The Children’s Defense Fund, First Focus on Children, and the U.S. Child Poverty Action Group hosted a webinar on Tuesday, September 22nd from 2:00 pm – 3:15 pm EST entitled 2019 Census Child Poverty Data and What COVID-19 Means for Kids. This webinar focused 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 will release annual data on child poverty in the United States on September 15th and 17th, however, these numbers will 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. 

Moderator: 

·      Cara Baldari, VP of Family Economics, First Focus on Children

Presenters:

·      Loy Azalia, Senior Research Fellow, Children’s Defense Fund

·      Israel Glenn, CDF Beat the Odds® Scholar, Children’s Defense Fund-MN

·      Monica Gonzales, Associate Director of Government Relations, Share our Strength

·      Myra Jones-Taylor, Chief Policy Officer, ZERO TO THREE

• Resources from Webinar

  • Webinar Recording (Note that recording does not include the video on Israel Glenn’s story, which is available here)

  Handouts

  • Slidedeck

  • Evaluating 2019 Census Child Poverty Data in the Wake of COVID-19

  • Children’s Defense Fund Poverty Messaging Guidance

  • Letter from children’s advocates on the Child Tax Credit

  • Organizational Sign-on Letter on the Pandemic TANF Assistance Act

  • ZERO TO THREE State of Babies Yearbook 2020

  • ZERO TO THREE brief, Maternal and Child Inequities Emerge Even Before Birth

  • ZERO TO THREE Policy Response to COVID-19

  • National Prevention Science Coalition Values Statement

  • National Prevention Science Coalition, COVID-19’s Distinctive Footprint on Immigrants in the United States