Child abuse report: Deaths of Black children up in pandemic

By SALLY HO
Associated Press

The latest national child welfare report shows an increase in the number of Black children who died, even though fewer abuse-related fatalities were investigated in the yearlong period that included the first several months of the pandemic. The findings were released in the 2020 Child Maltreatment Report, issued Friday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The report covers data from October 2019 to September 2020 and only partially reflects how COVID-19 disrupted child-welfare work. The report noted an overall 10% drop in the number of child protective services cases handled by states in the early days of the pandemic. That’s a troubling trend The Associated Press revealed last year with an analysis of state data.