When the Kern County Network for Children (KCNC) annually holds its “Call to Action” conference, agencies, organizations, schools and families anxiously await the results of a year long report on the condition of children. The “2005 Call to Action” was held on April 20 at Bakersfield’s Holiday Inn Select, and there was mixed good news. Reported cases of child abuse in Kern County in 2003, the most recent measurable year, occurred at a rate of 80.6 per 1,000 children. That was a 5.4 percent decline from 2002, but was still higher than California’s rate of 51.7. More