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Erfurt (dpa / th) - In the opinion of the child protection officer Julia Heesen, kindergartens and schools should not remain closed longer than absolutely necessary with a view to child protection.
There are families who are coping very well with the corona-related closings and there are also children for whom the extra time in the families is good.
"But there are also families who suffer a lot from being overwhelmed," Heesen told the German press agency.
In normal times, kindergartens and schools are places where children get out of family tension.
"You can exchange ideas with people of the same age, you experience suggestions and you experience structure," said Heesen, who is also State Secretary in the Thuringian Ministry of Education.
For some children from very difficult families, daycare or school meals are also important because they regularly get good meals in the facilities.
"There are already children for whom school or kindergarten is the anchor."
This is also why Thuringia has expanded emergency care during the daycare and school closings.
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So far, there is still a lack of data to be able to assess exactly what consequences the corona pandemic has on child protection in Thuringia.
"So far, we have also received feedback from the youth welfare offices, the helpline, child protection agencies and teachers, of course, who tell us that there are many children who are worse off."
The Ministry of Education has collected preliminary figures for 2020 - from a query at the youth welfare offices, but two responses are still missing.
Accordingly, 21 of 23 Thuringian youth welfare offices reported a total of 1,204 preliminary protective measures for children and young people for 2020. In 2019, the reported number of all youth welfare offices was 1351.
Although the figures for the two years are not yet fully comparable, there are no signs of provisional child protection measures or a break-in.
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Heesen points out that there can be different reasons for this.
Problems and hazards for children and adolescents are often only discovered in the facilities.
"Of course, they also break away as a reporting point where a hazard becomes apparent," she says.
It is conceivable that tensions have risen in some families, but the children have no way of expressing themselves.
According to the law, a child is taken into custody, among other things, if there is an urgent danger to the child and the parents do not object to being taken into custody or a court decision cannot be obtained in good time.
The figures also include unaccompanied refugees being taken into care.
The child and youth policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group, Denny Möller, after a specialist discussion on child protection on Thursday, called for youth welfare in Thuringia to be “equipped so that it can support protection concepts for children and young people wherever there are children and young people - whether at school, during sport or in the youth facility »
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