ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. (WAVE) - More children getting COVID-19 could lead to more caretakers getting the virus as well. That could be dangerous in a state like Kentucky, where a significant number of grandparents have custody of their grandchildren.
Governor Andy Beshear emphasized that in his coronavirus address Wednesday.
“I believe we are still the highest state per capita of grandparents taking care of grandkids,” Beshear said. “So, we’ve got to slow the spread of COVID in our children.”
That thought resonated with some of the grandparents taking care of around 100,000 kids across the Commonwealth.
“They’re scared,” Norma Hatfield, an Elizabethtown resident and advocate for kinship care, said. “They’re scared that the kids are going to bring it home.”
But the health of the state’s most vulnerable is only one reason the pandemic has made their already challenging lives even harder.
“My grandkids were in a home, where the youngest child, who was 17 months old, ingested meth,” Hatfield said.
Hatfield, who said she eventually took custody of her grandchildren, said understanding the technology needed for NTI, and paying for it, is something her family has found challenging.
“I’m working from home,” Hatfield said. “So, I’m on my computer all day long. They’re both in Google classroom all day long as well. We did have to bump up. Relook at our internet. Bump up our data usage to make sure they could handle all of that. To be online, all of us at the same time.”
Hatfield knows others, who were already on a limited income before the pandemic hit, and are now struggling to buy food for their families. When government assistance only comes at certain times of the month, Hatfield said some grandparents aren’t as flexible to compete with other shoppers who may be stockpiling goods or adjust to price increases when things like meat start running low.
“They think that’s fine, they’re with grandma or they’re with grandpa,” Hatfield said. “We don’t have to worry about providing any support services there, but what they don’t understand is it’s not a weekend trip with grandma. It is something that can be a lifetime and it’s not planned.”
Hatfield adds, for families like hers, and thousands of others across Kentucky, creative solutions may be needed to ensure children are taken care of, ranging from NTI flexibility to internet infrastructure and things like reconsidering food stamp allocation.
Copyright 2020 WAVE 3 News. All rights reserved.
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