Montgomery County highlights child abuse prevention

MONTGOMERY COUNTY — Montgomery County is drawing attention to child safety after a challenging year for the agencies that protect young people.

Wednesday, commissioners proclaimed April 2021, Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Month.

In 2020, Montgomery County Job and Family Services reported an average of 661 children in custody, the highest since 2016.

The county also had 3,957 investigations into child abuse and neglect in 2020, at a time when children spent time away from those tasked with their protection.

“With the pandemic, as with other children’s services agencies, we were concerned about children not being in school, not having eyes on kids with teachers, even pediatrician appointments were virtual at that point in time,” Michelle Niedermier, the director of Montgomery County Job and Family Services said.

She applauded the ways in which case workers adapted.

“We’ve developed several virtual techniques where we can still be engaged. We worked with a lot of our mandated reporters to ensure that children were still being seen and protected. We actually saw a bump up in the number of referrals still during virtual schooling,” Niedermier said.

Cox Media Group