The heartbreaking fate of 6-year-old Isabella “Ariel” Kalua has sent shockwaves through her home town of Waimanalo — through the whole state, in fact. As painful as it is to contemplate her alleged abuse at the hands of her adoptive parents, Hawaii cannot afford to look away.

The islands’ entire network of professionals who look over the care of children, everyone in their surrounding communities, must then look inward to patch the gaps in that protection, holes though which our kids fall far too often.

Lehua and Isaac Kalua contacted police to report Isabella missing Sept. 13; weeks of community searches for the child followed.

The couple’s arrest and charges in the murder case culminated Wednesday in a grand jury indictment, although Isabella’s body has not been found. Horrific details of abuse — including of Isabella being caged, starved and duct-taped over mouth and nose — were reported by her 12-year-old sister.

That triggered a cascade of accusations against the foster care system through which Isabella and three sisters came to live with the Kaluas. All three surviving children have since been removed from the home.

Sorting out exactly how this case went so tragically wrong will be the work of advocates, police and prosecutors over the next weeks and months — and the ongoing investigation has led the state Department of Human Services to decline comment on the Kaluas.

However, there is plainly an overall deficit in the capacity of the state’s Child Welfare Services, an agency of DHS, to handle all the cases with which it is tasked.

In a story published in Sunday’s Honolulu Star-Advertiser, writer Peter Boylan spoke with DHS officials and reported that there were about 1,350 children in foster care with 170 caseworker positions on the books, of which only 125 are filled. Each staffer manages a caseload of 50 children. More resources for staffing and training are clearly needed.

Another limiting factor is the availability of willing and able caring adults to provide foster homes. In July, DHS contracted with Project Pilina, part of the nonprofit Partners in Development Foundation, to recruit these foster parents.

Among the requirements, according to the contractor’s website: having enough space for a child and income to cover usual household expenses; and a “recent and credible history of safe behavior,” including a criminal history and background checks.

Daisy Lynn Hartsfield, DHS Social Services Division administrator, said the agency is working to close its own supervisory gaps to prevent a recurrence — as it clearly should. But she also pointed out that responsibility for child welfare falls to the entire social safety net.

True, up to a point: The courts that sign off on case assignments, police who handle trouble calls, schools, doctors and neighbors who see foster kids close-up, all own a piece of this.

But the work has to start with Child Welfare. DHS should have been especially alert to the potential of abuses during the pandemic, when so many families retreated into homes, making oversight difficult. In-home site visits became more critically necessary, but since March 2020, that happened only when actual allegations of abuse were reported.

That is only one of the failures of the system. Lawmakers are pledging to review how foster care is regulated. One possibility would be to resurrect a bill to codify the Family Court’s “tort protocol,” a requirement for all who are charged with the care of children to report suspicions of physical or emotional abuse to the court.

The public needs to hold agencies and elected leaders to these promises. Isabella Kalua, Shaelynn Lehano- Stone, Peter-boy Kema … each name added to this roster of foster kids we’ve failed, and lost, should have spurred the community to action.

Sadly, to this point, it has not.