Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate last week announced a new working group tasked with incorporating children’s needs into how the agency administers assistance to states and the public. Fugate announced the creation of the Children’s Working Group during testimony before the Senate Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery.
The Children’s Working Group will be composed of employees from across the agency and headed by Tracy Wareing, counselor to U.S. Department of Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano for FEMA.
Issues the working group will focus on include:
- guidance for the evacuation, sheltering and relocation of children;
- tracking and reunification of families;
- enhanced preparedness for child-care centers, schools as well as children in child welfare and juvenile justice systems;
- incorporating children’s needs into national exercises; and
- improving care for children during the disaster recovery process.
