Child and youth welfare facilities X Children and adolescents shall be protected from violence in the best possible way. X Protection concepts shall be openly available in all shared accommodations and the staff shall be familiar with the same. X The staff shall be trained in order to be able to implement the concepts. X Adolescents with psychiatric diagnoses shall not be accommodated in low-threshold care facilities and left on their own. 2.3.3 Challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic Children and adolescents were and continue to be particularly affected and stressed by the measures taken to counter the COVID-19 pandemic. Their rights to social contact, social participation, playing as well as pre-school and school education were and still are severely restricted due to the closure of schools, playgrounds, sports grounds, clubs and societies and due to curfews. Unlike adults, their development is impeded and they suffer additional deficits that are difficult for them to compensate. All of this applies even more to children and adolescents in the custody of child and youth welfare services, as they cannot grow up in the security of a family. The learning support and home-schooling provided by the parents during the frequent school closures had to be borne by the pedagogical staff in addition to their care work. Pandemic stresses children and adolescents in particular This, in itself, already major challenge of providing learning support for an average of ten children and adolescents was exacerbated by the fact that in many shared accommodations the full team could not be scheduled for work. Many employees were excused because they are at risk or were temporarily unavailable because they were in quarantine or on sick leave. The rest of the team was thus under considerable strain. Furthermore, it was difficult to organise a daily structure for the children and adolescents. This resulted in increased media consumption by many children and adolescents, which was difficult for them to stop once the schools re-opened. Learning support with less staff Several major owners and operators who, in addition to full residential care, also offer non-residential family support or daily structures, were able to transfer the personnel, as these services were closed due to the lockdown. Some shared accommodations provided an additional member of staff to take care of home-schooling. In Burgenland, covering the cost for this was initially approved by the specialist department but then not paid. Many shared accommodations then decided to continue sending the minors to school to be looked after. In shared accommodations in other Laender, there was help Promise to bear costs not kept 70