Now, in other news, a nonpartisan nonprofit that serves as a voice for Kentucky's kids has released what's called the 2023 Kids Count data book, which analyzes how well Kentucky's children have been faring over the last five years.

Kentucky Youth Advocates data looks at 16 different areas that are organized into four different areas economic, security, education, health, family and community.

The real message that I would hope to share with you today is that this year's Kids Count report, more than most, serves as a warning sign.

I mean, candidly, it is not.

A house on fire, but it's certainly not good news.

We know that in many ways, Kids Card is the report card for Kentucky's kids.

So in June, we take a look at how Kentucky compares to other states.

We're looking at how counties are faring.

Is their trajectory getting better, staying the same or declining?

How is this county doing as compared to appear county right next door?

Well, this book is full of obligations and opportunities.

I mean, you can't look at the data and not see that 46% of kindergartners, only 46% of kindergartners are ready to learn in this year's book or think about what it means that about two out of three fourth graders in Kentucky do not read at the national minimal proficiency level.

And that grows to over 66% of eighth graders who can't meet minimal national proficiency standards in numeracy.

Or think about the impact that if today is a typical day in Kentucky.

More than 200,000 kids woke up living in poverty.

And we know that childhood poverty we're childhood poverty is today.

It is truly the canary in the coal mine.

They data point of all kids kill because that's where all those other indicators are going.

So if childhood poverty is getting worse this year and next year, I'll guarantee you indicators around health, safety and education are going to decline.

So again, we have a moment to change the trajectory.

Our essay highlighted the what is a crisis is the crisis of the workforce sector in professionals who deal with kids, child childcare, K-12 schools, child welfare, juvenile justice.

All all of those sectors tell you that their programing is suffering.

Kids are falling through the cracks because we are inadequately staffed.

That is a terrible situation to find ourselves in.

When you look at data points, you see that there are more kids today not being reunified with their families than a few years ago.

So, again, that's one of those critical crossroads.

Are we going to tackle those kind of issues now or are we going to wait until it reaches a critical state?

So our whole hope is not only that, that kids count data compels folks in Frankfort to make policy changes and budget investments.

But we want we want preachers and principals and policemen and and county judge executives and nonprofit leaders in communities across Kentucky to think about what their numbers show for their hometown and how they can begin to make a difference in the lives of the kids who live right next door to them.

Now, the report did have some positive indicators, including a decline in teen pregnancies and a dip in the number of young people incarcerated in the juvenile Justice system.