Child maltreatment report disparities for black children by report source, urbanicity, and over time: An examination of the impact of COVID-19

Our understanding of the dynamics associated with child maltreatment reports during times of crises and other exogenous shocks to systems is limited. Social distancing and other health safety measures that were employed during the COVID-19 outbreak also resulted in a natural experiment where interaction patterns between people changed substantially. This paper describes findings about associations between report sources, urbanicity, pre-, during-, and post COVID lockdown time periods, and reporting disparities in child welfare systems. Using NCANDS child file data reflecting 5,320,167 children with reports in 42 states, we used descriptive and linear mixed effects models to examine whether and how Black to White reporting disparities changed during and after the COVID Lockdown, by urbanicity, and report source. Our analysis found that Black to White child maltreatment report disparity ratios have declined since the pre-COVID era, and that during the COVID lockdown, this reduction was most pronounced in urban areas and for education report sources. The COVID pandemic had a tremendous impact on child maltreatment reporting and some effects linger. What remains to be seen is the extent to which patterns of reports and disparities ultimately return to pre-COVID levels, or whether societal shifts and other COVID ramifications have a lasting impact on reporting dynamics and racial and ethnic disparities.