USA: A national report card on protecting children during disasters
This document grades the US 50 states on four criteria of preparedness in case the community encounters a disaster such as floods, earthquakes, wildfires and terror attacks.Progress in meeting four basic standards for protecting children:
1. A plan for evacuating kids in child care: licensed child care facilities to have a written plan (less than ½ meet this standard)
2. Reunifying families after a disaster: state requires licensed child care facilities to have a written plan (less than ½ meet this standard)
3. Children with special needs: state requires licensed child care facilities to have a written plan (less than 2/3 meet this standard)
4. Evacuation plan for schools: state requires schools to have a disaster plan that accounts for multiple hazards (11 do not meet this standard).
Less than ¼ of all states meet all 4 basic preparedness standards.
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.