Apr 26, 2021
April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. Established in 1983, April has been nationally recognized as Child Abuse Prevention Month. The Children’s Trust Fund of Michigan has used this special time each year to acknowledge the importance of families and communities working together to prevent child abuse in all its’ forms. Child abuse is a major problem in our state and in our nation. In 2019, 33,060 children were abused and neglected in the State of Michigan. It is estimated that 63 of Michigan’s children died from child abuse and neglect during that year. As a Local Council for Michigan’s Children’s Trust Fund, the Welcome Newborns program of Delta County is committed to the well-being of our families and children that we serve. Even in the best of times, parenting is hard, and during a crisis, parenting can be completely overwhelming.
CADILLAC â Teachers play an important role in family safety. As mandatory reporters, if teachers suspect a child is being hurt or neglected at home, they have to tell the authorities.
Over the past year, teachers haven t seen kids in-person as often. Some students are attending school fully virtually. Others see the kids in-person but not as often.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, as lockdowns began and schools closed or went virtual, teachers have said they re worried about the kids they don t see.
And child abuse experts have said that child abuse reports are going down because teachers aren t seeing the kids and aren t reporting.