New report card on Missouri’s children released

A new national report ranks Missouri 32nd in the well-being of children – down four spots from last year’s report. The annual Kids Count report is from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, an organization that works to improve the well-being of children.

The Foundation used 2022 government data to compile its work. Missouri ranked highest in the education of children, coming in at 23rd. Last year’s report ranked Missouri 22nd in education.

The foundation’s president and CEO, Lisa Hamilton, said like national trends, Missouri’s educational achievement rates are heading in the wrong direction. She said the pandemic has lowered access to preschool, math and reading scores, and high school graduation rates.

“We talked in depth about two key contributors to those low numbers. The first is chronic absence,” said Hamilton. “In Missouri, you have 20% of students are chronically absent. The second topic we talk about is for childhood trauma. And this could be every everything from poverty, to violence, to a parent who’s incarcerated. In Missouri, it’s 43% of students with a childhood trauma. This can affect their focus in school and contribute to that chronic absence.”

Hamilton reminds Missouri that unspent federal pandemic funding for schools must be designated by Sept. 30.

“There’s certainly things that the state can do and certainly all states can do that help make sure our kids are on track for a healthy adulthood,” she said.

Economic well-being followed with a ranking of 25th. In 2022, about 225,000 Missouri children were living in poverty.

Family and community ranked 29th. The data shows about 427,000 Missouri children living in single-parent households. Missouri’s teen birth rate remained the same – 17 teen births per 1,000.

Missouri’s worst ranking is in the area of health. The state is ranked 40th in the health of children, compared to last year’s ranking of 35th.

The report said 591 Missouri children died in 2022. Missouri’s number of babies born underweight also slightly increased to 9.1%.

About 6% of Missouri children do not have health insurance, which is about the same as the previous report. About 33% of children, ages 10 to 17, are overweight or obese, compared to 34% the previous year.

“Overall, the trends are discouraging, said Hamilton.

To check out the 2024 Kids Count Data Book, https://www.aecf.org/resources/2024-kids-count-data-book

Here are key data from the report related to Texas County:

DEMOGRAPHICS OF CHILDREN

•The child population birth to age 17 is 21.5 percent in 2022. That was unchanged from the prior year.

•Children ages birth to 5 is 1,686, about 6.7 percent in 2022.

•Children birth to age 17 in single-parent families totals 924, which is 17.4 percent in 2021.

•Children birth to age 17 in married-parent families is 3,852 or 72.6 percent in 2021.

•The minority child population birth to age 17 is 484 — 8.9 percent in 2022.

•The minority child population birth to age 5 is 166 — 9.9 percent in 2022.

•Adult unemployment in 2022 stood at 3 percent, a low over the last five years. The median income of family households with children age birth to 17 stood at $45,839 in 2017-2021.

•Children birth to age 17 in families receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistant Program (SNAP, of Food Stamps) in 2022 was 1,731 or 31.7 percent.

•Children birth to age 17 who are poverty, 25.3 percent or 1,344, in 2022 which dropped 6.3 percentage points from the 2021.

•Children birth to age 5 in poverty, 29.3 percent in 2022, which was up 3.8 percentage points from the 2021.

•Children age 6 to 17 in poverty in 2022 — 928 or 23.6 percent in 2022. That’s a decrease of 5.9 percentage points from the prior year.

•Family households with children birth to age 17 at 185 percent of poverty level. (2018-2022 – 57.5 percent)

OTHER FIGURES

•About 65.8 percent of students in the county ware enrolled in free/reduced price lunches. That’s 2,441 in 2016, the last year data was available.

•The percentage of housing cost-burdened households from 2018-2022, 30.9 percent. That means more than 30 percent of the annual incomes was spent on rent, mortgage payments, taxes, insurance and related expenses.

•About 1.3 percent of those birth to 17 are homeless. Food insecurity for those ages birth to age 17 were 24.1 percentn in 2022. That was down 6.2 percent from 2021.

•Licenses child care capacity birth to age 17 totaled 198 or 36.3 percent.

•The number of high school graduations within four years — 92.7 percent in 2022, down slightly from 2021.

•About 33.7 percent are three-grade English/language arts proficient. That’s down 5.3 percent from 2021.

•About 36.7 percent are 8 ^th grade English/language arts proficient. That down 2.3 percent from 2021.

•Percentage of students who are fourth-grade math proficient — 37.9 percent, up 3.3 percent from 2021. About 31.6 scored proficient in Algebra I. That’s up 4.5 percent from 2021.

•In 2022, 93.5 percent of enrolled Texas County students attended. In high school, the figure was 93.2 percent. Children living below 100 percent of the poverty rate was 49.4 percent.

•Low birth weight infants totaled 97 in Texas County in 2022, down 11 from 2021. The infant mortality rate from 2018-2022 was eight, up one from 2017-2021.

•The percentage of uninsured children birth to 17 was 6.6 percent, down 2.4 percent from 2021.

•Substantiated child abuse/neglect cases from birth to age 17 — 40 in 2022, up eight from 2021.

•Juvenile law violation referrals age 10 to 17 were 90 in 2022, up 31 from 2021. Children entering/re-entering study custody was 45 – up 17 from the prior year.

•Annual high school dropouts in Texas County: .8 percent, up one-tenth of a percentage point from 2021.

•Teen unintentional injuries/homicides/suicides, ages 15-19 — four. In 2022 (One in 2021).

•Children deaths age 1 to 17 totaled seven from 2018-2022.

•Preventable hospitalization for children birth to age 17 in the county — 37 in 2022. There were 13 asthma cases sent to ER in 2022, unchanged from the previous year. Unrestrained automobile fatalities for children birth to 17 was 100 percent.

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