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Fort Worth kids could be left open to abuse with child care options scarce, experts say

Fort Worth Star-Telegram - 5/28/2020

May 28--Some parents who have been at home for weeks during the coronavirus pandemic face a daunting decision as the Texas economy gains traction.

When parents are recalled to work, who will take care of their children?

Who do you trust?

Child care advocates and law enforcement veterans who were already expecting a surge of child abuse cases in the fall when masses of children return to school, now anticipate additional abuse cases because some parents will not make careful child care choices.

Abuse cases typically increase after long school breaks, and children have already been separated from friends, extended family, teachers and educators during the forced isolation efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19.

For many families, there has been no school and some level of isolation since spring break.

"There are probably a lot of kids right now who are physically abused who are not showing up in the system," said Sgt. Rachel DeHoyos, of the Fort Worth Police Department's Crimes Against Children Unit.

For the time being, Texas Workforce Solutions will extend unemployment benefits for those eligible parents if they cannot find child care, said Cisco Gamez, Texas Workforce Commission spokesman. Those exceptions will not last indefinitely, but how long they will be in place is unknown, Gamez said.

"With child care facilities now allowed to open, we would continue to take the claimant at their word, absent facts to the contrary, and would review the work refusal around lack of child care to determine benefit eligibility," he said.

Texas offers subsidized child care through the Tarrant County Child Care Management System to parents who qualify. But 1,986 families were on the waiting list for state-subsidized child care in Tarrant County in March, and the wait can be weeks, if not months long, according to state records.

Given few options that fit their budgets, some families turn to relatives and family friends who may be unsuited to provide child care. Other workers may leave their youngest children in the care their slightly older children, or worse, leave their children unattended, advocates say.

Officials with Cook Children's Medical Center announced in April that health care workers had seen seven children who had been severely physically abused between March 17-21. Doctors at Cook Children's said they believed the increase in abuse cases was connected to stress people were feeling while isolated at home due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Child advocates said in March that they feared the school closings triggered by efforts to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus would suppress reports of violence against children because educators no longer had regular contact with their students.

Choosing good child care

Concrete measures such as doing criminal background checks, scouring the sex offender list, even having home surveillance systems or placing a nanny cam in the residence where the child is being watched can be a good early warning systems, DeHoyos said.

Try, if possible, to have your child care provided in your home, she said.

"You can get inexpensive cameras for your home," DeHoyos said. "You can install a system yourself for less than $200."

But parents should also pay attention to their hearts, she said.

"If something about a person watching your child isn't right, it's wrong," she said. "Use your instincts and go with your gut."

Know as much as you can about the person watching your child and who will be there with the child. And be wary of providers who want to restrict access to the child. Establish boundaries and ground rules and be able to call the provider and the child, just to check on their well being, DeHoyos said.

If the child is old enough to communicate, have a conversation about what is acceptable and enlist their help, DeHoyos said.

Children may face situations where the main care provider gets busy and relies on a nephew or another relative to help watch the child for a short time. That is a relative the parent should be aware of, DeHoyos said.

"So often we see kids molested by a friend or play cousin or a family member," DeHoyos said.

The conversations between the parents and the caregiver have to be clear and thorough, said Katia Gonzalez, Alliance for Children spokeswoman. Parents should be aware if there are guns in the home where the child care is being provided, if the caregiver has references and if they have provided child care services before.

"What we are hearing is frustration," Gonzalez said about her conversations with people in law enforcement and child care advocates.

Not all the negative outcomes between non-licensed child care providers and children are nefarious, according to Gonzalez. Sometimes, the caregiver lacks skills or is overwhelmed, she said.

"We had a situation where a young kid was left to sleep in a car seat, not in the car," Gonzalez said. "And it led to the child sliding down and that led to a fatality. The child slid down and created an unsafe situation. Make sure the caregiver knows how to be safe."

The Alliance offers a Family Services Hotline parents can call at 817-335-4673 if they are feeling child care or other coronavirus stressors.

Affordable child care is available

Mariah Esquivel, director of the Early Learning Center at the Lena Pope Home, says low-income parents do not have to settle for untrained child care providers if they take advantage of all of the resources available to them.

The Learning Center offers sliding scale payments based on household income that can trim costs by up to 50%, Esquivel said. Some home daycare centers are licensed, she said.

"Having a family member watch a child could add to an already stressful situation," Esquivel said.

Licensed daycare providers have to meet minimum standards set by the state, and that is important, Esquivel said.

"You have some accountability with licensed facilities," she said. "You need to feel comfortable about the decision that you are making. A lot of times people think they can't do it because of the amount of money involved. But there are options out there."

Faith Rivera, the Pritzker fellow for a Tarrant County collaboration called Help Me Grow North Texas, said the organization was designed to be a one-stop shop that matches families with children under 6 with local resources that can help them solve problems.

Finding affordable quality childcare in North Texas is a problem, Rivera said.

Help Me Grow employs navigators that will engage with families, match them with organizations that can help them, and then follow up with those families long term to make sure that their problem is being or has been addressed, Rivera said.

Once a family has been matched with the proper organization, whether the problem is how to get on the CCMS waiting list or help with family expenses, the navigator will follow up with the family at two weeks, and again at six months to make sure that everything has worked out okay, Rivera said.

The organization was not going to begin providing services until the summer, but then COVID came, Rivera said.

"We know a lot of families are stressed," Rivera said. "Even post-COVID, as we try to get closer to normal. We wanted to make sure that families knew they were not alone."

Families with young children who have unmet needs can call 844-ntx-kids (844-689-5437) between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, for help, Rivera said.

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