2019 Kids Count Report Released

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – Mississippi is holding steady in the Annie E. Casey Foundation 2019 Kids Count.

Mississippi is ranked 48th.

Kids Count is a survey of the health and well-being of children across the country.

The purpose of the report is to make policy makers and the public more aware of the problem areas, so they can work to improve conditions for children.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation 2019 Kids Count measures 16 indicators of children’s well-being on topics from health to education, to family, even economic well-being.

Mississippi Kids Count co-director Dr. Heather Hanna says the stats show some successes across the nation as a whole and in the Magnolia State.

95% of children in Mississippi now have health insurance.

“In 1993, we had 17% of our children without health insurance. Today, we have 5%, so huge gains and we can thank the ACA for that. We can thank CHIP for that. We can thank Medicaid for that because it is really covering children in our state.”

Hanna says Mississippi has also seen gains in education.

“We have more children reading at grade level and performing on math tests at grade level, than we have in the past and we have more kids graduating on time and that’s true for the nation as a whole too.”

However, it’s not all good news.

“In terms of family and community, that tends to be our lowest ranking and where we struggle as a state the most and struggle in providing healthy and vibrant environments for kids to be raised in. We did see some improvements though with teen pregnancy as a nation as a whole and also in the state.”

Hanna says the economic environment is still the state’s weakest link.

“We have seen some modest gains over the past 30 years. That’s true for the whole country and that’s true for Mississippi, however, the problem is we rank so low to start with in economic well-being, that that’s an area that we know that we really need to focus.”

Hanna says focusing on Mississippi’s ranking in the national 2019 Kids Count report is crucial because it concerns the state’s future, its children.

“It’s very important that we understand where we are as a state compared to other states, so we know what those benchmarks are and we can look to other states for their policies and their strategies and borrow those best practices and apply them here in Mississippi, to try to achieve those same outcomes.”

The Social Science Research Center at Mississippi State also releases its own version of Kids Count.

It’s called the Mississippi Kids Count and focuses on the state and compares the data by counties.