By Sarita Santoshini Correspondent An estimated 40,000 children in the United States have lost a parent or caregiver to COVID-19, and hundreds of thousands more have around the world. Children’s needs are mounting amid the pandemic – and government support that is hard to access in the best of times barely matches the magnitude. But children’s rights have come to the fore, too, with the overwhelming need prompting systems to rethink how they deliver care. “Without a doubt, this is a crisis that’s also an opportunity,” says Matilde Luna, director of the Latin America Foster Care Network. In the U.S., children’s advocates have generated calls for more support. In India and Mexico, meanwhile, the pandemic has forced governments to continue reforming their child welfare systems away from institutionalization, in line with best practices that children’s advocates have been recommending for years.