |
| Seriously considered suicide, past year | 30.4% | 26.1% |
| Attempted suicide, past year | 14.0% | 11.3% |
| Alcohol use, past 30 days | 30.5% | 26.2% |
| Binge drinking, past 30 days | 18.4% | 13.4% |
| Marijuana use, past 30 days | 21.6% | 19.6% |
| Vaping, past 30 days | 31.1% | 24.3% |
The brief describes about 630 Yellowstone County respondents; the number answering each question can differ. These are self-reports by high school students, not all children, and differences are not presented as statistically significant without the underlying uncertainty estimates.
The newer 2026 Prevention Needs Assessment is a different survey. The brief reports just 161 participants in its Yellowstone County sample, mostly eighth graders, so we do not use it as a replacement for countywide high-school results or join the two surveys into a trend.
The reports grew.
Can help keep up?
Montana DOJ received 3,542 tips concerning child sexual abuse material during June 2025 through May 2026. That is about 4.4 times the 798 reported in 2021.
In its September 2024 legislative report, DCI described two specialized ICAC agents and said it lacked the capacity to investigate every cybertip, relying on local agencies and other partners.
That staffing count is dated, not a verified October 2026 headcount. The question now is whether trained staff, forensic support and victim services have kept pace.
DOJ ICAC report, September 2024. ICAC stands for Internet Crimes Against Children.
Statewide · Two calendar years and one rolling 12-month period
4.4×the 2021 volume
in the latest period shown
in the latest period shown
Montana DOJ: 2021 and 2024 counts; June 2025–May 2026 count.
Tips, investigations and victims are not interchangeable
One tip does not equal one offender, one child or one substantiated crime. Reporting practices and detection can change. These statewide figures do not establish Yellowstone County’s share of exploitation.
For FY2024, DOJ reported 2,429 received tips, 1,165 assigned in Montana and 108 assigned to DCI agents. It described 1,123 as awaiting further legal process or closed for various reasons. Its status categories and timing should not be treated as an additive funnel or proof that every unassigned tip was ignored.
The supplied brief also discusses national testimony from the Tim Tebow Foundation. Its national IP-address figures are not a count of Montana offenders. We have not converted Montana’s population share into an estimate of local offenders or victims.
Protect children.
Reach families earlier.
Child safety does not begin at the courthouse. It begins with responding to addiction, family violence and instability before children are left carrying the consequences.
In Montana’s 2023 prevention cases, chemical dependence was the most commonly reported reason for Child Protective Services involvement. Domestic abuse was another major factor.
These are statewide prevention-case figures, not Yellowstone County removal reasons. Treatment and family support must work alongside immediate protection whenever a child is unsafe.
DPHHS FFY2025 Annual Progress and Services Report, 2023 prevention cases, as summarized in the supplied brief.
Montana · 2023 · Selected reasons, not a complete breakdown
The bars show separate reported shares. They are not combined into a percentage of all harmed children.
Protection needs
more than promises.
Our fight is for help that reaches children, clear responsibility when systems fail, and public investment that can show what it accomplished.
Make stable homes the goal
Support safe reunification when possible, timely permanency when it is not, foster families and independent child advocates. Track how long children wait and whether they remain safe after leaving care.
Make it easier for kids to reach help
Strengthen access to trusted adults, trauma-informed care and youth mental-health support. Prevention should include sexual-violence education, online safety and a clear path to reporting harm.
Support families before crisis takes over
Connect treatment, domestic-violence services, housing stability and practical family support. Protecting children and helping parents recover should not be competing goals.
Close the gaps in the public record
Seek county-level reporting on substantiated harm, investigation outcomes, time to services and permanency. Publish useful totals without exposing children, families or sensitive investigations.
Invest where it makes a difference
Pair targeted spending with clear responsibilities and measurable outcomes. New laws matter, but so do the people, training and services needed to make protection real.
These are campaign priorities, not programs already delivered or promises that one state legislator controls every agency. State and local government, schools, courts and community partners all have a role.
The questions our research still cannot answer
We still need consistent county-level figures for substantiated abuse and neglect, removal reasons, child-specific criminal cases and outcomes, county cybertip assignments, and children served by local advocacy services.
The brief’s October 3, 2026 registry snapshot lists 519 sexual and 23 sexual/violent registrants in Yellowstone County, a combined 542. The registry does not identify how many had child victims; these are not 542 child-abuse cases or a forecast of future offending. See Montana DOJ registry statistics for the official categories.
Billings-wide sexual-offense totals in the brief do not separate victims under 18. We have not relabeled those all-age offenses as crimes against children. Falling filings, rising reports and changing child-welfare policy need explanation, not assumptions.
A child needs help?
Start here.
If someone is in immediate danger, call 911. Do not wait for a campaign response or use campaign email to report abuse.
Online child exploitation
Official ICAC resources →Use Montana DOJ’s official guidance for reporting and online safety. Do not download or forward suspected child sexual abuse material to this campaign.
Their childhood.
Our responsibility.
Our children should not have to become another statistic before someone pays attention. A better future means acting earlier, following through, and making sure they know they matter.
Based on the supplied “Child Safety in Yellowstone County: What the Public Data Shows” brief, prepared October 3, 2026. This page condenses its findings; dates, geography and definitions are retained beside the charts. Survey results, service counts, court filings and police reports describe different things and should not be added together.