What lessons can the child welfare system take from the COVID-19 pandemic?

Key Points

• COVID-19 and subsequent government responses introduced new barriers to detection and responding to child maltreatment and achieving permanency for children in foster care.
• New strategies and better use of existing technologies are needed to detect child maltreatment for children unseen by school personnel.
• Improved use of virtual technology could improve family court processes and family treatment options during and after the pandemic.
• Indications of positive adaptation by community-based agencies during the pandemic allowed them to sustain or increase services to foster, kin, and biological families, but greater support for data collection and transparency for government contracted services is still needed.

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