With public school buildings closed through the rest of the academic year, educators worry a higher number of child abuse cases will go undetected as online learning takes the place of in-classrom instruction.
Dr. Christoher Bellonci, a child psychiatrist and vice president of policy at Judge Baker Children’s Center in Roxbury, said reports to child abuse hotlines across the country have decreased significantly since the start of the coronavirus outbreak — in some cases by as much as 50 percent.
This is due largely in part to school closures, he explained. As mandated reporters (workers who are legally required to report signs of child abuse or neglect to authorities), teachers and school administrators typically account for roughly 20 percent of calls to abuse hotlines.
Now that districts have primarily turned to online methods of education, however, face-to-face interactions between teachers and students are no longer the norm, and the signs of abuse educators have been trained to look for are more likely to fly under the radar.
“There are just a lot fewer eyes on children,” Bellonci said. “Many of the mandated reporters are not seeing children, so we can expect that reports will decline.”
Massachusetts’ Office of the Child Advocate director, Maria Mossaides, said most states rely heavily on teachers and school administrators to report their suspicions through the proper channels.
“The entire child protective system in the United States, including Massachusetts, is based on mandatory reporters filing allegations of their suspicions of abuse and neglect,” she said. “Nationally, and this is also the case in Massachusetts, the largest percentage of mandated reports come from educators.”
She added that although it’s typical for reporting rates to fluctuate throughout the year, especially during the summer months, the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic has turned the reporting system on its head.
“What we have now seen is a huge dip nationally, depending on the state,” she said. “It’s running between 50 and 60 percent reduction in the number of mandated reports.”
Experts warn that a decrease in reporting doesn’t always equate to a decrease in instances of abuse. In fact, Bellonci said advocates worry some children are at even greater risk now that families everywhere face unprecedented amounts of stress.
“Given the stress that families are under, both financial and concerns about their personal wellbeing … one might presume that cases of actual abuse are actually on the rise, although we have no data to support that,” he said.
Mossaides agreed.
“We don’t know which children, if any, are at risk. That’s a tremendous concern.”
As a social worker and the executive director of social-emotional learning for Lynn Public Schools, Carolyn Troy said the switch to online education has been a learning curve, exacerbated by the lack of in-person interaction between faculty and students.
“Along with any change of this magnitude also comes a sense of loss and grief, and (we) recognize how this could impact and affect everyone,” she said, adding that Lynn Public Schools are looking into increasing their support staff to meet growing demand in coming months.
“When stress rises, it can lead to many things, including difficulty communicating what you’re feeling and what you need on any given day,” Troy said. “If families are worried and feel they need additional support for themselves or their children, we encourage them to reach out to the schools.”
Even households who wouldn’t normally come to the attention of the Department of Children and Families have been experiencing inordinate amounts of stress these past few months, Mossaides said. She explained that one way to prevent a rise in instances of child and domestic abuse during this time is to make sure families feel safe in reaching out for help.
If parents feel overwhelmed, Mossaides is encouraging them to call 211. The 24-hour number is staffed by the United Way and was created as a multi-language resource to inform callers about critical health and human services programs available nearby.
“We’ve launched this public awareness campaign that basically says ‘everyone needs help sometimes,'” she said. “Family members are stressed because of economic circumstances. They’re stressed because they’ve got the kids home 24/7. Single parents obviously have extreme stresses during this period of time, especially if they’re essential and have to go to work — who’s going to take care of the kids? We’re in a very unprecedented period, and so we’re saying to people, ‘it’s absolutely normal to be stressed.'”
She added that she hopes it becomes common practice for communities to be supportive and check in on one another.
“During snow storms, we always ask people to check on their elderly neighbors,” she said. “I think the time has come where we need to ask our communities to check in on families with children, to ask questions and make sure those families are OK.”