As the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to move across this country, the evidence of its impacts on the child welfare system are increasingly becoming visible: Child welfare offices and agencies have been forced to shut their doors in order to prevent staff members from becoming ill or because staff have tested positive for the virus.
As this pandemic shifts our focus, hearing from community and state leaders is vital to ensuring that children are safe and families are supported. “We are working with public and private sector organizations to provide Congress with more specific recommendations. In the meantime, however, we have attached descriptive issues of what is happening across the country—both in the “hot spots” and in those areas that can expect the same challenges,” stated Christine James-Brown, President & CEO.
Since 1920, the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) has worked to serve children and families with the vision that all children will grow up safely, in loving families and supportive communities, with everything they need to flourish—and with connections to their culture, ethnicity, race, and language. Unfortunately, the coronavirus pandemic has impacted all efforts of protecting children and youth, strengthen families and communities, and advancing best practices and policies on a federal and state level.
CWLA submitted a descriptive letter as a resource for Members of Congress on the immediate needs that children and families need.
