2024 Reports

Rural Child Welfare and Disasters: Key Issues, Insights, and Recommendations

Heard, Emily; Sury, Jonathan

Child welfare encompasses a wide array of essential and supportive social services for children and their families. Many national social services programs function to provide financial assistance to low-income families. Other preventative social services primarily focus on family strengthening and promotion of child and family well-being. Because children exist within a larger family system, programs that provide support for family members are also an essential component of effective social-service programming. The scope of child-focused interventions can depend on the resources and political structure of government organizations. For example, large cities are often conducive to an integrated structure of wraparound services compared to more remote areas with limited finances and coordination of resource referrals. Rural communities often endure increased vulnerabilities that predispose children and families to needing to use these services while simultaneously struggling to ensure adequate personnel to offer them. Services are typically provided by social workers and, in areas with staffing shortages, paraprofessionals.

The inadequate availability of trained social service personnel remains a key barrier to service provision in rural areas. Of the 3,135 counties in the United States, 13% of non-metropolitan counties lack behavioral health providers, compared to 3% of metropolitan counties. The presence of registered licensed social workers is even more stark, with 27% of non- metropolitan counties lacking even one, compared to only 9% of metropolitan counties. This workforce remains limited in the diversity of providers that can ensure a diverse, culturally competent workforce. Child welfare agencies at all levels are funded through a mixture of federal, state, local, and other grant funding; they face a wide range of expenses, including staffing costs. While total federal spending on child welfare programming has decreased overall in the past decade, during the COVID-19 pandemic, special allocations were made that increased funding for certain programs. In recognition of transportation, financial, and other service barriers, caseworkers were permitted to provide services in hybrid formats. While this was helpful for the reach of services with limited personnel, there is still a need for adequate investment in technology and internet access necessary for rural access.

Disasters put a strain on the already scarce resources and social services needed for children and their families across rural America. In presidentially declared disasters, there are certain appropriations made through the Stafford Act. These may differ depending on grants, existing state and local resources, and the complexity of the disaster. While these services can help supplement needs following a disaster, they eventually withdraw from the community. With an influx of social services in the face of these events, paraprofessionals and other integrated school care models can help provide services to those who need it most. Schools often provide broad support for children and families during response and recovery efforts. This is also true for many existing support agencies; therefore, all child and family-focused services centers must adequately plan for the needs of children during and after a crisis. The complexities of rural barriers to care, such as access, cultural appropriateness, and funding limitations, reflect the sheer difficulty of adequately providing services for those most in need. Ultimately, child welfare presents a unique challenge and opportunity to better meet the needs of children and their families in rural communities, with a focus on those most vulnerable.