Legislators: Study shows need for stronger supports for children, families

Jan. 3—A news Kids Count study has revealed glaring gaps in regular access to broadband internet, child care, insurance, and food and economic security as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Family and child well-being have specifically been negatively impacted in the state.

Prior to the coronavirus, South Carolina ranked No. 41 nationally in overall child well-being. Since March 2020, this public health emergency has shown that disparities in housing, health care, education and economic opportunity lead to greater vulnerabilities for families, especially children.

The report, "Kids, Families and COVID-19: Pandemic Plan Points and the Urgent Need to Respond," suggests that supports for South Carolina children and families need to be strengthened to ensure the well-being and safety of all children, especially children of color.

"The pandemic has certainly not only exacerbated existing inequities in South Carolina but has shown us how deeply connected all of these different social and environmental factors are in real time," said Dr. Aniti Srivastav, director of research at Children's Trust of South Carolina, the only statewide organization focused on preventing child abuse and neglect in the state.

"Broadband is one example of inequity. In rural communities, children that stay home can't get their work done and receive the education they need to receive in order to really be set up for success in the future.

"And at the same time, by not having broadband, they're also not getting access to those vital preventative health services that can keep them from having to pay more on the back end and for society to have to pay more on the back end," Srivastav said.

The report revealed that more than 90,000 households with children in school do not have regular access to broadband internet, while 43% of families report struggling with child care because of the pandemic and 14% of the state's children are living in homes without access to insurance.

Also, more than 90,000 households report children who are not eating enough because of economic challenges caused by the pandemic, with 83% of parents and caregivers reporting higher levels of stress and anxiety.

"The pandemic has shown that it can literally be anyone. Just by losing their job unexpectedly, it can create a domino effect in terms of child well-being, access to child care, health care, transportation, any basic need that you can think about. I'm hopeful in the sense that because the general public is starting to get a better understanding of how this happens, that we will see some changes happen slowly be surely," Srivastav said.

District 40 state Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, said "extraordinary efforts" will have to be put in bolstering supports for children and families once the General Assembly convenes next year, particularly in helping children catch up educationally. Many have not done well with virtual learning during the pandemic because of, in part, a lack of broadband access.

Hutto, a member of the state Joint Citizens & Legislative Committee on Children, said, "We met to discuss the fact that a lack of broadband for education reasons, food insecurity, poverty, none of that has gotten better during the pandemic.

"The most recent numbers we had for Orangeburg showed that 36.5% of the children lived in poverty compared to 22% statewide. Food insecurity statewide was 18.3%, but in Orangeburg it was 22%.

"So we were already as a county below average in some of the indicators suggesting that we had children in need. Now you've got parents out of work, lack of daycare, no adequate broadband in many areas, and it just compounds the problem," he said.

Hutto added, "We know going into session this spring that we have a lot of challenges as it relates to COVID, probably first and foremost is to make sure that we make the vaccine available to everybody as quickly as possible so that we can try to get back to whatever the new normal is going to be."

The senator said getting the state's children back to in-class instruction will help stabilize the employment and child-care issues, but there will also be work to create universal broadband access.

"We're working on that. There's several proposals out there. I know (6th District) Congressman (Jim) Clyburn on a federal level has been working on that issue as well," he said.

Hutto said community support, particularly throughout The T&D Region, has helped battle the food insecurity that many individuals have experienced.

"We appreciate so much our food banks, churches and just the communities. People extended a helping hand out there delivering food, and I'm sure we'll see the same thing during Christmas. By and large, we are a good people and we're going to try and take care of our neighbors, but government has a role in that as well.

"I don't think we know the full ramifications of what has happened to our children during the pandemic. We will learn that as we come out of it, and then we're going to have to move quickly to address those needs that we identify," he said.

Dist. 66 state Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg, said the latest Kids Count numbers indicate the state has moved in the wrong direction in terms of children's health and well-being, something which has been exacerbated by the pandemic, particularly for children of color.

Cobb-Hunter, who is also executive director of CASA Family Systems, said, "The lack of access to health care and access to broadband are two things that are particularly glaring to me."

Cobb-Hunter, a member of the Joint Bond Review Committee, said the provision of mobile hot spots across the state is just a first step in a plan to create universal broadband access.

"We were briefed on the mapping that the state is doing to see where the gaps are in access to broadband, and I'm hopeful that the General Assembly will take steps to address those gaps," she said, noting that out-of-the-box thinking will be required to address a lack of adequate child care.

"Clearly there are not enough quality child-care providers in the state, and that problem is worse in rural communities. I think we need to go back to the drawing board and work with our Department of Education, Department of Commerce and our major business organizations like the chamber of commerce and manufacturers' alliance to figure out how we can incentivize employers to offer on-site daycare and companies to invest in quality child care for employees," Cobb-Hunter said.

"We use tax relief for everything else. Why can't we look at tax relief or some kind of tax credit for companies who provide child care? Don't expect change if you don't change, and that includes our way of thinking and your way of doing things," she said.

She said the expansion of Medicaid would also help to fill in the gaps in terms of households across the state with no insurance.

"The Republicans have tried for 10 years to end the Affordable Care Act. ... Surely after this pandemic, the least South Carolina could do is expand Medicaid. The burden of health care is crushing working people, and the pandemic has just really put a spotlight on it. You still have people who don't want to expand Medicaid, and I just don't understand that kind of logic," Cobb-Hunter said.

She continued, "The sad part of all this is that we have people in decision-making positions who have just stuck their head in the sand and don't want to deal realistically with this pandemic. History will not be kind to those decision makers."

Srivastav said a "blanket approach" to solving the issues in the report is not needed, and neither is a notion that a vaccine will be a panacea for problems that the pandemic has made worse.

"What I don't want to see happen is that just because a vaccine is here, that we just go back to business as usual. There are still unintended consequences of COVID that would just be left unaddressed," she said.

Kids Count is a project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. To view the latest report, visit online at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hOmhrDTJRrlttxvvcfg181P94WljH1ao/view.

Contact the writer: dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or 803-533-5534. Follow "Good News with Gleaton" on Twitter at @DionneTandD

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