SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - The economic fallout from the pandemic is evident in a new report on the struggles of households with children. The findings reveal that some South Dakota families are finding it increasingly harder to meet basic needs.

This week's report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation pulled data from all states, using weekly census surveys to get a better sense of what families are experiencing. In South Dakota, one in eight reports not having enough food to eat, while one in nine is worried about paying the rent or mortgage on time.

Nationally, said Leslie Boissiere, vice president for external affairs at the Casey Foundation, the numbers are higher for families of color.

"The pandemic has laid bare and really exacerbated racial and ethnic inequities in this country," she said, "and we've seen that Black, Latino and Native communities in particular have been hard hit."

The findings also shed light on the anxiety families are feeling right now. In South Dakota, 14% described feeling "down, depressed or hopeless" in recent weeks. The report recommended instituting policies at all levels of government that promote greater racial equity and prioritize helping children and families cope with the pandemic.

Xanna Burg, who oversees the Kids Count program for North and South Dakota and Montana, said she thinks all the results are alarming. She added that the mental-health responses especially are troubling, given the fears about the long-term impact on children.

"Children must often receive mental-health services at school," she said, "but South Dakota school counselors serve about 150 more kids than recommended."

She said this should prompt South Dakota lawmakers to prioritize more funding for school counselors as students try to cope with the added pressures facing their families. Other groups, such as the South Dakota Education Association, have made similar requests in recent months.

A bill in Congress with a Connecticut House sponsor aims to reduce child labor in the United States.

Called the "Children Harmed in Life-Threatening or Dangerous Labor Act," its aim is to strengthen current child labor laws and increase civil penalties for companies violating them. And the bill puts a new wrinkle on protections: It allows the Secretary of Labor to label goods produced with child labor, and to issue a 'stop work' order for any person violating child labor laws.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the bill's House sponsor, described its importance.

"This is in response to industry, to have more workers -- more than likely who are underpaid -- and that they can get cheap labor for doing the jobs that they are doing, and taking risks with children," DeLauro explained. "There is a labor shortage, so they're looking to children."

The Economic Policy Institute reported 10 states introduced or passed bills rolling back child labor protections in the last two years.

The Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division concluded almost 1,000 investigations, uncovering child labor violations, an 88% increase since 2019. The bill has been introduced in both chambers of Congress.

Ultimately, the goal is to have stiffer penalties in place for companies that ignore child labor laws. DeLauro acknowledged backers of the bill expect some opposition, most likely from states rolling back protections and industries using underage workers.

"We've got a very strong meat packing industry -- I mention Tyson, JBS, Turkey Valley Farms -- and Packers Sanitation Services provides cleaning services at these meat processing facilities," DeLauro outlined. "I'm going to anticipate that we're going to see industry come out of the woodwork in opposition."

Some companies are already being held accountable with civil penalties. A meatpacking plant owned by Tennessee-based Monogram Meats Snacks was fined a little more than $140,000 for employing children. However, the company made more than $1 billion in 2021.

When a Texas woman began her six-year journey to adopt, she hoped to affect one child's life.

Felicia Lewis, an adoptive parent, is now making a difference in the lives of three young sisters. After considering adoption for years, Lewis and her partner Ruth were introduced to the three girls, all recently displaced from their birth parents.

She encouraged those considering adoption to "get involved to change a life and see how it impacts yours."

"These are children, and it's really important because you're going to be shaping their future, shaping their minds, shaping how they view the world," Lewis pointed out. "It is critical that people are just invested in it."

November is National Adoption Month. Lewis works for Bank of America, ranked among the "Top 100 Best Adoption Friendly Workplaces" by the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. The connection helped pay the adoption legal fees through Bank of America's Family Planning Reimbursement program.

Over several years, Lewis and her partner built a deep connection to the children and finally saw their petition to foster with the intention to adopt granted in 2020. The process was finalized in August. Lewis noted she received an outpouring of support and encouragement from work colleagues to adopt her three daughters, now ages 6, 8 and 9.

"We walked into this thinking that we were helping them," Lewis recounted. "We're going to give them a better life, a better future, a better home, etc. And we certainly did all that, but they gave us such a better perspective on being better human beings."

Lewis added those considering adoption should not take it lightly, because it is an intense process.

"Agencies, the government, etc., they want to make sure the children are going to a safe home; that they're going to a place they can be cared for," Lewis emphasized. "There's a process, so just be patient, and know that it may not happen overnight, and you might have to try, try and try again. But in the end, it is so well worth it."

The average paid leave given to adoptive parents is 9 weeks - up from 8.4 weeks last year.

Lawmakers in Congress are facing mounting pressure from corporate lobbyists to pass business tax breaks before the end of the year but new analysis suggests cuts would be far more costly than promised.

Joe Hughes, federal policy analyst at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said reinstating the expanded Child Tax Credit would be a better investment. He pointed out it is unclear whether corporate tax breaks would achieve their stated policy goals, but they would make a lot of very rich people even richer.

"The child tax credit, on the other hand, the beneficiaries and the effects are entirely clear," Hughes asserted. "It's children in low- to middle-income families, middle-class families, people making less than about $86,000 a year."

Reinstating the pandemic-era Child Tax Credit would help nearly 60 million children in Wyoming and across the U.S. Proponents of corporate tax breaks passed in 2017 argue they are essential to economic growth and should be made permanent. Critics of the expanded child tax credit, which expired last year doubling child poverty rates, warned it would discourage people from re-entering the workforce.

Researchers at the University of Chicago and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found the expanded Child Tax Credit did not affect parents' decisions to enter or leave the workforce. Hughes noted working is not free if you have children. For many parents, it is less expensive to stay home than pay rising child care costs.

"An expanded child tax credit that's available to all low-income families can actually help some families re-enter the workforce," Hughes emphasized. "Because now they can receive child care."

Making corporate tax breaks permanent is projected to cost $500 billion but Hughes stressed making the Child Tax Credit fully refundable, where families get assistance even if they don't earn enough to owe taxes, would have a much lower price tag of between $10 billion and $20 billion.

"The most impactful part of the legislation was what made it available to all families, including very low-income families," Hughes added. "In 2021, as a result of the child tax credit, child poverty was cut in half."


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