Save the Children's U.S. Programs Finds Only Seven States Prepared to Protect Children

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Aug. 25, 2009) — Four years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, Save the Children's U.S. Programs has found that only seven states are meeting crucial minimum standards to ensure that schools and child care facilities are prepared to respond to the needs of children during a disaster.

A young boy sits outside his damaged home after Hurricane Katrina.

The effects of Katrina on children were particularly devastating. Following the disaster, 37 percent of displaced Louisiana children experienced clinically-diagnosed depression, anxiety, or behavior disorder even two years after the event, according to a study by the National Center for Disaster Preparedness. Roughly 1,300 children were still reported as missing a full two and a half months after Hurricane Katrina and in some cases it took up to six months to reunite children with their families.

To help reverse this situation, Save the Children's U.S. Programs has advocated that states adopt basic safety standards that would reduce the amount of time children are separated from their parents and minimize their risk of physical and emotional harm during and after a disaster.

This summer, Save the Children released a new report, The Disaster Decade: Lessons Unlearned for the United States, that reviewed four minimum standards in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The report found that only seven states—Arkansas, Maryland, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Alabama and Vermont—are meeting these four key standards necessary to safeguard children. Louisiana, despite being the hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina, met zero out of the four standards.

Four Key Standards Identified

"Four years later, we have still not learned the lessons of Hurricane Katrina, even in Louisiana," said Mark Shriver, managing director of Save the Children's U.S. Programs. "The most vulnerable Americans in the most vulnerable settings are even more vulnerable because of government inaction."

The four key standards identified by Save the Children include written evacuation and relocation plans, reunification plans and plans for special needs children at child care facilities, as well as written multihazard plans at schools.

Save the Children is calling for immediate action at the federal level to better protect children through a five-point plan:

1. Establish national disaster preparedness standards for child care centers and schools.
2. Establish an Office of Children's Advocacy at FEMA.
3. To ensure child care centers can rebuild and restore services more quickly following a disaster, make them eligible for federal disaster aid.
4. Establish a White House Commission on the effects of the recession on children.
5. Create a federal public awareness campaign to educate families about protecting children during disasters.

Read the full report: The Disaster Decade: Lessons Unlearned for the United States 

Save the Children's U.S. Programs runs one of the most innovative and robust private disaster programs for children in the United States. Save the Children teams are on the ground before, during and after a major event to ensure the safety and well-being of children in shelters, as well as recovery for the local communities. Save the Children also advocates for policy changes at the local, state and federal level.