Child well-being ranking declines in Missouri, report finds

A new report issued by a statewide child advocacy group indicates the overall health, educational status and economic well-being of Missouri children has declined slightly in comparison to other states.

The report, released Monday by Missouri Kids Count, ranks each of Missouri’s 114 counties and compares Missouri to the rest of the nation based on data collected by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Data from a variety of sources were used to measure the status of child well-being at the state and national levels.

“In this year’s report, Missouri ranks 30th out of the 50 states, and that is a slightly lower ranking than we’ve had in the past,” said Tracy Greever-Rice, Missouri Kids Count project director. “Missouri has always been sort of right in the middle of the rankings, so we’re down a little bit. I think we were No. 27 last year.”

Among other states in the region, Illinois is ranked 24th, Arkansas 40th, Kentucky 37th and Tennessee 39th.

Much of the data in the report is based on statistics from 2018, the most recent year for which data is available. In comparison to the rest of the nation, the report ranked Missouri:

• 20th in the area of childhood economic well-being, which looked at factors such as the percentage of children younger than 18 living in poverty and those who were experiencing food insecurity.
• 24th in education, factoring in graduation rates as well as academic proficiency in English and math.
• 29th in family and community factors such as teen births and substantiated child abuse and neglect cases.
• And 39th in children’s health, which factored in the state’s percentage of low birthweight infants, preventable hospitalizations and childhood asthma.

The health statistics, Greever-Rice said, were counterintuitive because there were some declines in overall health indicators even though there was an increase in the number of children covered by health insurance.

“That’s a contradiction to research that says for kids who have health care coverage, their health status, particularly for chronic conditions, should be getting better,” she said. “So that is something we want to take a look at.”

Mixed results

Looking at the Southeast Missouri counties of Cape Girardeau, Bollinger, Perry and Scott, Greever-Rice said the study included both good and bad news.

Based on the latest available data, it appears “children in Cape Girardeau and surrounding counties experienced decreases in household poverty alongside the rest of Missouri’s kids during the post-recession recovery through 2018,” she said.

“However, bucking a longtime trend in the decline in the teen birthrate in Missouri and across the country, Bollinger County experienced an increase in teen births in the five-year period between 2014 and 2018,” she said, and explained teen births put young women at risk of not graduating and living — and remaining — in poverty longer than older mothers.

Greever-Rice said the study also indicates Cape Girardeau, Perry and Scott counties are “part of a worrisome national trend of an increase in rural counties of suicides, homicides and unintentional deaths” adding that “young men are particularly at risk.”

County rankings

According to the Missouri Kids Count study, Cape Girardeau’s composite rank dropped slightly since 2016, from 36th to 37th among the state’s 114 counties, despite declines in childhood poverty and food insecurity levels as well as improvements in the county’s overall high school graduation rate.

The report also indicated Cape Girardeau County had declines between 2014 and 2018 in low birthweight infants, preventable hospitalizations among children, substantiated child abuse/neglect cases and births among girls between the ages of 15 and 19.

Bollinger County’s ranking went from 70th in 2016 to 61st this year, while Perry County’s composite rank improved 11 positions, from 32nd to 21st in the state. Meanwhile, the study said Scott County’s rank dropped from 97th four years ago to 109th this year.

Complete study results may be found at on the Missouri Kids County website, www.mokidscount.org.

Missouri Kids Count and the Annie E. Casey Foundation have conducted studies on childhood health, education and economic security annually since the early 1990s. Greever-Rice said study results are used by service providers and policymakers on the state and local level to influence legislation, programs and policies that impact children.

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