As epidemiologists grapple over the public health consequences of COVID-19 and economists debate how best to prop up the economy, the inevitable negative impacts of economic and health distress on family life and children’s well-being are more an informational news story than a national rallying cry. In the best of cases, such economic uncertainty will be short-lived with manageable health consequences; but for the 16 percent of children growing up in poverty (one in six children), the economic shock of COVID-19 might never be recoverable.