Webinar: 2019 Census Child Poverty Data and What COVID 19 Means for Kids

The Children’s Defense Fund, First Focus on Children, and the U.S. Child Poverty Action Group convened this webinar on Tuesday, September 22nd, focusing on currently available data on child poverty in the United States and the additional relief needed to mitigate the impact of our current crisis, as well as address our nation’s consistently high level of child poverty.

The U.S. Census Bureau released annual data on child poverty in the United States on September 15th and 17th, however, these numbers did not reflect the current catastrophic economic, racial, and social impact of COVID-19 on our children and families. Indicators from the weekly Census Household Pulse Survey, as well as research from the Columbia University Center on Poverty & Social Policy, the Urban Institute, and other sources, give us a sense of the hardship that the pandemic is currently causing for millions of children and families. Recent data from the Census Household Pulse Survey finds that over seven million adults in households with children reported at the end of August that children in the household often or sometimes did not have enough to eat.

It is a moral disgrace that even before the outbreak of COVID-19, child poverty remained stubbornly high in the United States, and we continue to have higher rates of child poverty than many of our peer countries. And now we know the public health emergency, racial justice crisis, and economic downturn are likely causing child poverty rates to rise even higher, particularly for Black, Latinx, and American Indian children. Children of color are disproportionately hurt by poverty due to systemic racism and politicians’ disinvestments in communities of color. Until we end child poverty, too many children will be put at risk of long-lasting harm to their healthy development and long-term success.