Washington (CNN) Family welfare experts for months have looked to the easing of coronavirus pandemic restrictions as the turning point that would bring clarity about child abuse and neglect rates after a year of unreliable data. But even with Covid-19 protocols relaxing nationwide, experts told CNN it's too soon to know the scale of the pandemic's impact on child welfare. The result after a few months, experts say, will be some of the first meaningful data about child abuse rates since the pandemic upended typical reporting channels in spring 2020. "I would certainly expect the rates of [reported] maltreatment to return just because people are seeing kids again. But I'm not yet sure if this has resulted in an increased risk to an increased number of kids or not."

Source: CNN July 11, 2021 12:00 UTC