Annie E. Casey Foundation

“Clear pol­i­cy gaps exist across all states when it comes to ensur­ing chil­dren, their par­ents and kin­ship care­givers are ade­quate­ly pro­tect­ed, informed and resourced. The sur­vey reveals how inequitably chil­dren and kin care­givers are being treat­ed in diver­sion arrange­ments, which should be unac­cept­able.” – Todd Lloyd, Senior Policy Associate at the Foundation

Stronger Kinship Diversion Policies Are Needed to Support Children and Caregivers A survey of child welfare administrators on kinship diversion reveals much room for improvement. Explore the survey results and recommendations.

“While Oklahoma ranks among the top half of states for children in two-parent households, our state's overall results show that this factor alone isn't enough to help our kids get ahead. From math and reading scores to health insurance coverage to the teen birth rate, these results demonstrate Oklahoma is not doing enough to position our children for success.” – Carly Putnam, policy director for [tag] KIDS COUNT partner Oklahoma Policy Institute

Oklahoma is the 46th best state for a child. That's no better than last year. Why? An annual nationwide report on child well-being still shows dismal rankings for Oklahoma compared to last year. Researchers suggest how to improve.

During the 2022–23 school year, 15% of the U.S. public school population received special education services for disabilities ranging from learning disabilities to speech or language impairments. Native American or Alaskan Native students and Black students were the most likely to be receiving special education services for disabilities. This Disability Pride Month, let’s continue fighting for the needs of this diverse group of young people.

Children With Disabilities and Special Health Care Needs This post explores data on children with disabilities and special health care needs. Learn how these children and their families are faring.

Do you know a talented, accomplished and ambitious professional in the social sector? Nominate them for the Children and Family Fellowship.

This 23-month intensive executive leadership program seeks child- and family-serving professionals from across the country who want to strengthen public and nonprofit systems in ways that make them more effective, efficient, equitable and reliable. Learn more: https://www.aecf.org/work/leadership-development/children-and-family-fellowship

During the pandemic, summer nutrition programs geared towards children from low-income families were temporarily able to offer grab-and-go meal options, which allowed them to serve more kids. But now that these federally sponsored programs are once again required to have kids consume the meals on-site, fewer children are participating and more are going hungry.

Why Free Meal Programs Are Having a Tough Time Feeding Kids This Summer Federally sponsored summer meal programs require children to eat on site, but what happens in a heat wave?

“Every child in Indiana should have access to quality education, regardless of their background or circumstances. By addressing these disparities head-on, we not only invest in the future of our children but also in the economic prosperity of our state.” – Tami Silverman, President and CEO of Indiana Youth Institute

Indiana’s Overall Child Well-Being Scores Decline in New National Report The annual publication pointed to some gains for Hoosier youth in health and family categories, though.

Where a child lives can have a significant effect on everything from their performance in school to their physical and mental health. Research shows that families are more likely to thrive when they can raise their children in safe neighborhoods with well-resourced schools and support services. https://bit.ly/3yOPrKr

Teenagers who experienced any amount of housing insecurity earlier in their life are more likely to report worse health than their peers — especially in relation to their mental health.

When little kids don’t have stable housing, it can affect their health later Researchers following a group of American children for decades found that even short periods of housing instability increased the chances of poor mental and physical health years later.

Despite the significant decrease in births among teens and young adults in recent decades, there are still millions of young parents in the U.S. in need of support navigating common challenges such as financial instability, interrupted education and accessing quality child care. To learn more about the needs of young parents and their children, download the recently released KIDS COUNT Data Book. https://bit.ly/3yOPrKr

“It’s a resource to speak Spanish, but if you don’t have good English skills, it can also be really hard to get those [child care certifications]. It benefits Latino children to have a Latino provider because they have the same lived experience, same heritage — it’s easier for them to connect to families, to get more family engagement.”

A small rural town needed more Spanish-language child care. Here’s what it took. Lexington, Nebraska, needed child care solutions to address its dearth of Spanish-language daycare.

Join us LIVE on Instagram on July 18 to dive into the state of education in Florida. In this year’s KIDS COUNT Data Book, Florida ranked 30th overall in child well-being. It also ranked 5th in the education domain – the highest-ranking state outside of New England. Norín Dollard of Florida Policy Institute will join Karina Jiménez Lewis to discuss the context of these scores and what details the data may not show. Follow @‌annieecaseyfdn on Instagram to stay updated: https://www.instagram.com/annieecaseyfdn/

“If we’re focused on cre­at­ing a sys­tem that sup­ports fam­i­lies in a way that they don’t get involved with the child wel­fare sys­tem, the sup­port has to be cus­tomized for fam­i­lies and built at an indi­vid­ual lev­el with peo­ple with­in those com­mu­ni­ties.” – San­dra Gas­ca, vice pres­i­dent of the Casey Foundation’s Cen­ter for Sys­tems Inno­va­tion.

Hear from Sandra on an episode of Community In-Site, a new podcast that shares stories and interviews from Thriving Families, Stronger Children. Tune in to learn how communities can develop fam­i­ly-cen­tered sup­port sys­tems that pro­mote well-being and reduce unnec­es­sary child wel­fare involvement.

Community In-Site Podcast Debuts A Casey-funded podcast provides communities insight on how to reduce child welfare system involvement. Learn more.

“We also know that post-pandemic, chronic absence is twice the level that it was before … It’s critically important that we understand what are the factors that are affecting kids as they enter the classroom and what’s preventing them from showing up for school.” – Leslie Boissiere, Vice President of External Affairs at the Foundation

‘Astonishing’ Absenteeism, Trauma Rates Root of Academic Crisis 50-state report spotlights social, health and economic factors driving country’s literacy and math crises, urging investments in family engagement.

New Mexico-based organization Future Focused Education, one of our Thrive by 25® partners, is easing the transition of students to college and careers by developing internship programs, providing technical assistance to school districts in need and engaging in advocacy work to increase opportunities for youth in the state.

Future Focused Education Improving Education in New Mexico An internship program in New Mexico provides learning experiences and a professional pathway for young people. Learn more.

When kids have health insurance, they’re more likely to access timely medical care for their health needs. This is essential, as poor health during childhood affects not just a child’s well-being, but also their academic performance. https://bit.ly/3yOPrKr

The Foundation is pleased to announce the appointment of its newest board member: Norman Brothers, Jr., the chief legal and compliance officer at UPS. We look forward to partnering on building a brighter future for the nation’s kids and families.

“We’re at an inflection point: [Gen Z is] coming to age in a time of rising inflation and rising interest rates — and that will stay with them. There’s the immediate impact: higher monthly payments on your credit card. But there are also going to be long-term impacts, like it’s going to be harder to buy a home.”

Millennials had it bad financially, but Gen Z may have it worse Generation Z is spending more on housing and car insurance than millennials did. They’re also more likely to be in debt, despite higher wages and more jobs.

Having a low birth weight or being born preterm are the leading causes of infant mortality in the U.S., and babies with these conditions also experience an increased risk of long-term health and developmental problems. Explore the newly released KIDS COUNT Data Book to learn more about the health of our kids. https://bit.ly/3yOPrKr

Register for a for a two-part webinar series on family-engaged case planning in youth probation. The two sessions, held on July 9 and Aug. 17, will help juvenile probation staff work in part­ner­ship with young peo­ple and their fam­i­lies to craft indi­vid­u­al­ized goals for the young person’s time on probation. Learn more about the series and register:

Register Now: Webinars on Family-Engaged Case Planning in Youth Probation A webinar series helps juvenile probation staff implement a family-engaged case planning model. Learn about the series.

Our partners at the Georgetown Center for Children and Families recently examined the mass disenrollment of children from Medicaid across the country after Congress in 2023 ended the pandemic-era continuous coverage requirement. Although some states took an approach that prioritized keeping children insured, other states — where kids make up the largest percentage of Medicaid enrollment — quickly unenrolled children. Learn more in the full report:

Child Medicaid Disenrollment Data Shows Wide Variation in State Performance as Continuous Coverage Pandemic Protections Lifted Download the Full Report (PDF) Background During the COVID-19 public health emergency, states received increased federal Medicaid matching rates in exchange for a commitment to maintain continuous …

Register for a webinar on July 9 from 2–3 p.m. EST to learn more about the application process for our Children and Family Fellowship – an intensive, 23-month leadership program designed to give professionals in the social sector the confidence and competence to lead major systems reform and community change initiatives. https://cvent.me/ANA3BW

Children who haven’t mastered reading by fourth grade are less likely to finish high school or enroll in college than their peers. However, only one-third of fourth graders across the country were proficient in reading in 2022. Learn more about the educational successes and challenges faced by kids in your state in this year’s Data Book. https://bit.ly/3yOPrKr

In Rhode Island, 2% of kids didn’t have health insurance in 2022 — better than the national average. Check out the work of our grantee Rhode Island KIDS COUNT to learn more about the well-being of kids in the state.

Rhode Island's children are doing OK, but not as well as kids in much of New England • Rhode Island Current Rhode Island placed 12th in an annual nationwide survey of children’s well-being, but was outranked by every other New England state except Maine, according to a report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation

“If you were going to pay your [early childhood ed] teachers what they were worth even based off of basic education and experience, you would need to charge the parents so much that you would have no children in your center, [nor] could parents afford care.”

‘Just too burnt out’: Child care crisis crunches providers | CNN Business For the past eight years in the small town of Waupaca, Wisconsin, Susan Elandt has been a fixture for dozens of families – taking care of their children, some as early as 4:45am, so they can get to work.

Texas children are more likely to have undergone an adverse childhood experience, such as living in poverty, experiencing parental instability or witnessing violence. However, for Black children in the state, the odds are even worse — they experience adverse childhood experiences at over 10 times the national average. Learn more in this blog post on the Data Book from our grantee Every Texan.

2024 Kids Count National Data Book: Texas Still Fails Its Children - Every Texan This year, AECF highlights two important factors preventing children from higher achievement: chronic absence and adverse childhood experiences. The combination of learning losses and the impact of these contributing factors will require immediate action from Texas policymakers to make investments i...

Quality, affordable childcare is essential for supporting working families and growing our economy. On June 27, our President and CEO Lisa Hamilton will be speaking at the first-ever National Child Care Innovation Summit hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation and the U.S. Department of Commerce. This event aims to inspire actions and partnerships that will convene cross-sector leaders to transform childcare access through new approaches and partnerships.

Learn more about the summit: https://events.uschamberfoundation.org/childcaresummit/5541546

Students who graduate from high school have better long-term employment and health prospects than their peers who left school early — so it’s critical that we work to ensure youth have access to the resources and support they need to stay connected to school through graduation. Dive into the 2024 KIDS COUNT Data Book for more on the state of children’s education. https://bit.ly/3yOPrKr

Foster Success, a partner of our Jim Casey Initiative, runs an innovative education program that pairs each applicant with an education coach to provide one-on-one guidance about everything from campus resources to academic decisions.

Students from Foster Care Help Shape Expanding College Aid Program By giving voice to students with foster care experience, a college aid program has improved its services as its set to expand. Learn more.

Approximately 22% of Arkansas children were living in poverty in 2022 — the same percentage as the previous year, according to the 2024 KIDS COUNT Data Book. Check out the work of our Arkansas grantee Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families to learn more about the well-being of kids in the state.

High death rates, unchanging poverty level puts Arkansas among worst states for child well-being • Arkansas Advocate The experience of growing up in Arkansas has worsened in most areas of child well-being according to the latest Annie E. Casey Foundation report.

“Our data increas­ing­ly reveal that Mary­land chil­dren are miss­ing out on the oppor­tu­ni­ties kin­ship care pro­vides, which include ensur­ing chil­dren main­tain crit­i­cal, per­ma­nent con­nec­tions to fam­i­ly and com­mu­ni­ty when youth require out-of-home place­ments. Only 23% of Mary­land chil­dren in fos­ter care were placed with kin­ship care­givers as of Jan­u­ary 2024.”

New Kinship Law for Foster Care in Maryland A new Maryland law prioritizes placements with relatives for young people experiencing out-of-home care and foster care. Learn more about the new law.