The COVID-19 crisis is taking a huge toll on families’ economic security, particularly for families of color and families with children. Early childhood poverty can shape health and social outcomes for decades, which makes supporting families with young children urgent and critical.

Though federal aid earlier in the year provided some much-needed relief, the benefits were short-lived, and several of the key provisions have since expired. Many families spent through their initial stimulus payments, and the $600 weekly supplement to unemployment insurance benefit ended in July.

Without additional action to support families with young children, we project 3.9 million children younger than 6 years old will experience poverty in August to December of this year.

By our measure, adopting just three provisions from the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act could have kept 1.5 million young children from poverty over this period. Those policies include the following:

  • extending the supplemental $600 per week unemployment benefit
  • increasing SNAP benefits
  • providing and expanding eligibility for a second stimulus payment

Families need continued support as they navigate employment, child care options, and ways to ensure the health and well-being of their young children. Absent additional federal pandemic aid policies at the end of the summer, about one in six young children is expected to experience poverty in August through December of this year, with harsher outcomes for Black and Hispanic children. And without additional aid, the prospects for 2021 are dire. To alleviate young child poverty, policymakers will need to quickly consider new aid packages that will support families with children and should explicitly address the challenges facing people of color, who face the highest rates of economic disadvantage.

Read the full article about preventing COVID-induced poverty among children by Ilham Dehry at Urban Institute.