One random evening in 2001 I met a little girl who changed everything in my life. And thankfully, it was she who subsequently compelled so many of us to ban together to make bedtime a better time for millions of under-served children here in the U.S. Together we discovered an invisible need, a hole, in the lives of these very special children. Inadvertently we began to unveil a most vulnerable time for them, hidden to most of us. We began to see what was buried in their bedtimes. Why they toss and turn under the sheets, why they try to hide under the covers.

Through our One Million Good Nights campaign we discovered multi-layered issues these children are harboring in the dark and we see more clearly how concealed and disguised these issues are. In the past 15 years we have heard more bedtime stories than we could have ever imagined - and they are not the kind of stories you want to read to your children as you tuck them in at night. But they are true stories of what these at-risk youth are dealing with and thinking about as they toss and turn, trying to fall asleep, begging for a respite from their anxiety-laden days in a rare and happy dream. We must now, and together, look deep into their chasm and find a way to bring these children up, embrace them and show them how to look forward with hope. They need to know it is not always dark. They need to feel the warmth of the light.

Laws intended to protect children from abuse and neglect are not being properly enforced, and the federal government is to blame. That's according to a study by the Children's Advocacy Institute at the University of San Diego School of Law, which says children are suffering as a result.

The numbers are grim. Almost 680,000 children in the United States were the victims of abuse and neglect in 2013. More than 1,500 of them died.

Federal officials say they're encouraged that the numbers are lower than they were in 2012. But children's advocates say abuse is so often not reported that it's impossible to know if there's really been a decline.

"This is just something that's chronically underreported," says Elisa Weichel, a staff attorney with the Children's Advocacy Institute, which published the report Tuesday.

She says abuse and neglect cases — especially those resulting in death — are often not disclosed as required by law. That lack of information has led to other problems in the system.

"It all boils down to having the right amount of data about what's working and what's not," Weichel says. "And when your data is flawed, every other part of your system is going to be flawed."

"This is just something that's chronically underreported."

Elisa Weichel, Children's Advocacy Institute

Her group has found plenty of flaws. The institute conducted a three-year study and found that not one state has met all of the minimum child welfare standards set by the federal government. Those standards include such things as timely investigation of reports of child abuse. The institute blames Congress and the courts for failing to get involved.

The Department of Health and Human Services, which reviews state programs, declined to comment on the report.

But there's broad agreement among those involved in child welfare that the system is in desperate need of repair, agencies are underfunded, and caseworkers are often overwhelmed.

"Whether or not individual states can meet a reporting standard to us is not where the emphasis ought to be," says Ron Smith, director of legislative affairs for the American Public Human Services Association, which represents child welfare administrators.

"It needs to be on making sure that the kids who need assistance are getting assistance, and the families that need assistance are getting the assistance," he says.

Smith says state and local officials complain that they spend too much time filling out federal forms and trying to meet requirements that aren't necessarily best for kids.

Instead, he says, they want flexibility on how to spend federal funds so they can focus more on keeping families together, rather than on helping kids after they've been abused and removed from their homes.