Objective: This study examines media use of children from low-income homes during school closings during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: Caregivers of 151 kindergartners from low-income homes completed questionnaires as part of a larger study. Caregivers reported how much time children spent watching TV/videos and using apps on the most recent weekday and weekend day. Caregivers also reported how their child's current use of media for several different purposes compared to how much the child usually uses media for that purpose. Results: Weekly average media use was 46.3 hours or 6.6 hours per day. Counter to prior research, weekday media use was higher than weekend use, suggesting media was likely used as a replacement for time usually spent in school. Caregivers reported increased child media use for positive purposes, like education and maintaining relationships with family and friends outside of the home, as well as potentially useful but less socially-valued purposes, like occupying the child's time while caregivers were completing other tasks. Having more children in the household was related to higher media use and girls used media for maintaining remote relationships more than boys. Conclusions: These findings provide reason for both concern and optimism for the impacts of pandemic closures on low-income children. High levels of media use appear to be prevalent in this population. However, the diverse purposes for media use suggest that caregivers relied on media to supplement children's academic and social growth at a time when school and socializing were not safe in their typical forms. [This is the in press version of an article published in "Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics."]