The lingering effects of the Great Recession continue to be felt by Missouri’s children and families according to the 2016 Release of the Missouri KIDS COUNT (MKC) Databook, announced last week by the Family and Community Trust (FACT).
Texas County’s picture was a mixed bag: Five key factors improved and five declined.
The new databook shows that more than one in five children in Missouri, 21.3 percent or nearly 289,000, live in poverty, representing a 1.4 percent increase in child poverty from 2010 to 2014. In Texas County, the figure was 32.8 percent or 1,752 children in 2014, which is down from 2010’s figure of 33.2 percent.
The county also has shown improvement in births to mothers without a high school diploma. The number dropped to 58 from 60 in the period 2010-2014. The infant mortality rate also improved. Child deaths — those ages 1 to 14 — declined over a five-year period from 10 in 2010 to four in 2014. The high school dropout figure also showed improvement. The number in 2010 was 22; 10 in 2014.
Downward trends were:
•Low birthweight infants increased, child abuse cases increased from 206 to 353 from 2010-2014. The number children entering or re-entering state custody totaled 47 in 2014, up 25 from 2010.
•Teen unintentional injuries, homicides and suicides increased by two in 2010 to eight in 2014.
STATEWIDE
However, other indicators helpful in predicting poverty are nudging upward in Missouri. Births to mothers without a high school diploma, a reliable predictor of persistent poverty, has improved in Missouri, with the percent of children born to such moms decreasing from approximately 17 percent to slightly less than 14 percent. The report provides an annual, state and county-level analysis of child well-being measuring indicators of Economic Security, Child Protection and Safety, Education and Health.
“The well-being of Missouri’s children and families frames the core of our work,” said Bill Dent, FACT executive director. “The ability of our community partnerships and other child focused organizations to have relevant, reliable data is critical for them to be successful in their efforts. All of this helps communities better prioritize issues and develop practical initiatives to ensure that children are healthy, secure and prepared to flourish as they mature.”
To examine trends over time, MKC compared current 2014 data to the 2010 baseline data, which revealed that seven outcome measures improved in Missouri during this time period including: births to teens, teen unintentional injury/homicides/suicides, annual high school dropouts, births to mothers without a high school diploma, infant mortality, child deaths and low birthweight infants. Outcomes that worsened between 2010 and 2014 include: children under 18 in poverty, child abuse/neglect and family assessments and children entering/re-entering state custody.
According to the 2014 data, 1.39 million children under age 18 live in Missouri; nearly one-third (32.1 percent) are children under age 6; children of color make up nearly one-quarter (24.6 percent) of the child population; and over one-third (35 percent) of children live in single-parent families, up from 33.3 percent in 2010.
“By highlighting trends across time and between geographic areas, the MKC report provides policymakers and advocates with the crucial information they need to make informed decisions regarding how best to support the well-being of children across the state,” said Tracy Greever-Rice, interim director of the Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis at the University of Missouri.
Additional new data sets will be added to the MKC Databook in the future to support changes in the way data are collected, and to continue show an accurate description of child well-being in Missouri.
ABOUT KIDS COUNT
Missouri KIDS COUNT is an initiative of The FACT, a long standing organization with a commitment to improving child well-being in Missouri. The FACT is made up of a public-private board and 20 Community Partnerships working across Missouri on programs aiming to improve family and child outcomes. The FACT is in its third year as the Annie E. Casey Foundation KIDS COUNT grantee in Missouri, and the 2016 Release of the MKC Databook is the first as that affiliation.
The 2016 Release of the MKC Databook was produced in partnership with the Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis (OSEDA), the Children’s Trust Fund (CTF) and the Center for Family Policy and Research at the University of Missouri.
For more information or to download the full 2016 Release of the MKC Databook visit mokidscount.org.
PDF: Kids Count study released for county