In the latest Kid Count, an annual report on child wellbeing by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Wyoming ranked twelfth in the country, up from 23rd last year. That’s thanks to improvements in teen suicides and a reduction in the number of kids living in cost-burdened homes and in poverty.
This year, the number of kids living in high poverty areas went down from 1% to .5% while kids living in poverty stricken homes declined from 12% to 10%.
Micah Richardson, the associate director of policy at the Wyoming Women’s Foundation, said, “ While our numbers were really strong, we still have 12,000 kiddos who are living in poverty, so that is something we need to think about.”
The same goes for the number of teen suicides in Wyoming.
“ While I don't want to celebrate the fact that there were 31 child and teen deaths per 100,000 – that is not great. However, it is five fewer than where we were before, and any progress we can make on that front I think is incredibly important,” Richardson said.
She credited the state’s decision to fund a 988 suicide hotline and more school counseling services, as well as Gov. Mark Gordon’s mental health forums, for moving the dial.
She also felt heartened by the fact that fewer children in Wyoming are living without health insurance than previously.
But some worrisome numbers appeared in the new report as well, including an increase in the number of kids living in homes where the parents are severely cost-burdened. She said that hurts children because, ”if you are renting and your monthly rent is going up, you are then faced with choices of where do you make sacrifices. My hunch would be that for most families, having a roof over their head is going to be number one. Number two might be the food that you put on your table.”
As with all but two states in the country, children’s educational performance declined in Wyoming. The number of fourth graders who aren’t proficient in reading and the number of eighth graders not proficient in math both increased. Richardson said Wyoming can help address the problem by getting children learning earlier.
”If we can support early educational opportunities for families, I think that can go a long way to building up the outcomes for our children, which we know then make stronger outcomes for communities, for our workforce, for long-term growth of Wyoming,” she said.
Wyoming wasn’t the only state in the Intermountain West near the top of the child wellbeing list: Utah came in third, Nebraska ninth, Idaho 13th and North Dakota and Colorado 14th. Richardson said that has a lot to do with the cost of living in the American West as well as investment in schools.
”You look at the states that have either put more money into education or continually fund education at a pretty solid level, they always tend to perform higher,” she said.
Can we end with something forward moving? Maybe the more specific report coming out or what they are going to do with this data
Tune into Open Spaces on June 12 to hear the full interview with Micah Richardson on the Kids Count results.
