Giving Compass' Take:

• Education Dive discusses a study which suggests that when children are not in school, as what's happening now with coronavirus, they disconnect from safety nets of adults who recognize and report abuse.

• How can philanthropy prevent abuse and support victims of abuse? How can technology?

• Learn more about programs that are helping children recognize and report abuse. 

Staying home doesn’t mean staying safe for some children. As COVID-19 isolated families inside their homes and created the high-stress environment of job losses and health anxiety, at-risk children were left unprotected from abusers living in their homes. Teresa Huizar, executive director of the National Children’s Alliance, told MarketWatch the environment is a “perfect storm of increased access and increased family stress and financial pressure.”

Twenty percent of child abuse reports are filed by education personnel. The current reduction in reports is attributed to children’s disconnection from these personnel, and though these reports aren’t coming in per se, MarketWatch reports some states are seeing more documented cases of sexual abuse and abusive head trauma reports. While recessions exacerbate child abuse, the pandemic crisis also includes social isolation.

Similar drops in the number of reports also occur every year during summer breaks. In 2018, for instance, Colorado Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline calls dropped 23% from May to June, when school employees were no longer seeing children every day.

Read the full article about child maltreatment by Shawna De La Rosa at Education Dive.