(Washington, DC, Thursday, January 6, 2022) – The COVID-19 pandemic has been the single deadliest acute public health crisis in American history. More than 760,000 Americans have died in 22 short months, many leaving behind children who have lost a caretaker, role model, and provider.

A bipartisan group is mobilizing government, non-profit, and private sector partners to support the hundreds of thousands of children in the United States who have lost a parent or caregiver to COVID-19.

COVID Collaborative and Social Policy Analytics have released Hidden Pain: Children Who Lost a Parent or Caretaker to COVID-19 and What the Nation Can Do to Help Them, a report providing first of their kind estimates of the number of children who lost a caregiver and concrete recommendations to support them. This report estimates that 167,082 children – roughly one of every 450 – in the United States lost a parent or other caregiver in the home to COVID-19.

Non-White children lost caregiving adults at higher rates than their White peers, with American Indian and Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander children experiencing the highest rate of loss at nearly four times that of White children. Black and Hispanic children experienced more than twice the rate of loss of White children.

Youth in every state experienced loss, but California, Florida, Georgia, New York, and Texas accounted for half of total caregiver loss from COVID-19.

The death of a parent or caregiver can hinder a child’s development and success for the rest of their lives. Policymakers, educators, nonprofits, and the private sector can take steps to help children and youth to address their grief and trauma. The report outlines recommendations, including evidence-based policies, programs, and practices to address grief and trauma.

COVID Collaborative is a National Assembly to tackle the COVID-19 crisis. They have brought many of the nation’s leading experts in public health, education, and the economy together with associations representing state and local leaders and vulnerable communities to take unified action to stop the spread, crush the curve, and safely and sustainably reopen schools, businesses, and other places where Americans gather.