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The COVID-19 pandemic has led to fewer child abuse and neglect (CAN) hotline calls, CAN investigations, and foster care entries across the U.S. To determine if there were decreases in CAN hotline calls, CAN investigations, foster care entries, and foster care exits in Florida (the largest among the few states that publishes monthly public data on the four areas) after the pandemic began, and to determine if there was any amelioration of these trends in Florida once schools had reopened for in-person learning. Secondary data analyses of administrative child welfare data from January 2010 to June 2021 from Florida were used. Spline regression equations were calculated for CAN hotline calls, CAN investigations, foster care entries, and foster care exits during three periods: 1) before the COVID-19 pandemic (January 2010 to February 2020); 2) after the pandemic, but before schools reopened (March 2020 to October 2020); and 3) after the pandemic and after schools reopened (November 2020 to June 2021). Prior to the pandemic, there was a non-statistically significant increase of 1.35 hotline calls per 100,000 children per month (p =.478), a statistically significant increase of 0.01 investigations per 100,000 children per month (p <.001), a non-statistically significant increase of 0.01 foster care entries per 100,000 children per month (p =.415), and a statistically significant increase of 0.03 foster care exits per 100,000 children per month (p <.05). Once the pandemic started in March 2020, there were statistically significant decreases of 136.02 hotline calls per 100,000 children per month (p <.001), 102.84 investigations per 100,000 children per month (p <.001), 6.32 foster care entries per 100,000 children per month (p <.001) and 5.75 foster care exits per 100,000 children per month (p <.01). Once all schools reopened for in-person learning in November 2020, there continued to be statistically significant decreases of 47.86 hotline calls per 100,000 children per month (p <.05), 6.38 foster care entries per 100,000 children per month (p <.001) and 6.53 foster care exits per 100,000 children per month (p <.001). This suggests that there were an estimated 34,374 fewer CAN hotline calls, 2338 children who did not enter foster care, and 2587 youth residing in foster care (YRFC) whose foster care exits were delayed. The delay in foster care exits suggests that YRFC in Florida had stayed a combined cumulative equivalent of 477.1 years longer in care. With the COVID-19 variants like Omicron continuing to wreak havoc in Florida, there will be a continued trend of decreasing CAN hotline calls, foster care entries and foster care exits even with in-person learning in all Florida schools. A real-time interoperable data system utilizing real-time predictive analytics must be developed in concert with the development of leaders and executives with advanced degrees in child welfare organizations who are able to maximize information from such systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 has had a major impact on child abuse and neglect (CAN) in the U.S. leading to a change in the number of reported screened-in CAN investigations, missed prevention cases, and missed CAN cases. To estimate the deficit number of CAN investigations and resultant estimated number of missed prevention and CAN cases due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. from March 2020 to December 2020. Secondary data analyses of administrative child welfare data from January 2013 to December 2020 from New York City, Florida, New Jersey and Wisconsin were conducted. Spline regression modeling controlling for autocorrelation was utilized to explore any significant changes once the pandemic began in March 2020 in the number of screened-in CAN investigations. The seven-year monthly average of screen-in CAN investigations for March through December from 2013 to 2019 was calculated and compared to the numbers of CAN investigations for March 2020 to December 2020. The resultant number of missed prevention cases and CAN cases was estimated for the four jurisdictions and used to approximate the number of missed prevention cases and CAN cases in the U.S., as well as the projected estimation of national lifetime economic costs. Prior to the pandemic, there were insignificant monthly increases of 0.7 CAN investigations in NYC and 6.2 CAN investigations in Florida, a significant monthly increase 4.2 CAN investigations in New Jersey and an insignificant monthly decrease in 0.6 CAN investigations in Wisconsin. Once the pandemic began, there were significant monthly decreases (p <.001) in each of the four jurisdictions, including 1425.6 fewer CAN investigations in NYC, 3548.0 fewer CAN investigations in Florida, 963.0 fewer CAN investigations in New Jersey and 529.1 fewer CAN investigations in Wisconsin. There were an estimated 60,791 fewer CAN investigations in these four jurisdictions from March 2020 to December 2020 of which there were approximately 18,540 missed prevention and CAN cases suggesting up to $4.2 billion in lifetime economic costs. It was estimated that were 623,137 children not investigated for CAN in the U.S. during the same 10-month period. This suggests that there were an estimated 85,993 children were missed for prevention services and about 104,040 children were missed for CAN with a potential lifetime economic impact of up to $48.1 billion in the U.S. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a precipitous drop in CAN investigations where almost 200,000 children are estimated to have been missed for prevention services and CAN in a 10-month period. There are opportunities for the child welfare jurisdictions to work with partner education, public health, social service and other providers to strategically approach this very grave issue in order to mitigate its impact on this very vulnerable population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]