This KIDS COUNT policy report examines how households with children are faring during the pandemic. Its findings are primarily based on surveys conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused widespread economic damage and isolated families in unprecedented ways. Parents have had to juggle both educating and caring for their children and millions of Americans have lost not just their jobs, but their sense stability, source of income and health care.
To succeed now and after the pandemic, families must have good health, both physical and mental, and the health care to maintain it. They must also have food and the money to buy it; safe, stable housing and communities; education and the means to access it; and quality child care so that parents can work.
Child Well-Being Before the Pandemic
Child well-being was slowly but steadily improving right after the Great Recession. Yet, troubling signs — indicating a halt or reversal of progress — were evident even before the coronavirus crisis took hold in the United States. One example: The share of children without health insurance ticked up from 5% in 2018 to 6% in 2019.
Child Well-Being During the Pandemic
Health Care
In the fall of 2020, one in eight households with children lacked health insurance. No coverage constitutes a critical vulnerability — for both health and economic reasons — for any family. Although the share of kids without health coverage during the pandemic is unknown for now, history has shown that children are more likely to have insurance if their parents do.
Mental health, already a pressing issue for young people, has become an acute concern for millions in 2020. One in five people in households with children (21%) have reported feeling down, depressed or hopeless in the previous week, underscoring the importance of access to mental health care and treatment.
Economic Stability
Uncertainty and instability were already a daily reality for millions of families before the pandemic hit. Since March 2020, a growing tide of lost income and jobs have destabilized millions more families.
Absent action to prevent an eviction and foreclosure crisis, the data indicate a looming housing catastrophe for communities of color. Food insecurity — already a problem for more than one in 10 households before the pandemic — has also increased. At the same time, the pandemic has dramatically disrupted child care throughout the nation, with centers forced to close and many parents left scrambling for alternatives.
Education
Nearly all schools in the United States closed for at least part of spring 2020. By fall, the academic year kicked off differently across the nation. Some children were attending school in person, others were learning remotely and still others were following a hybrid approach. Many kids have found virtual learning, as well as the changing learning conditions, challenging.
Recommendations on Strengthening Children and Families During and After the Pandemic
Put racial and ethnic equity first in policymaking. Steps here involve using disaggregated data, engaging community stakeholders, and ensuring the policymaking process is informed by those hardest hit by the pandemic. This approach should underpin any concrete policy actions.
Prioritize the physical and mental health of all children. This includes making the vaccine available, regardless of cost, and strengthening the Affordable Care Act. To promote mental health, particularly in times of crisis, policymakers should push for improving student-to-school-counselor ratios per the guidance of mental health professionals.
Help families with children achieve financial stability and bolster their well-being. Changes here include expanding access to child care and unemployment insurance for part-time and gig economy workers, low-wage workers. Federal policymakers should advocate for temporary housing assistance programs aimed at heading off a foreclosure or eviction crisis. They should also expand housing programs most frequently accessed by families with children and eliminate barriers to accessing Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the Child Tax Credit.
Ensure schools are better and more equitably funded and ready to meet the needs of students disparately affected by the pandemic. This includes protecting school funding from the economic effects of the pandemic, building maintenance-of-equity requirements into relief packages, and addressing disparities in technology access at home and in the classroom.
The only right option? An immediate and large-scale response
The COVID-19 pandemic has left millions of families struggling. After assessing data on food security, housing, health insurance status and mental health concerns, the Casey Foundation has identified pain points for children and families that require immediate action.
Findings & Stats
Health Care Concerns
Nationwide, 12% of families with children lack health insurance — a rate that has been worsening over the past four years. Also discouraging: 34% of people in households with children reported delaying medical care in the month prior.
Mental Health at Risk
Among respondents who had kids in their home, 21% said that they had felt down, depressed or hopeless in the previous week.
Missing Meals
Overall, 14% of adults with children reported that their household sometimes or always did not have enough to eat in the last week. The rates varied by race, with the risk of food insecurity substantially higher among households of color (23% for Blacks, 19% for Hispanics) versus white (10%) or Asian (9%) households with children.
A Workforce Exodus
Among adults with young children surveyed by Washington University in St. Louis, one-third said that they are now less likely to return to work due to a lack of child care (32%).
Falling Behind on Housing Payments
Among respondents with children in their home, 18% reported having only slight confidence or no confidence at all that they would be able to make their next rent or mortgage payment on time.
A Disproportionate Concern
A housing catastrophe is looming for communities of color. Nationwide, 31% of Blacks, 26% of Latinos, and 26% of individuals of two or more races and other race reported being on the verge missing a rent or mortgage payment. By comparison, just 12% of white households shared this same concern.
Federal Aid to the Rescue
The pandemic caused the national unemployment rate to spike, peaking at 14.7% in April 2020. However, federally funded, expanded unemployment insurance stabilized many families on the verge of financial collapse and created an extraordinary stimulus effect, boosting incomes by an estimated total of $842 billion.
Statements & Quotations
The United States is enduring the most catastrophic economic crisis since the Great Depression. This time, however, the nation is also in the midst of a public health disaster that has not spared a single community. Schools have been disrupted so profoundly that the effects could damage the prospects of an entire generation of young people. And widening racial disparities require policymakers to prioritize equitable solutions. To help get families through this crisis, we need decisive action.
The first order of business in 2021 will be to determine how best to navigate the second year of a pandemic. These are painful times, but this nation has the resources to meet the needs of those most affected by the ongoing health and economic crisis. Our leaders can respond in ways that enable kids to thrive in spite of the extraordinary times we’re living in. Our nation must choose to act with the urgency our children’s futures deserve.
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