Because of stagnating wages, underemployment, and high costs for basic needs like housing and child care, many of Washington state’s kids and families will continue to have a hard time making ends meet, according to the 2015 KIDS COUNT Data Book released today.
The report, released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and KIDS COUNT in Washington, found that too many children and families are still not feeling the effects of the economic recovery and are facing issues like poverty, hunger, and homelessness. Washington ranks 19th overall among the 50 states in four areas of child well-being: education, health, family and community, and economic well-being. Policymakers need to make significant investments in our children if we are to make progress toward improving outcomes for our kids.
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KIDS COUNT in Washington found that our state fares especially poorly in economic security. A lack of quality employment for parents, combined with high cost-of-living, is a significant challenge for Washington state. What’s more, our national legacy of structural racism means that an increasing share of Washington state’s children are born and raised on an unequal and unstable footing. For example (click on above graphic for data summary):
- An additional 78,000 children are living in poverty since 2008. One in three Black (34 percent), American Indian/Alaska Native (32 percent) and Latino kids (32 percent), and one in four (25 percent) Pacific Islander/Native Hawaiian kids, live below the poverty line — that’s compared to the state average of 19 percent.
- Approximately one in three (31 percent) children have parents that lack secure employment.
- Approximately one in three (36 percent) of children live in households with a high housing-cost burden. Housing and child care are the two biggest expenses families with young children face, taking up between one-third to half of median monthly income depending a family’s racial and ethnic background (see chart).
(Click on the image below to view the entire table)
What Would It Take to Be the No. 1 State for Kids?
The Data Book also contains good news. Washington state ranks among the top 10 best states for child health – a testament to the investments our state has made in the Washington Apple Health program, which has a goal to provide health insurance to all kids. There has also been a sizable decline in child death rates and the share of teens who are abusing drugs or alcohol, both of which can be attributed to the rise in public health campaigns and child-focused public policies.
The message from these successes is clear – when Washington state invests in kids, it makes a difference. In addition, there are several steps that policymakers, community leaders, and child advocates can take to make Washington the best state in the country for kids to live:
- Lead with equity. We cannot make progress as a state if we don’t achieve racial and socioeconomic equity. Investments to advance well-being for all children must start with the kids who need investing in the most.
- Investigate the story behind the data. Data, on its own, tells a limited story about the people it represents. Lawmakers should work with the people that the data represents to understand their stories, and develop community-informed policies that have a higher likelihood of success.
- Increase investment in policies that simultaneously support both parents and children. The Casey Foundation recommends policies that result in higher pay, paid sick leave, flexible scheduling, and expanded unemployment benefits that will result in higher family income, reduced parental stress, and an increased capacity for parents to invest in their kids. Detailed recommendations can be found in the 2014 report, Creating Opportunity for Families: A Two-Generation Approach.
Read the KIDS COUNT in Washington press release about the 2015 Data Book.
The 2015 Data Book is available at www.aecf.org. Additional information is available at the KIDS COUNT Data Center, which also contains the most recent national, state, and local data on hundreds of indicators of child well-being. The Data Center allows users to create rankings, maps, and graphs for use in publications and on websites, and to view real-time information on mobile devices.
KIDS COUNT in Washington is a joint effort of the Children’s Alliance and the Washington State Budget & Policy Center, which are working together to pursue measurable improvements in kids’ lives in Washington state.