A study reported in JAMA Pediatrics found a connection between more federal food benefits and a decrease in child protective services investigations.
Researchers from UNC Chapel Hill say that programs and policies that expand food benefits and increasing the minimum wage gave support to parents and led to safer environments for children. The report looked at the effect on rates of child protective services cases when states dropped the asset test, increased the income limit to qualify for benefits, or both.
The study used investigated reports by child protective services for suspected child abuse and neglect from 37 states to look at elimination of the asset test, from 36 states to examine increases in the income limit, and from 26 states to examine when both policies were adopted.
In an article for NCHealthNews, Jennifer Fernandez reports that North Carolina eliminated the asset test and increased income eligibility limits in 2011. The report comes as North Carolina prepares to end the extra monthly food benefits distributed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
North Carolina’s “emergency allotments,” an extra at least $95 per household, will go out for the last time this month because federal emergency allotments for all states end as of March, the state Department of Health and Human Services said.
North Carolina distributed federal food benefits to 1,680,600 people in October 2021. That dropped to 1,574,428 in October 2022, according to preliminary USDA data as of January.
Children involved with child protective services and exposed to early experiences of abuse and neglect have a greater chance of suffering poor health and poor development throughout their lives, according to a 2012 study published in the Public Library of Science’s peer-reviewed open access scientific journal.
Those issues of food access and child neglect and abuse led the team of researchers from UNC Chapel Hill to wonder if broader access to federal food benefits might affect rates of child protective services cases involving suspected child abuse or neglect.
The group delved into data from 2006 to 2019 and found about 29.2 million child protective services investigative reports across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Their study found:
- States that eliminated the asset test saw an average of 8.2 fewer CPS-investigated reports per 1,000 child population per year than if the states had not eliminated the test.
- States that increased the eligibility income limit saw an average of 5 fewer CPS-investigated reports per 1,000 child population per year than if they had not increased the income limit.
- States that both dropped the asset test and increased the income limit saw an average of 9.3 fewer CPS-investigated reports per 1,000 child population per year than if they had not adopted both policies.