Indiana improves overall rank on national child well-being report

Today, the Annie E. Casey Foundation released its annual Kids Count report documenting progress in four general domains of child well-being. Each domain is further broken down into four metrics to give a more complete picture of strengths and weaknesses in how the nation serves its children.

Indiana saw improvement across the board in the education domain, compared to data from 2005. But still, 60 percent of Hoosier 4 year olds are not in preschool, 62 percent of fourth graders are not proficient in reading and 62 percent of eighth graders are not proficient in math. The percentage of high school students not graduating on time dropped from 27 percent in 2005 to 20 percent in 2012.

“Any and all academic progress for Hoosier students is a cause for celebration,” said Bill Stanczykiewicz, president and CEO of the Indiana Youth Institute, in a press release on the 2014 Kids Count report. “However, the fact that so many students still lack proficiency in reading and math reveals that Indiana’s educational outcomes still have room for significant improvement.”

Education is viewed as an important step to breaking the cycle of poverty, so gains in that area are encouraging. But looking at the economic well-being of Indiana children shows that poverty still has a tight grip on a significant portion of the population.

The percentage of children living in poverty rose from 17 percent in 2005 to 22 percent in 2012. Eleven percent of Indiana children live in high poverty areas, compared to 3 percent in 2000. The percentage of children whose parents lack secure employment also shows families are continuing to struggle since the 2007 recession, despite the economy beginning to rebound.

“Secure employment” is defined in the report as having a year-round, full-time job, and 30 percent of Indiana children live with parents who lack secure employment. That rate increased from 28 percent in 2008.

This employment trend is despite the fact more households now are led by a person with at least a high school diploma. Thirteen percent of Indiana families still lack an adult with a high school diploma, which is down from 14 percent in 2005.

Jeff Newton, executive director of Kokomo Urban Outreach, was not surprised to hear that Indiana’s child poverty rate has gone up since 2005 and that parents are still struggling to find stable work.

Having more people earn their high school diplomas is a positive step, he said, but many available jobs require additional specialized education or are low-paying, which makes it difficult to support a family. It’s common for people making minimum wage to switch jobs frequently as they look for the next best thing, Newton added.

“When you start at the bottom, you try to move yourself up a lot,” he said. “In Kokomo in the past, you had factory jobs you could go into without a high school diploma. Those aren’t here anymore.”

Another factor in the complex web of poverty is single-family households, which can be seen as both a contributing factor to and product of poverty. About one-third of Hoosier children live in a single-parent home, which is an increase from 30 percent in 2005.

“There’s still not a lot of high-paying jobs,” Newton said. “The economic stress since the recession has torn families apart.”

Another highlight in Indiana’s Kids Count profile is the improvement in health care. Fewer low-birthweight babies were born in 2012 than 2005, there are fewer child and teen deaths, fewer teens who abuse alcohol and drugs and fewer children without health insurance than compared to 2008.

National trends reflected similar improvements in education and health, and also a worsening outlook in the areas of children living in poverty, parents without secure employment and single-parent families.

Overall, Indiana ranked No. 27 this year, up from No. 30 in 2013. The state came in at No. 19 for economic well-being, up from 26; No. 26 for education, up from 34 in 2013; No. 27 for health and No. 31 for family and community.