(BCN) — California children rank in the bottom third of all states in overall well-being, according to a new report released this week.
The authors of the report, “2024 KIDS COUNT Databook: State Trends in Child Wellbeing,” found that more than half of California’s 3- and 4-year-old children are not in school, less than a quarter of their Eighth graders are proficient in mathematics and a greater number of children and adolescents per 100,000 died than in previous years.
“One way to think about it is that where we see the most progress are states that are investing in their children, a lot in their children,” said Leslie Boissiere, vice president of external affairs at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, who oversaw the development of the report. .
Now in its 35th year and published by the foundation, a private philanthropy and research organization, the annual report measures children’s well-being across 16 indicators within the categories of education, economic well-being, health, and family and community.
Of all states, California ranked 43rd in economic well-being, 35th in education, 10th in health, and 37th in family and community.
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California children did better than most other states on the health indicator alone. Even so, the number of low birthweight babies increased slightly from 7.1% in 2019 to 7.4% in 2022, as did the number of deaths in children and adolescents, which increased from 18 per 100,000 in 2019 to 22 per 100,000 in 2022.
“The movement of indicators generally follows investments and depends on the particular state of how they are investing in their children,” Boissiere said.
This year’s report focused heavily on comparisons between data from 2019 and 2022 to provide a pre- and post-pandemic view of how children are faring, Boissiere said. Data sources included the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .
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The authors noted that the report’s findings provide context to the conversation about chronic absenteeism, which is defined as missing 10% or more of the school year.
The percentage of chronically absent students in California skyrocketed from the pre-pandemic rate of 12.1% in the 2018-19 school year to 30% in 2021-22. The reasons for such high absenteeism vary from district to district and even student to student, but experts agree that the problem is exacerbated when children’s basic needs are not met.
“What we know is that it is vitally important that all children come to the classroom ready to learn, and in order for them to be ready to learn, their basic needs must be met,” Boissiere said.
National data included in the report highlighted the relationship between absences and academic performance. The more students miss school, the lower their reading proficiency.
In 2022, the percentage of fourth graders nationwide scoring proficient in reading was 40% for students with no absences in the month before taking the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP.
Reading proficiency dropped to 34% with one or two days of absence in that month; 28% with three or four absences; 25% with five to 10 absences, and up to 14% for students who had more than 10 absences in the same one-month period before taking the NAEP.
The authors also found that racial inequalities play a critical role in nearly all of the report’s index measures.
“As a result of generational inequalities and persistent discriminatory policies and practices, children of color face significant barriers to success across many measures,” the authors wrote.
For example, the authors found “alarming increases” in the infant and adolescent mortality rate among black children nationally, and that American Indian or Alaska Native children “were more than twice as likely to lack health insurance.”
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Disaggregated racial demographic data also pointed to notable inequalities.
For example, the authors found that Asian and Pacific Islander children experienced one of the lowest poverty rates nationally: 11%; The poverty rate among Burmese children was 29%, 24% among Mongolian children, and 23% among Thai children. The national average for child poverty is 16%, according to the report, highlighting the stark poverty rates for many Asian children across the country.
Looking at various racial inequalities, the authors found exceptions where children of color fared better than the national average. For example, black children were more likely to be in school at ages 3 and 4, to be insured, and to have a household head with at least a high school diploma. Latino children and adolescents had lower mortality rates and were also less likely to have low birth weight.
“Today, children of color represent the majority of children in the country, as well as in 14 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands,” the authors wrote. “The future success of our nation depends on our ability to ensure that all children have the opportunity to succeed.”
2024 Bay City News, Inc.
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