Addressing the Long-Term Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children and Families (2023) / Chapter Skim
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7 Recommendations
7 Recommendations
Pages 243-260
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From page 243... ...
As described throughout this report, rates of COVID-19 illness, hospitalization, and death have been higher in low-income and racially and ethnically minoritized communities than in White and more socioeconomically advantaged communities. In comparison with White children, Black, Latino, and Native American children are more likely to have suffered the loss of a parent from COVID-19 and more likely to have fallen ill from 243
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From page 244... ...
Many low-income and racially and ethnically minoritized families have multiple sources of strength and resiliency that have allowed them to flourish despite their negative experiences. However, overall, the pandemic's effects have disproportionately fallen on low-income and minoritized children and their families.
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From page 245... ...
Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Education, in coor dination with the Domestic Policy Council, the Office of Management and Budget, states, Native American tribes, localities, and the nonprofit and private sectors, should establish a task force on addressing the ef fects of the COVID-19 pandemic on children and their families, with a focus on those who have experienced the greatest negative burdens of the pandemic: Black, Latino, and Native American children and fami lies and those with low incomes.
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From page 246... ...
The recommended task force will need to provide the necessary oversight to ensure that these recommendations and other critically important recommendations are implemented to buffer the negative effects of the pandemic on children and families. The task force would focus on interagency efforts to optimize the implementation of laws, regulations, and policies to address the full range of the pandemic's effects on child behavioral health; on children who lost a caregiver due to COVID-19; on children and families suffering COVID-19-related and exacerbated economic hardships; on children who suffered deficits in social, emotional, behavioral, educational, mental, and physical health and well-being because of the pandemic; and on the potential long-term health consequences for children infected with COVID-19.
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From page 247... ...
providing children with opportunities to learn and practice foundational social and emotional skills; (3) fostering connections to adults and experiences that offer opportunities for ongoing screening and observation to identify children who are struggling and connect them to more intensive support; and (4)
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From page 248... ...
School districts and early childhood cen ters will need funding to adequately address pandemic-related deficits in social and emotional development in early childhood and K–12 settings, and to provide ongoing support for optimal social and emotional development. • Education workforce: Attract, train, support, and retain an expanded educator workforce at the early childhood and K–12 levels with the goal of both strengthening the severely con tracted early childhood sector and supporting the K–12 staffing needed to reengage students and restore missed learning.
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From page 249... ...
This funding needs to be sufficient to address enrollment and reengagement, academic recovery and achievement, recovery and optimization of positive social and emotional development, workforce support and expansion, and preparation for the next pandemic. Enrollment and Reengagement Efforts in enrollment and reengagement in early childhood and K–12 education will require reliable data on children who are eligible, but not currently enrolled (e.g., in formal early childhood education settings)
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From page 250... ...
School districts can adopt any or all of a number of evidence-based measures to increase instructional time, including: • intensive small-group tutoring in school by trained tutors; • academic programming during school vacation breaks and summers; • afterschool programming that incorporates academic content; • extending school days or school years to start earlier or end later; and • high-dosage mentoring by trained staff and volunteers. It is important to recognize that many "evidence-based" interventions were not designed for or tested among some racially and ethnically minoritized populations; intervention adaptation and community engagement about which of these interventions to implement will be critical.
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From page 251... ...
In addition, some interventions are designed to provide children with opportunities to learn and practice foundational social and emotional skills and perspectives that enable them to manage and respond to ongoing experiences of uncertainty and disruption. Across the interventions, a central feature is connection to adults and experiences that offer opportunities for ongoing screening and observation to identify children who are struggling and to connect them to more intensive supports.
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From page 252... ...
sufficient for effective monitoring and mitigation. ADDRESS PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH NEEDS The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant negative impact on the physical and mental health of many children and families and has been disproportionately negative for children and families who are Black, Latino, and Native American and who live in households with low incomes; these populations were also more likely to have unmet physical and mental health needs prior to the pandemic.
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From page 253... ...
Medicaid will be an important part of ensuring that children in low-income families have coverage to address the increased physical and mental health burden that they have faced: the recently announced federal requirement for states to provide a 12-month continuous eligibility period for all children (effective January 2024) represents critical progress.
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From page 254... ...
HHS should lead and coordinate efforts to: • advance and implement policies that ensure mental health parity to physical health for preventive and treatment-related behavioral health services provided in clinical settings, com munities, and schools; • expand Medicaid payment to be inclusive of nonmedical pro fessionals for preventive and community-based behavioral ser vices; and • strengthen the child behavioral health workforce by increasing implementation of training programs in evidence-based men tal and behavioral care, expanding opportunities for racially and ethnically minoritized individuals to enter a pathway for child behavioral health workforce participation; and expand ing loan repayment programs for child behavioral health care professions. ADDRESS ECONOMIC NEEDS As detailed throughout this report, the negative socioeconomic consequences of the pandemic were widespread, but they fell particularly on children and families in households with low incomes and those from racially and ethnically minoritized groups.
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From page 255... ...
Safety Net Programs Recommendation 6: The federal government should incentivize states to expand key safety net programs, including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and child care subsidies. The federal government should incentivize states to expand the number of families served in these safety net programs, raise the floor benefit levels states must provide in relevant programs, and reduce administrative burdens to fa cilitate program participation.
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From page 256... ...
As a cash transfer, monthly distribution of the CTC does not present as many administrative burdens as other safety net programs, which often lead to delayed or no benefits. The CTC allows families to more efficiently allocate resources based on their individual circumstances, irrespective of state of residence.
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From page 257... ...
For example, if a child is receiving bereavement counseling at school, a linked system could identify potential eligibility for survivor benefits for that child. In addition, the capability to merge data from different sources, such as with state and federal level administrative data, can provide more accurate information on earnings, work, income, and program benefit receipt that may reduce the burden on families of applying and reapplying for multiple programs that share similar eligibility criteria and need similar data for enrollment.
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From page 258... ...
In addition to funding rigorous research on the pandemic's effects, funding infrastructure for systems and data purposes across states to enable researchers to specifically study myriad effects of the pandemic on family socioeconomic well-being in the near, mid-, and long terms needs to be a priority. It will be important for those investments to include: • expand existing nationally representative survey data -- such as the Survey of Income and Public Program Participation, the Current Population Survey, and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics -- to include pandemic-related questions for families, adults, youth, and children; • prioritize rigorous research to identify whether the type of pan demic-era economic programs can enhance marginalized families' socioeconomic mobility, as well as health and well-being, in the aftermath of COVID-19; and • continue to fund research and experimentation methods on the effects of reducing administrative burdens in safety net and social insurance programs.
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From page 259... ...
Targeted and sustained investments in programs, services, supports, and interventions to counteract the pandemic's direct and indirect negative effects on child and family well-being can create opportunities to ameliorate those effects on the life courses of children and families especially harmed by the pandemic. Investing in the children and families that are most disproportionately affected can avoid higher overall costs to the society at large.
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