Exploring Disaster Human Services for Children and Youth From Hurricane Katrina to the Paradise Wildfires: Proceedings of a Workshop Series (2021) / Chapter Skim
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3 Effect of Disasters on Critical Child Infrastructure
3 Effect of Disasters on Critical Child Infrastructure
Pages 29-44
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From page 29... ...
She described OCC's role in disaster preparation and response, from requiring disaster plans of grantees to offering grant flexibilities after an event to providing coordination and technical support. Overview of the Child Care Development Fund Christian explained that OCC administers the CCDF, which is a $8.7 billion block grant from the federal government to state, territorial, and tribal grantees to help eligible low-income families pay for child care for children from birth through age 12.
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From page 30... ...
OCC provides technical assistance to grantees to improve these disaster plans. Office of Child Care Responses to Disasters OCC provides technical assistance to grantees to help them understand and use flexibilities available in their child care funds, said Christian.
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From page 31... ...
Grantees can broaden the definition of protective services to include children affected by a federal or state-declared emergency, thereby waiving eligibility criteria, such as work/training requirements, for child care services. Christian noted that quality dollars (i.e., the funds grantees are required to set aside to improve child care for all children)
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From page 32... ...
Challenges in Supporting Children Affected by Disasters The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in new challenges that were not part of grantee emergency and disaster plans, said Christian. For example, some states ordered providers to close completely or limit services solely to essential workers, and concerns of virus spread led some centers to opt to close.
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DISASTER PLANNING AND COLLABORATION TO SUPPORT CHILDREN, YOUTH, AND FAMILIES Lauralee Koziol, national advisor on children and disasters at FEMA, described the collaborative disaster planning, response, and recovery efforts needed to support children and families. She highlighted three common ways that children, youth, and families need to be supported after disasters (see Box 3-1)
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From page 34... ...
Recovery plans also include housing important documents in areas where they will not be damaged by a disaster, being aware of insurance plan coverage and deductibles, and having an idea of the documentation that will be required during the insurance claims process. She added that having an ongoing relationship with the local emergency manager can be helpful in identifying resources should a disaster occur.
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From page 35... ...
American Red Cross Response Activities Riggen noted that ARC is associated primarily with providing response activities, playing a leadership role in FEMA Emergency Support Function 6 by providing and coordinating sheltering, community feeding, and distribution of supplies. However, the provision of health and mental health services is a function of ARC that is often overlooked, he noted.
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From page 36... ...
He added that when 100 people are treated as a group of 100 people, nuances can be overlooked that could substantially change the outcome for a child who has experienced a large disaster. American Red Cross Programs to Support Long-Term Recovery Over the course of ARC's history, the scale of the organization's role in long-term recovery efforts has varied depending on the specific disaster.
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From page 37... ...
Another large grant was provided to California CareForce, a group of volunteer medical professionals that provides free medical, dental, and vision care to those in need at temporary clinics in the wildfire-affected areas. Riggen noted that some recipients may not have had care even before the disaster, but other families lost health care after the disaster as a consequence of losing their jobs, businesses, or other sources of funding necessary to pay for care.
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From page 38... ...
When the Response Federal Interagency Operation Plan was being developed and federal agencies were being assigned roles, only operational entities were given a role in planning.3 The Department of Education was primarily a grant funding agency to education entities at the time, so it was not part of the planning process and had no primary role. Even when children are included in planning, those with special health care needs are generally excluded and their medical, mental health, and access issues 2 While a source for these exact numbers was unavailable, more information on demo graphic trends is available on the Kaiser Family Foundation website at https://www.kff.
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From page 39... ...
Disaster Planning for Child Congregate Facilities Markenson highlighted the need for greater consideration of child congregate facilities in disaster planning, given that children spend much of their time at schools and other facilities. Despite recent improvements in planning and providing resources for emergency and COOPs for businesses, parallel processing planning for children and child congregate facilities has
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From page 40... ...
Both research and anecdotal experiences during disasters demonstrate that many parents do not know the emergency plan for their child's school and, even if they do, most will disregard official emergency evacuation plans and instead go directly to where their child is. Even when the setting has a plan to take children to a safe place for reunification, many parents go against orders to retrieve their children, which can disrupt child movement.
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From page 41... ...
A participant asked if the change in the CCDF requirements that required grantees to develop an emergency plan served to increase awareness of the importance of emergency preparedness and planning among child care providers or lead state agencies for child care. Christian replied that it has, noting that when this requirement was strengthened in the 2014 reauthorization, several states asked to update their disaster plans.
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From page 42... ...
However, it is important to restore normal child care services as soon as possible. Christian added that extra support and training are needed to support teachers and children who may be traumatized.
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From page 43... ...
In extended sheltering situations, ARC collects information from families to assist them in reaching out to providers to learn their plan for resuming child care services. He added that health services workers often provide this assistance because they are accustomed to handling confidential information and working through channels and processes.
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