a new report finds New Jersey is making decent gains in overall child well-being ranking seventh in the country according to the new Kids Count data book from the Annie E casey Foundation showing promising signs when it comes to our kids education and health but the state landed toward the middle of the pack when it comes to economic pressures namely from the high cost of housing transportation and other goods here that along with rising poverty rates are taking a toll on our most vulnerable kids according to Mary Coogan the president and CEO of Kids Count New Jersey who joins me now mary uh thanks for coming on the show um I'm wondering what type of story this data tells us about our kids in New Jersey and also how they're fairing compared with other states well thank you very much for your interest in this topic so data tells a story it tells part of the story not the whole story new Jersey has consistently been sixth or seventh compared to other states but I think you have to dig in deeper uh Casey looks at four domains and then four indicators in each domain so for example while we are seventh currently compared to other states people are still spending too much on rent poverty is going up kids are not uh proficient reading at third grade level where they should be and they're not proficient at basic math but all of these things sort of interact so if children feel stress at home because parents don't have stable employment or housing is not stable or there's just stress at the home that's going to impact their ability to focus at school i want to pull out one piece of that quickly Mary i mean you mentioned poverty where does the state stand with our poverty poverty rates and um is it housing is it cost of living in New Jersey is it lack of employment are there factors that you all could pull out from that data to see why the rates are where they're at so I think it could be multiple things i don't think it's any one thing um we have gone up a little bit in the number of families where parents don't have secure employment meaning they may be changing between jobs they might be working part-time um our poverty rate has gone up slightly which means there's more households family of four earning less than $30,000 a year and to your point New Jersey is a very expensive place to live and so while other states being just above the poverty level may be okay in New Jersey people are going to be struggling what else does the this latest report show us about our kids when it comes to their education you mentioned reading proficiency um but New Jersey most recently has been touted for having some of the best public education in the nation that's true and I think there are some excellent schools in New Jersey but when you actually look at proficiency so the adage that you learn to read by third grade so after third grade you read to learn when children are not proficient and right now um only 62% of fourth graders are reading at grade level now this changes when you break it down by um race and ethnicity and it's going to change whether you're in an urban district or a suburban district perhaps but overall that's not a good place to be even if you are second in the nation um children are not proficient eth grade math and we know math you need that just basic existence right whatever job you have you need to have basic math skills and we want kids to have even you know better math skills so that they can have engineering jobs or become a scientist or a doctor and you need those math skills i know Mary you all typically have some recommendations that you put forward when um data like this is released are there any key pieces that you want policymakers to focus on so we do encourage people to look at the data when you're marshalling limited resources and put a focus on those programs that have been proven to be effective we're also concerned about the fact that currently there are pending cuts at a federal level which may impact our New Jersey family care program and as poverty rates go up you're going to see more families enrolling their children in New Jersey Family Care which a lot of people don't appreciate is a Medicaid funded program so we urge policymakers to be aware of that as well because uh New Jersey to its credit has stretched its Medicaid dollars far to provide the children's system of care which be which provides behavioral health services um it does support other programs and that all could be impacted and so the the progress we've made we could fall back mary Coogan thanks so much for coming on really appreciate your time thank you