Arkansas ranks high in child abuse, deaths. COVID-19 has made it worse, officials say.
Children & Families
A couple dreamed of having children. But their hopes and plans did not include lockdown, loneliness, and a chaotic, overwhelmed health care system.
Instead of a surge of children entering foster care during the pandemic, the child welfare system has often found itself struggling to help families leave the system.
“It’s long awaited,” said Mayra Alvarez, president of The Children’s Partnership. “It’s filling us with hope.”
A Los Angeles network of 19 community clinics had a plan to administer thousands of vaccine doses each week. But state officials said they’d have to wait.
Alaska women who live in rural and remote communities usually travel to city centers to give birth against incredible geographical odds.
Arkansas Children’s Hospital saw an increase in the number and severity of child-abuse-related cases last year, a troubling pattern in a state that had high rates of child maltreatment before the onset of the covid-19 pandemic.
One of the nation’s largest youth residential treatment programs is shutting down after California officials, prompted by a Chronicle and Imprint investigation into rampant abuse allegations, decided to stop sending vulnerable children there.
Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco paid nearly $15,000 in campaign funds last year to a firm run by one of his subordinates. The staffer also has new business ties to the sheriff’s wife, corporate records show.
In Unalaska, the only commuter airline went out of business during the pandemic. That poses especially serious obstalces for pregnant women, who can’t postpone appointments.