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This article from the Huffington Post describes the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on care leavers in Canada. “It’s extremely hard right now,” said one care leaver. “No one has checked in with me. It’s hard to get my cheques because I have to pick them up in person. I don’t even really know what I’m supposed to be doing.”
As of the publication of this article, Ontario was the only province to announce a moratorium on aging out of care in response to the COVID-19 crisis. "The new pandemic protocol will be that Ontario youth about to turn 18 and…
The Saskatchewan Youth In Care and Custody Network (SYICCN) is calling for assistance for children in government care to be kept in place until services return to pre-coronavirus levels, even if young people "age out" of those services, according to this article from CBC News. "Nobody planned for a pandemic like this," said Richard Rothenburger, outreach coordinator for SYICCN. "These rock solid transition plans that are in place don't have concessions for this and that's why we're asking the government to really just dig in and find the gaps."
During a teleconferenced hearing, U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles said she wants unaccompanied and separated immigrant children to be moved out of government-contracted facilities and to ensure they are released to suitable sponsors in an orderly fashion and aren’t put in danger, according to this article from the Associated Press. This statement came after advocates asked her to order the prompt release of immigrant children over coronavirus concerns.
"Families and children involved with the child welfare system have begun to experience disruptions," says this article from Vox. "Courts are closing, cases are delayed, and in-person contact with social workers is severely limited. As a result, vulnerable children who are already experiencing great instability are being further destabilized."
"Advocates and attorneys are worried about kids at every stage in the child welfare system," the article continues. "Because of the calamitous economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, people in poverty — which make up the vast majority of…
This article from the Marshall Project describes some of the detrimental impacts the COVID-19 crisis has had on children in foster care in the U.S. "Most visits between birth parents and their children in foster care have been suspended or switched to phone calls," says the article. Additionally, some foster parents are also refusing to accept new children due to fears the children may be infected, according to the article. The crisis has also impeded child abuse investigations, as child welfare workers are "trying to do their investigating from the front door, or even over videochat,…
In this opinion piece for The Hill, Susan N. Dreyfus, president and CEO of the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities, calls on the U.S. government to provide support to the nation's child welfare system, "which has the critical responsibility of keeping our families strong and intact so that parents can care for their children safely at home."
"Hundreds of thousands of vulnerable U.S. children could face a heightened risk of abuse and neglect as coronavirus-related school closures keep them at home and away from the nation’s biggest group of hotline tipsters: educators," says this article from USA Today. "Even kids in otherwise functional families could face peril as parents unaccustomed to providing round-the-clock care and stressed by the collapsing economy are pushed to the edge."
The article describes how the COVID-19 pandemic increases risk factors for child abuse and neglect and how child welfare and medical…
The coronavirus pandemic and the new restrictions in place to limit the spread of the infection have presented several difficulties for foster families in California, including how to manage visits between foster children and their families. And, according to this article from Mercury News, foster families have been receiving "mixed signals" from counties.
“I do not know how to comply to both conflicting requirements of the Centers for Disease Control and the foster care system,” Olsen said. “There doesn’t seem to be any guidance coming down about the foster care system and family visits.…
This article from NPR accompanies a brief radio segment highlighting the difficulties faced by families with children in foster care during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly the suspension of in-person visits between parents and their children. "I'm usually feeding her, singing to her, playing with her, we were bonding," said one mother, Jessica, of her visits with her two year-old daughter in foster care. "It's like [the virus] snatched it away from me…
New York City's child welfare agency is “'aggressively' hunting for space to house [foster] youth who are sick or who need to be moved away from ill caretakers," according to this article from the Chronicle of Social Change. The agency says it is exploring other options for children and young people in care in light of the pandemic, including small group homes and residential care. "The concerns are myriad: If a youth shows coronavirus symptoms, they may need to be moved out of the homes of foster parents who are elderly or infirm. If foster parents fall ill, the city’s dozens of foster…