Children and youth are particularly vulnerable to the effects of disasters. They have limited capacity to independently mobilize resources to help them adapt to stressful post-disaster circumstances, and are instead dependent upon others to make choices that will influence their household, neighborhood, school, and larger social environment. Children's mental health recovery in a post-disaster setting can serve as a bellwether indicator of successful recovery or as a lagging indicator of system dysfunction and failed recovery. This study tests the Hurricane Katrina Bellwether argument using data from the Sandy Child and Family Health (S-CAFH) Study, an observational cohort of 1,000 randomly-sampled New Jersey residents living in the nine counties most affected by Sandy. This particular analysis focuses on a subset of the data, specifically parental reports of their children (n = 223). The study estimates the mental health effects of such exposure among children, and elucidates the systemic pathways through which the disaster effect operates. Preliminary tests indicate that some aspects hold from the original model, whereas others are more ambiguous. Nearly 20 percent of all parents reported that their children experienced mental health distress, although this varied by disaster exposure and housing damage. A multivariate regression model finds that prior mental health and poverty increase the likelihood of a child's mental health distress or serious emotional disturbance following Sandy. However, both prosocial behavior and high neighborhood physical disorder have a protective effect on mental distress. Overall, findings suggest that socio-ecological setting may influence children's mental health following a disaster.