The 2024 Kids Count Data Book was released this week.

The publication is a 50-state report of data from the Annie E. Casey Foundation about the overall welfare of kids since the pandemic. Illinois ranked 30th in economic well-being, 10th in education, 20th in health, and 27th in family and community.

Loukishia Pennix, chief youth and family potential officer for the YWCA Metropolitan Chicago, was encouraged by the results, which show kids are receiving adequate medical care.

"We're better with having children who have health insurance overall, and that's probably due to folks accessing Obamacare," Pennix observed. "The city of Chicago is opening up more resources in the area of medical services, so I think that's helping the upswing in family and community."

Pennix sees the 2024 Data Book as an important tool for lawmakers to use when crafting legislation for equity in policies and programs for all Illinois children. In other findings, Illinois ranked 29th for children in poverty, or living in families with at least one parent who is chronically unemployed.

The Data Book showed two-thirds of Illinois fourth graders scored below reading proficiency and almost three-quarters of eighth graders were not proficient in math. Absenteeism was a major cause. In 2021-2022, 32% of Illinois children were chronically absent from school. Child advocates want lawmakers to solve low attendance rates rather than criminalize students or parents.

Leslie Boissiere, vice president of external affairs for the Annie E. Casey Foundation, said it will take a team effort.

"It is an all hands on deck moment," Boissiere asserted. "Both the resources within school, the resources within communities and engaging parents as part of the process to make sure that students have the support that they need and that children have the support that they need in order to succeed."

Intensive tutoring for students who are behind in their classes was another suggestion. The report warned of hundreds of billions of dollars in lost future earnings and trillions of dollars in lost economic activity if grade schoolers transition from teens to adulthood on their current path.

Free school lunch and breakfast may soon be the law in the Commonwealth.

House Bill 1958 would require local school boards to participate in federal school lunch and breakfast programs through the Department of Agriculture. The programs make school lunches and breakfasts available to any student who asks for one.

Some schools are already taking part in the programs but the legislation would make it a requirement statewide.

Emily Hardy, deputy director of the Center for Healthy Communities at the Virginia Poverty Law Center, said there is a need for expanded free school meals across the state.

"Almost 400,000 kids would qualify financially currently to get school breakfast that don't," Hardy reported. "We do know there are a lot of children in Virginia who are food insecure, but aren't currently getting the service in their school."

Nearly 1.3 million Virginia children are currently enrolled in public schools across the Commonwealth.

Research from No Kid Hungry suggested free school breakfast also cuts down on rates of chronic absenteeism, where students miss 10% or more of the academic year.

Hardy noted sometimes, a free school meal could come with a stigma for students. A blanket policy, she added, can also help other parents, not just those in a tough financial position.

"Reducing stigma, making it so that all children have access to this, it both helps parents who could afford to pay for meals but maybe don't have the time to make them, or are struggling with other things," Hardy emphasized. "It also helps those children who are low-income, who then don't have to face the stigma of being the only kid getting the free meal."

Other states have already taken steps to provide blanket school meals to students, including in Minnesota, New Mexico and Maine.

Finding appropriate placements for youths entering Ohio's child welfare system has become increasingly difficult.

Rachel Reedy, outreach and member engagement manager for the County Commissioners Association of Ohio, said the complex needs of children in the system, ranging from behavioral and mental health care to justice involvement, require specialized placements, which can drive up costs.

"Across the state, we have just heard more and more about the challenges in finding affordable, accessible and appropriate placements for our youths coming into our child welfare system," Reedy reported.

The challenges are compounded by rising costs, even as fewer children are entering care. County commissioners play a critical role in funding child welfare through a combination of federal, state and local dollars, including property tax levies in some areas.

A lack of trained professionals is another significant obstacle. Reedy elaborated on the capacity challenges within the system.

"We need workforce supports as well," Reedy urged. "When you do not have enough workforce in the system and facilities available, that leads to these capacity challenges, which, in a sense, drives up the cost."

She highlighted initiatives at the state level, such as efforts to encourage students to pursue careers in social work and human services. However, the solutions take time, underscoring the urgency for collaboration at all levels. Reedy added addressing the challenges requires a united effort from local communities, state leaders and lawmakers to ensure every child receives the care they need.


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In his 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. condemned the poverty hindering Black Americans' rights and decades later, a new report found children of color still bear the weight of poverty.

The analysis by the Economic Policy Institute showed in 2023, Black, Hispanic, American Indian and Alaska Native children were three times more likely than their white peers to live in poverty. In Missouri, there's a nearly 17% child poverty rate, just above the national average revealing risks to children's overall well-being.

Ismael Cid-Martinez, economist at the Economic Policy Institute and the report's co-author, said a major cause centers around employment disparities.

"Black workers are more likely than their non-Hispanic white peers to be unemployed," Cid-Martinez reported. "Then when they do obtain some form of employment in the labor market, they're likely to earn less than their peers."

The report also revealed Asian children are twice as likely as their white peers to live in poverty. Cid-Martinez stressed a key solution is implementing policies to ensure the social safety net effectively addresses the material needs of families.

According to the report, the expanded Child Tax Credit cut poverty for children of color by half from 2019 to 2021, lifting more than 700,000 Black children and 1 million Hispanic children out of poverty. However, the gains largely vanished when lawmakers did not extend the tax credit.

Cid-Martinez emphasized stronger unions in the labor market would help.

"Unions help ensure that working parents have jobs where they have the necessary benefits and the flexibility of hours that they need to provide care for children," Cid-Martinez noted.

Recent data showed Black Missourians face a 13.1% unemployment rate, nearly five times higher than white residents. Cid-Martinez added poverty figures reflect economic progress, highlighting King's dream of economic equality remains unfulfilled.


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