Since schools across the United States closed in March, reports of child abuse and neglect have plummeted. Pennsylvania and Ohio, for instance, have seen at least a 50 percent drop in calls made to state hotlines, while some hospitals have reported an increase in cases of severe child abuse showing up in emergency rooms. This is not surprising, because teachers are leading reporters of abuse—their calls represent more than a fifth of the 2018 total—and it’s hard to keep an eye on kids through occasional Zoom meetings.
Beyond trying to publicize hotlines and other resources for help, though, most state and local officials seem to have no strategy other than waiting until the lockdown is over to assess the damage. Last month, Los Angeles County sheriff Alex Villanueva proposed to let his deputies become more proactive, releasing a plan to “do welfare checks on our most at-risk kids with patrol personnel.” Following the death of Gabriel Fernandez in 2013—deputies were found to have ignored clear signs that he was being tortured to death—the department may have learned an important lesson.
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