Nearly 40,000 Minnesota children were suspected of being abused or neglected in 2016, 25 percent more than 2015, state officials said Tuesday in a worrisome report that also noted a huge jump in maltreatment investigations.

The data posted by the Minnesota Department of Human Services didn't explain the increases in detail but said the spike likely came from "increased awareness about child protection issues, changes in how reports are reviewed and a growing opioid crisis."

Children in struggling families — those stressed by poverty, unemployment and addiction who lack social support — are particularly at risk, the department said.

Child abuse became an in issue vitally important to Gov. Mark Dayton in 2014 after the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that county workers didn't follow up on abuse complaints about Eric Dean, a 4-year-old Starbuck, Minn., boy who was later killed by his stepmother.

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