Save the Children's U.S. Programs Finds Disaster-Struck Louisiana among States without Minimum Protections for Children when They are in School and Child Care Facilities

Note report is available at: http://www.savethechildren.org/publications/reports/2010-Disaster-Report.pdf

WASHINGTON, D.C., (July 21, 2010) — Almost five years after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast and displaced over 160,000 Louisiana and Mississippi kids, a new report reveals that the vast majority of states are still not fully prepared to protect children in disasters. Fewer than one quarter of all states and the District of Columbia have enacted four basic safeguards to protect kids who are in school or child care during disasters, such as requiring all licensed child care centers to have a plan to reunite children with their families and requiring schools to have a clear written evacuation plan in place.

2005: Hurricane Katrina damage in Mississipi. Photo Credit: Save the Children/Kathyrn Bolles

The report is the second disaster preparedness report released by Save the Children's U.S. Programs. The 2010 year report found that 38 states and the District of Columbia did not meet all four basic standards, and seven states met zero. Only 12 states meet all four standards, including Mississippi and Alabama, which is five more than in the 2009 report.

Hurricane Katrina revealed the harm children and families experience when kids are not accounted for in disaster planning:

• 5,192 children were reported missing after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and the last child was not found until six months later.
• About 50,000 Louisiana and Mississippi children missed school in the 2005-2006 school year and approximately 15,000 did not attend in the 2006-2007 school year.
• More than a third of Louisiana children experienced clinically-diagnosed depression, anxiety, or another behavior disorder after the storm.

"Five years after Hurricane Katrina, it is unacceptable for dozens of states to ignore these low-cost and common-sense safeguards for kids," said Mark Shriver, Save the Children U.S. Programs Senior Vice President. "There are 67 million kids in school or child care on any given day, separated from their families and dependent on others for protection. The most vulnerable Americans in the most vulnerable settings are made even more vulnerable because of government inaction."

The five states that met all four standards in 2010 for the first time worked with Save the Children's U.S. Programs to meet them and, in many cases, adopted the exact same language as in the 2009 report.

Commissioned by Save the Children and conducted by Brown Buckley Tucker, the report reviewed four key standards identified by Save the Children, including plans for evacuation, reunification with families and evacuation for special needs kids at child care facilities, as well as evacuation plans at schools.  

Save the Children urges the adoption of all four standards by states as well as federal passage of the Child Safety, Care, and Education Continuity Act of 2010 (H.R. 5240/S. 2898), which would require states to adhere to many of the same standards. Congresswoman Corrine Brown (D-FL) is the sponsor of the House legislation, and Senators Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) are the sponsors of the Senate measure.

To view a copy of the report, please visit: http://www.savethechildren.org/publications/reports/2010-Disaster-Report.pdf