PRATTVILLE, Ala. — According to the 36th annual Kids Count Data Book published on Monday, the overall well-being of children in Alabama has remained stagnant when compared to the previous year, with child poverty remaining a top contributor to the state’s comparatively low ranking nationwide.
“The state has improved in some child well-being data points, yet child poverty has remained unchanged for the last 20 years,” said Apreill Hartsfield, Alabama Kids Count director for VOICES. “While poverty doesn’t define a child, it can create huge obstacles that make escaping poverty extremely challenging. Our latest Alabama Kids Count Data Book provides context for some key factors contributing to the state’s persistently high child poverty rate.”
The annual Kids Count Data Book is produced by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and ranks all 50 states using 16 metrics such as reading proficiency and child poverty. Alabama was ranked 39th in overall child well-being in the latest report and last year’s report, but in 2023 was ranked 45th, and in 2022, 46th.
In the report, which uses data from 2018 – 2022, VOICES notes that about one in five Alabama children live in poverty, and one in 10 live in extreme poverty, living with families making 50% or less of the Federal Poverty Level, which in 2022 would be $13,875 a year. Furthermore, extreme disparities existed along racial lines, with 12.7% of white children living in poverty compared to 38.1% of Black children.
Children living in poverty was also a contributor to several other metrics analyzed in the report, particularly in health and wellness. The state’s infant mortality rate, for instance, currently sits at 7.8 infant deaths per 1,000 births, the highest rate in the state since 2016. Infant mortality is measured by infants who die before reaching their first birthday.
“Looking at the infant mortality rate, that really tells us the health of a child as they’re entering the world, and if they can’t make it past the first year of life, then we have to look at what’s going on in the community, with that family,” Hartsfield said, speaking at a press conference. “What we found (was) institutional issues that need to be addressed, really the gaps in our health care coverage, but also access to health care.”
Hartsfield called for state lawmakers to close what is known as the health insurance coverage gap, which refers to individuals whose incomes are too high to qualify for low-income health insurance programs like Medicaid, but too little to afford health insurance in the private market. Those in the coverage gap typically are not provided coverage through their employer, and is estimated to apply to around 300,000 Alabamians.
Hartsfield said that she hoped state lawmakers took two key takeaways from the report; that they identify, continue and expand successful measures the state has taken to improve child well-being, naming the Literacy Act and the Numeracy Act as examples, and that they explore ways to expand health care access to Alabamians, as well as address the leading cause of child death in the state, gun violence.
She also advocated for state leaders to invest in local organizations that provide assistance to families and children, naming the Alabama Network of Family Resource Centers as an example. Founded in 1999, the ANFRC is a series of community-based family resource centers that provide everything from parenting education to early intervention services.
Joan Witherspoon-Norris, the executive director of ANFRC, said the organization served in the past year nearly 53,000 families for a collective half a million hours of face-to-face time
“Behind every data point there’s a child, and with every child there’s a family, and we have the honor of being able to serve families across our state,” Witherspoon-Norris said.