(FOX 2) – The latest Kids Count report, which examines the health and livelihoods of Michigan’s young people, revealed good news: child poverty and infant mortality rates, as well as the number of homeless students, all declined.
However, the number of third-graders with good reading skills decreased.
Both trend lines are the product of pandemic-era policies: historic funding helped families rise out of poverty while enabling students to continue schooling after a year out of school.
But with programs that provide help paying rent and continuing Medicaid benefits for families set to expire, some fear the gains seen in 2022 and 2023 could be reversed.
“(When the data was collected) assistance programs were still in place, such as emergency rental assistance and increased food assistance that allowed families to get nutritious food. We see the impact in this year’s data,” said Anne Kuhnen, policy director for Kids Count at the Michigan League for Public Policy.
Michigan’s 2024 Kids Count, released this week, found that most of the categories the MLPP uses to track child well-being showed improvements between 2017 and 2022.
Reduction in child poverty
Among children aged 0-5, the poverty rate fell from 25% to 19.9%. Since having enough money affects everything from transportation to access to food, the number of children living below the poverty line is considered a key indicator of other aspects of child well-being.
Kuhnen said that certain measures resulting from the pandemic designed to help families through the health crisis had a significant impact on those with the lowest wages.
“We know that low unemployment and a tight labor market have contributed to low-income wages rising the fastest in the years studied here,” she said. “Low-income earners in particular have benefited more from social benefits than well-paid workers, and this is likely to have an impact on poverty.”
A large part of the funds came from the federal government, but the states decided how the money was distributed.
Although some of these programs are being phased out, the latest state budget reflects the success of similar programs, including expanding universal preschool, offering free school meals, and increasing Michigan’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) fund by $20 million.
It is the first time in years that the program has seen a “significant increase,” Kuhnen said.
“This is really important because the number of children receiving financial assistance has been declining for decades,” she said. “It reaches a new historic low every year.”
Infant mortality is falling
The number of babies who died before their first birthday fell from 760 in 2017 to 671 in 2022, the lowest in at least 11 years, according to the Kids Count Data Center.
The 11% decline is an encouraging sign and is largely due to advances in medical care.
However, it is still above the national average. And data shows that there are still large racial disparities in infant mortality. In the least affluent communities, barriers to accessing affordable housing, food, water and a doctor remain difficult to overcome.
However, expanded programs such as paid family medical leave would help alleviate some of these challenges.
Reading skills in third grade are declining
One area that has not improved in the annual Kids Count report is the proportion of third-graders who can read.
From 2017 to 2022, the number of children who can read well fell by 2%. This is another impact of the pandemic, which closed schools and forced some children to do remote learning for months, Kuhnen said.
Adding to officials’ concerns about declining reading scores is the federal aid that schools have received to help them through the pandemic, which will run out in September if school districts haven’t already spent the money.
The MLPP fears that without additional support, the children will continue to fall behind in their performance.
The full Kids Count report can be found online here.
