ACS is legally obligated to investigate all reports of child maltreatment. ACS is required to make a determination within 60 days of the referral date (Administration for Children’s Services, 2022). The next steps include the investigation and determination of services that may be required as well as further support in coordination with additional services for the family. If the determination of ACS includes evidence of child maltreatment, support around preventive services to address and provide resources focuses on psychological and/or economic impacts or strain. If ACS does not find evidence of maltreatment, community-based preventive services may still be offered to the family (Administration for Children’s Services, 2022). A database was compiled utilizing monthly child welfare indicator reports from New York City’s ACS for January–June for the years from 2014 Results According to the study, for January–June of 2014–2019, new preventive case openings in New York City ranged from 551 to 1,314 (M = 862.16, SD = 163.95, N = 38). The number of new preventive cases opened in March–June 2020 stands in stark contrast to this range at 398–470 new cases (M = 438.25, SD = 30.60, N = 4) (Allen et al., 2021). The model estimated that the odds of opening a new child maltreatment prevention case during quarantine (i.e., March–June 2020) were 97% lower than the odds of opening a case in March–June of 2014–2019 (OR = 1.97, p < .001), indicating that case openings declined by 49.17% from the pre-COVID to the COVID periods (M = 862.16 to M = 438.25). This research study demonstrated that families in New York City accessed child welfare preventive services significantly less often when the stay-at- home orders began in March 2020. Given the evidence that child maltreatment increases in times of stress (Tobey et al., 2013), this further suggests the likelihood that families who may need preventive services for the first time due to COVID-19 are not in fact receiving services. Results of this study show that child welfare prevention service case openings significantly
to 2020 (https://www1.nyc.gov/site/acs/about/ flashindicators.page). First, the number of preventive case openings in a period prior to mandatory quarantines (i.e., January–June 2014–2019 and January–February 2020) and during mandatory quarantines (i.e., March–June 2020) were examined to determine if there was a clear pattern of increasing, stable, or decreasing case openings over time that varied contemporaneously with COVID-19 mandatory quarantines (Allen et al., 2021).\ The researchers hypothesized that the trend in case openings for the 2020 quarantine months would be different than in pre-COVID-19 years (i.e., 2014–2019) and that the odds of opening a new child maltreatment prevention case would be significantly less during quarantine than in the preceding 6 years. This study is exempt from institutional review (Allen et al., 2021). decreased, suggesting that these societal disruptions have made a large impact on service access (Allen et al., 2021). Given that stressors have increased and usual sources of support for vulnerable families were less accessible during the COVID-19 shutdowns, there was the potential for large increases in instances of child abuse. In the United States, school personnel are the primary source of reports to child welfare services (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services et al., 2018). Given that most students were attending school via distance learning, school personnel had limited contact with them and therefore were likely not able to identify potential cases of child maltreatment at the same rate as they can when students are in person. It appears that now, more than ever, school personnel and teachers may still be the most important mandated reporters in a child’s life, and teachers and other personnel may need to consider new and different indicators of abuse and neglect that can be identified virtually (Allen et al., 2021). For more detailed information on the methods, research, limitations, and extensive results and discussion around this study, read the detailed report.
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