KIDS COUNT® DATA RANKS WASHINGTON AMONG THE TOP STATES FOR HEALTH AND FAMILY & COMMUNITY, BUT THERE IS STILL WORK TO DO
Last month, the Annie E. Casey Foundation published its 2024 KIDS COUNT® National Data Book, which ranks states in overall well-being and across four categories:
1. Education
2. Economic Well-Being
3. Health
4. Family & Community
Washington state ranked 14th in the nation for overall rankings, and there were two categories in which we scored in the top half of states: health and family & community.
In this post, we’ll discuss what is contributing to those leading rankings, and we’ll share some of the advocacy we’re doing to continue pushing for progress in these areas, particularly for children furthest from opportunity.
Health
Washington state ranked 4th in health, placing us firmly among the top states in the country regarding child and youth health. The Annie E. Casey Foundation estimates health rankings on the following indicators:
Why does health matter?
Health has been a long-term priority for Children’s Alliance. One of the most significant obstacles a child can face is poor health and lack of access to high-quality health care. In contrast, we know that when children are healthy, they thrive and are better able to achieve their highest potential. We also know that many children have inequitable access to health care, especially children of color and children in rural communities, and that any successful health policy proposal must explicitly account for these gaps in access.
Washington has made great strides toward ensuring that our young people have reliable access to a broad spectrum of health-related care and support. Successes include Apple Health for Kids (Washington’s version of Medicaid’s Child Health Insurance Plan or “CHIP”), programs for perinatal care, support for child nutrition such as SUN Bucks, and continued investments in early childhood and infant screenings. These efforts are among many that have led to Washington ranking among the top states for child health. However, this should by no means slow our efforts.
Washington is ahead of most states when it comes to child and youth health, but we still have critical areas of inadequate care that must be addressed. For example, the data above does not examine the urgent need for improved access and services for behavioral health care for children and youth. In 2021, most high-school-aged youth in Washington experienced symptoms of depression or anxiety, and nearly one in 10 had attempted suicide in the past year.
How do health outcomes influence child development in other areas?
As we all know, health problems create obstacles in other areas of our lives. Physical illness can keep us from going to work and poor mental health can make it difficult to live our lives to the fullest. These are just a few examples, and our children share these same challenges.
We know that health and academic success are closely linked, and that improvement in even a single health factor can have positive effects on a child’s education. Children’s health and the impact of health-related obstacles on child development have become even more salient issues because of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Preliminary research has shown that isolation during lockdown likely contributed to delays and harm to children’s development, and the SARS-CoV-2 virus complicated childbirth for many families, possibly increasing the risk of developmental setbacks for newborns.
While we still don’t know the full impact of the pandemic, we know without a doubt, that our communities must be prepared to respond to the health care needs of our children and families with robust, accessible programs and services to ensure health risks are not standing in the way of young people’s opportunities to thrive.
What now?
Children’s Alliance, along with our community partners, have identified several areas where targeted advocacy will likely have significant impacts on these shortcomings. While the state of child health in Washington is on the rise, the KIDS COUNT® figures above show that we are regressing in some areas. Additionally, Washington’s youth are facing a behavioral health crisis, broad-reaching needs for anti-hunger work, gaps in coverage, and lack of access to various forms of health care due to significant workforce shortages.
While all of these issues demand attention, one of our highest priorities is addressing the ongoing youth behavioral health crisis. Many hospitals and emergency departments are at or near capacity, with smaller community health providers struggling to meet demands as well. There is a need for better and more accessible means of delivering care, as well as a significant increase in clinicians available to provide these services. Our youth need and deserve a multi-faceted solution, likely incorporating a mix of school- and community-based resources to ensure that all youth can access professional clinical support. To achieve this, Washington must make meaningful investments to promote and develop a diverse clinical workforce of providers, not only in the behavioral health space, but in all health settings. This workforce must also incorporate explicit community integration efforts so that youth are able to receive support from someone who they can identify with and who belongs to their community.
Washington can solve these problems, and Children’s Alliance will continue to advocate boldly for ambitious and wide-reaching improvements to our state's health landscape.
Family & Community
Washington state ranked 11th in the nation for family & community based on the following indicators:
Why do family & community matter?
Family and community form the foundation of a child’s sense of belonging, and they also serve as the way most children access resources. A child’s world, especially in their early years, is concentrated around spaces they live in and faces they interact with daily. A community provides education, spaces to gather, and an interconnected web of professionals who help children thrive in a healthy and safe environment. Families make important decisions for their children at home and in their broader communities, providing kids with unconditional love and basic needs. In short, family and community comprise the relationships and place-based resources that children need.
How are we doing?
There are a lot of ways we can measure family and community well-being. The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT® work draws on a long history of sociology research that estimates how likely kids are to have access to the resources they need based on several factors. Community resources are often tied to the income level of households, which means that economic racial equity gaps also tend to show up in place-based resources.
Although Asian and Pacific Islander and Non-Hispanic White families had a median income exceeding $120,000 in 2022, the median household incomes of Non-Hispanic Black, Indigenous, and Latino families were each lower than $75,000. That’s important because household income plays a significant role in determining where families can afford to live and, consequently, which schools and communities their children can access. Communities that experience high poverty rates may not have reliable access to material resources that kids need due to community funding limitations. In fact, a 2023 report by Washington’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC) found that the concentration of poverty in a school had the biggest association for student test scores, and those opportunity gaps worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Furthermore, families that have one income and need child care may benefit from programs and policies that center affordability to make sure that all children have equitable access to resources. Child Care Aware of Washington estimates that the cost of enrolling a baby in a child care center equates to approximately half of a single mother’s income, compared to just over 15% for a married couple as a median. Although we do not have data about the median income share for single fathers, one-income households generally pay a larger percentage of their income for child care.
Our state’s Working Connections Child Care (WCCC) program is a good example of positive policy, but it is not available to all families. Most families with one adult and one child would need to have an income of less than $54,000 to qualify, which is not considered a living wage in many counties across the state, including Spokane County, Yakima County, or the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue areas. As a result, many families must pay out of pocket for child care and early learning, which means that the disparities in household income for many children of color are a barrier to foundational education.
What now?
There are many intersections of family and community policy, and those intersections often point to equity gaps that place children further from opportunity. Moving forward, policymakers need to address nuanced needs within communities and families. That starts with actively listening to communities.
Washington’s children and families need policymakers to be thoughtful in designing funding streams and programs that are simultaneously held to high quality standards and are flexible enough for community leaders with lived expertise to guide programs to best address challenges.
Related blog posts: