ACADEMIA Letters The Confluence of Poverty, the Digital Divide and Disaster Vulnerability on Children: Baltimore and Puerto as Case Studies Monica Sanders Disasters and emergencies reveal inequities and deepen existing vulnerability. Predominant in those inequities is poverty. Because of cognitive and physical differences, children are amongst the most vulnerable. In the United States, roughly 21% of children live in poverty and without consistent access to food. Cascading onto poverty and vulnerability to large scale events like pandemics and other disasters is lack of access to Internet and the education and opportunity that comes with it. A lack of Internet access and the associated missed education and opportunities cascades onto existing poverty and vulnerability in large-scale disasters like pandemics. The most widespread analysis of the case of children in disasters was performed by the National Committee on Children and Disasters (NCCD). Since its work ceased, only four of the eleven recommendations it put forward have been implemented. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the most comprehensive legal framework on children’s rights that has not been ratified in the United States. Both generated a number of worthy programs and guidelines directed towards children and youth. However, at the time of the NCCD’s work and the CRC negotiations, Internet access was not the necessity that it is today. Poverty might have been a theme, but was not a core consideration in either. As we have a national and global conversation about equity, climate change, and disasters, it is critical that be framed around neighborhoods and the presence of children in them. To demonstrate the acute need for change, we examined a set of case studies in Baltimore, Maryland, and Puerto Rico. The reason we chose these two locations is that they have the combination of the two highest child poverty rates and lowest penetration of digital access in the country. We examined the Academia Letters, July 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Monica Sanders, ms4532@georgetown.edu Citation: Sanders, M. (2021). The Confluence of Poverty, the Digital Divide and Disaster Vulnerability on Children: Baltimore and Puerto as Case Studies. Academia Letters, Article 1478. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1478. 1 existence of high child poverty, digital dead zones and disaster vulnerability to help articulate the acute impacts on children. Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore, Maryland is vulnerable to a variety of hazards, most predominantly coastal flooding and extreme urban heat (City of Baltimore, 2018). Some blocks in Baltimore’s inner most neighborhoods can be up to 15 degrees hotter than areas around the harbor (Howard Center for Investigative Journalism and Merrill College of Journalism, 2019). These areas are also the poorest. Thus, because of a lack of access to healthy nutrition and medical care, people living in these ‘heat islands’ also suffer from complicating chronic ailments like high blood pressure and asthma. It has also made them more susceptible to COVID-19. Baltimore is leading Maryland in infection and death rates. Baltimore City has borne more of the brunt of the pandemic infections and deaths in the county (Coronavirus - Maryland Department of Health, 2021). Baltimore’s greatest disaster is man-made and visited upon its children in a way that is simply heartbreaking. That disaster is preventable child poverty. According to the Governor’s Office for Children, 33% of the children in Baltimore City live in poverty and 44% of all households do not have access to the Internet (Babcock, 2020). In May 2020, the Abell Foundation conducted a study to understand the “digital divide” in Baltimore. Researchers found that just over 40% of households have no wireline Internet access (i.e., no cable, fiber optic or other service). One in three households lacks any kind of computer. COVID-19 exacerbated the divide. The digital divide lessened opportunities for working parents and guardians to avoid “frontline worker” roles that disproportionately exposed them to the virus. Rather than having the option to work and care for their children from home, possibly in higher paying roles, people in this community were not able to access such employment and schooling opportunities (Center on Reinventing Public Education, 2020). This situation is about more than simple access to the Internet and work. It is about educational continuity and future potential for young people who have been denied it at every turn. The Center for Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) research has indicated that students in rural areas did not expect teachers to deliver classes during the pandemic. In low-income areas, the indication is that students did not expect teachers to provide real-time instruction, grade assignments, or track attendance (Lake & Makori, 2020). When the issue is looked at along socioeconomic and racial lines, complementary research from Pew and Rand Corporation shows the divide deepens in predictable ways. Low-income Academia Letters, July 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Monica Sanders, ms4532@georgetown.edu Citation: Sanders, M. (2021). The Confluence of Poverty, the Digital Divide and Disaster Vulnerability on Children: Baltimore and Puerto as Case Studies. Academia Letters, Article 1478. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1478. 2 Indigenous, Black and Latino children are at the highest risk for educational disruption because of a lack of access to the Internet. Over their lifetimes, these children will suffer from the immediate social and psychological impacts of educational disruptions, then later from the lack of economic opportunity resulting from incomplete, substandard education. The CRPE report asks the question of whether, in an economy that is highly digitally dependent, access to the Internet should be a basic human right (Lake & Makori, 2020). Puerto Rico Puerto Rico and the plight of its people have made headlines because of the repeated hits from natural disasters and a former President’s denial of their Americanness. A study from the University of South Carolina and the Puerto Rico Department of Education surveyed more than 96,000 children in grades one through twelve (STUDY: How Hurricane Maria Affected Mental Health of Children in Puerto Rico, 2019). Of those surveyed 23% of Puerto Rican children reported some form of anxiety after Hurricane Maria. In Puerto Rico, 58% of children live in poverty. The confluence of poverty, severe educational disruptions, and low Internet access also hampers children in Puerto Rico. The Center for Budget Policy and Priorities (CBPP) reports the federal poverty level for a family of three in Puerto Rico is $20,780. This number is from 2018, slightly after Hurricane Maria but well before the economic and health crisis the COVID-19 pandemic would create. CBPP noted that 43% of all Puerto Ricans live in poverty and about one-third of residents experienced some level of food insecurity. That is close to twice the rate of food insecurity of Americans generally (The Nutrition Assistance Program Helps Over Half of Puerto Rico’s Children, 2020). Poverty has direct negative impacts on children and indirectly via parental behaviors. Stress associated with poverty and food insecurity in parents can impact children in the form of generalized stress in the household and poor caregiving behaviors (Rosa-Rodríguez, 2019). That includes increases in household violence and abuse, transitioning households because of resource scarcity and even abandonment. When discussing Hurricane Maria, the scale of the event means that nearly all children on the island were impacted. It is illustrated in these results from a study conducted by the Substance Abuse and Health Services Administration (SAMHSA): • Education: Students 5 to 17 years old averaged 78 days without attending school. • Nutrition: 50% of families with children earning $15,000 or less reported having difficulties accessing food. Academia Letters, July 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Monica Sanders, ms4532@georgetown.edu Citation: Sanders, M. (2021). The Confluence of Poverty, the Digital Divide and Disaster Vulnerability on Children: Baltimore and Puerto as Case Studies. Academia Letters, Article 1478. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1478. 3 • Poverty: 31% of families with children reported that their socioeconomic situation deteriorated as a result of Hurricane Maria. These studies underscore the need to focus on child poverty and educational continuity. In March of 2020, just weeks before the throws of the COVID-19 pandemic would set in, Vice News reported that 30,000 Puerto Rican students returned to school in makeshift tent classrooms. The island, which had not properly recovered from Hurricane Maria in 2017, was also grappling with the aftermath of the January 2020 earthquakes (Navia, 2020). Concurrently, there were reports of vacant schools being turned into community spaces because of the exodus of students from the island. The number of kids in school had shrunk by 45-percent since 2010 because of the pandemic, disasters and, not to be overlooked, the island’s crippling debt and bankruptcy. According to the U.S. Census, about 4% of the island’s population migrated (US Census Bureau, 2018). Left with few students and empty school buildings, some neighborhoods opted to repurpose them (Donnelly-DeRoven, 2020). Elsewhere, students attended classes in tents. The Center for Puerto Rican studies noted that it could be years before public schools are rebuilt. The question of exactly how many years looms. Between the recession and a series of natural disasters nearly half of the schools on the island closed between 2006 and 2018 (Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños, 2019). Schools are just a part of the massive infrastructure and societal reconstruction facing Puerto Rico in the future. Hurricane Maria left $94.4 billion in damage that was only added to by an earthquake, another storm and a pandemic. Internet service was already spotty on the island, but Maria damaged much of that infrastructure along with the well-known power grid issues upon which many Internet services rely. According to “Broadband Now”, Puerto Rico is still struggling to get online. Just over 40% of households have some kind of access to DSL service, but it is slow. About 29.5% have access to speeds of 100mbps of more (Internet Access in Puerto Rico: Stats & Figures, 2018). While topography, such as the difficult to reach mountainous areas are part of the issue, the lack of access cuts along income lines. In Adjuntas, one of the poorest cities in Puerto Rico, only 6% of households have any kind of access. Conclusion Children deserve special policy consideration. Examining disaster management frameworks, local, state and federal laws on poverty and any new policies addressing climate change should be the first steps in ensuring their protection. Though these case studies are in the United States, these issues repeat themselves globally and should not be separated from multilateral Academia Letters, July 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Monica Sanders, ms4532@georgetown.edu Citation: Sanders, M. (2021). The Confluence of Poverty, the Digital Divide and Disaster Vulnerability on Children: Baltimore and Puerto as Case Studies. Academia Letters, Article 1478. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1478. 4 work. Recommendations: • Create a Congressional Committee to examine child poverty, digital dead zones and their impact on child development and propose solutions based on protecting children and cultivating the next generations. • Reauthorize the Commission on Children in Disasters and expand it to an all-hazards approach. • Consider ratifying the Convention on the Rights of the Child and add declarations and understandings to improve it, with particular attention to the digital divide and emergencies. • Add child-specific guidance to emergency response and humanitarian assistance frameworks. References Babcock, S. (2020, May 13). Report: 40% of Baltimore households lack wireline internet access. Technical.Ly Baltimore. https://technical.ly/baltimore/2020/05/13/abell-foundationreport-40-percent-baltimore-households-lack-wireline-internet-access-digital-divide/ City of Baltimore. (2018). Disaster Preparedness and Planning Project (DP3)City of Baltimore A combined all hazard mitigation and climate adaptation plan. BaltimoreSustainability.Org. Coronavirus - Maryland Department of Health. (2021). Maryland.Gov. https://coronavirus. maryland.gov/ Donnelly-DeRoven, C. (2020, March 30). Vacant schools in Puerto Rico are being remade into community spaces. The Hechinger Report. https://hechingerreport.org/when-thechildren-leave-whats-left-after-a-mass-exodus-of-young-people-from-puerto-rico/ Howard Center for Investigative Journalism and Capital News Service at Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland. (2019, March 9). Code Red: Baltimore’s Climate Divide. CNSMaryland.Org. https://cnsmaryland.org/interactives/summer-2019/code-red/ neighborhood-heat-inequality.html Internet Access in Puerto Rico: Stats & Figures. (2018). BroadbandNow. https://broadbandnow. com/Puerto-Rico Academia Letters, July 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Monica Sanders, ms4532@georgetown.edu Citation: Sanders, M. (2021). The Confluence of Poverty, the Digital Divide and Disaster Vulnerability on Children: Baltimore and Puerto as Case Studies. Academia Letters, Article 1478. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1478. 5 Lake, R., & Makori, A. (2020, June 16). The Digital Divide Among Students During COVID19: Who Has Access? Who Doesn’t? | Center on Reinventing Public Education. Crpe.Org. https://www.crpe.org/thelens/digital-divide-among-students-during-covid-19-who-has-accesswho-doesnt Navia, T. (2020, March 7). 30,000 Kids in Puerto Rico Are Going Back to School Monday â฀ in Tents - VICE. Vice.Com. https://www.vice.com/amp/en/article/bvgp58/30000-kids-inpuerto-rico-are-going-back-to-school-monday-in-tents 2010 national Commission on children and Disasters report to the president and Congress. The Administration for Children and Families. (n.d.). https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ohsepr/ report/2010-national-commission-children-and-disasters-report-president-and-congress. New Report: Population Loss And School Closures in Puerto Rico | Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños. (2019, May 7). Centropr.Hunter.Cuny.Edu. https://centropr.hunter.cuny.edu/ centrovoices/current-affairs/new-report-population-loss-and-school-closures-puerto-rico Rosa-Rodríguez, B. (2019, November). State of mental health services for children in Puerto Rico Mental health services for Puerto Rico’s children are not a luxury but a necessity. 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The United States Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/ press-releases/2018/estimates-national-state.html Academia Letters, July 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Monica Sanders, ms4532@georgetown.edu Citation: Sanders, M. (2021). The Confluence of Poverty, the Digital Divide and Disaster Vulnerability on Children: Baltimore and Puerto as Case Studies. Academia Letters, Article 1478. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1478. 6