COLUMBUS – Child advocates rank Ohio 24th in the nation in an annual snapshot of child well-being — up from 26th last year – thanks in part to an improved economy.
According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2017 Kids Count Data Book, the state made gains in economic indicators with fewer kids living in poverty and fewer parents lacking full-time employment.
But Ashon McKenzie, policy director of the Children’s Defense Fund Ohio, notes there is room for improvement.
“We still have nearly 400 thousand kids who are living in high-poverty areas. That means they are vulnerable to crime, violence in their neighborhoods, likely that their schools are lacking resources and that many may be experiencing different forms of trauma,” he said.
The report credit policies like the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit with reducing the number of children overall live in poverty. Also, more parents have jobs and more families are able to bear the cost of housing.
Another bright spot in the findings: 96 percent of kids in Ohio now have healthcare coverage, compared with 95 percent nationally, a historic high.
“The investments that we’ve made in things like the Affordable Care Act have made a difference,” says Laura Speer with the Casey Foundation. “This is a time when policymakers are debating what to do with these programs, and having 95 percent of kids in America with health insurance coverage is a really good thing. And we need to maintain that investment for the long run.”
Ohio dropped quite a bit in the area of education, ranking 27th compared to 17th last year.
“The Data Book highlights our need for broader and deeper investment in early childhood education. We’ve lost ground over the last five years, our eighth graders are failing in math proficiency which means truly we’re failing them and we have been stagnant in the number of third- and fourth-graders who are accessing early childhood education,” said McKenzie.
The report found that 19 percent of Ohio high school seniors are not graduating on time.