The Annie E. Casey Foundation recently released its latest Kids Count Data Book and shows serious problems for Arkansas's children. Daniel Caruth has more.
Overall child well-being in the United States is on the decline. That's according to the latest Kids Count Data Book from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The annual report tracks how children across the U.S. fare in areas of economic well-being, education, health, and family and community.
Lisa Lawson is president and CEO of the foundation, and says from 2019 to 2024, markers for those categories worsened, especially in the areas of health and education.
“We have just barely more than half of young children in preschool. That really gets them set for educational success long term. So we really want to make sure more young children are in school. And then I mentioned this, fourth grade reading scores and eighth grade math scores are actually pretty abysmal across the country. Only 70% of our kids are proficient readers by the fourth grade, and 73% are not proficient readers, or proficient in math, at the eighth grade. So we got a long way to go to make sure our kids are on track. The pandemic impacted this a lot, but to be honest, the scores were not great before the pandemic. So we've really got to focus on that. One state that's been doing that is Mississippi, that really focused on third grade literacy, and their education score went up 17 points between 2019 and 2024. So there's progress that can be made if you pay attention to it.”
In Arkansas, the state did bump up two points from 45th in 2025 to 43rd this year. And in the health category, the state fell to 48th in the nation.
In a press conference ahead of the report's release, Camille Richoux, health policy director for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, said this year's report shows the number of uninsured children in the state has doubled in the last decade, to 8% in 2024.
“For me, the increase in children's uninsurance is especially concerning because it's one of the clearest examples of Arkansas losing ground. After years of progress, we've not made enough effort to ensure families know about and are able to actually enroll in programs like ARKids First. When Arkansas achieved historically low uninsurance rates, there was much greater investment in outreach and enrollment assistance at both the state and national levels.”
Arkansas's teen birth rate did continue to drop, but remained higher than the national average. And for the first time, the report also gives each state a comprehensive score from zero to 1,000, based on the past five years of progress. Arkansas had a score of 427, compared to a national score of 574.
The 2026 Kids Count Data Book only tracks progress up to 2024, and Lawson says the fallout from federal cuts and economic policies will likely see worse outcomes for kids in the future.
“Well, we certainly know families are contending with a lot, higher prices across the board for rent and fuel and food and everyday things. Affordability is a real challenge for families, and we know that millions of families depend on supports like SNAP, or food stamps, and housing vouchers or Medicaid, in order to make ends meet. So we think it's really important that states pay attention to this data and do all they can to make sure that children and their families can meet their basic needs. It really is going to be essential if we want to have kids be successful in school and be ready for the workforce in the future.”
Despite these setbacks, though, Lawson says the report shows there is still reason to be optimistic.
“The teen birth rate fell 24%, and the share of children living in high-poverty neighborhoods fell 22%. So we've got some places where we are moving forward, but some big areas where we've got challenges, most notably in education, in trying to get third grade reading proficiency and eighth grade math proficiency on track following the pandemic.”
You can find the full report on the Annie E. Casey Foundation website, that's at aecf.org.
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