How are Kentucky kids doing?

Well, every year a national report looks at children's well-being and 16 categories related to education, economics, health, family and community.

The 2026 Kids Count Data book is now out, and this year's report is a mixed bag.

And in Kentucky, there are improvements in some areas and declines in others.

What I think is very notable in this report is our education outcomes and the rankings that we see when it comes to, the percent of young children who are not in school.

We saw another decrease there with 63% of children ages three and four not in school.

We also saw, unfortunately, fourth graders who scored below proficient reading levels at 67%.

So more than two thirds of our fourth graders are not reading at proficiency.

And oddly, we are ranked 10th in the nation for that.

But that also just means that other states are struggling with that fourth grade reading level.

And then also when it looks, when it comes to eighth grade, in math, eighth graders who scored below proficient in math, there were 76%.

And so over three fourths of our eighth graders are not scoring proficiency or above in math, compared to 71% in 2019.

So we're unfortunately seeing, continued decrease there.

Some other areas of note include child and youth death rates.

We have seen, a worsening in this regard.

So 31 per 100,000 children and teens ages 1 to 19 died.

In that time frame.

Compared to 29 per 100,000 in 2019.

So what we know is that, there are definite needs when it comes to prevention and programing, especially for preventing youth deaths, because the, the causation for those are very preventable, whether it be suicide or ingestion of substances, whether illicit or prescription.

There are a lot of ways that we can keep kids safe and healthy.

And, and opportunities there to address issues.

When it comes to child and teen deaths, we are seeing a lot of conversation around health outcomes, obesity and, children experiencing, whether it's obesity or being overweight.

We did see a decrease in that.

Now we are still ranked 41st in the nation, but that just means that all states are kind of moving in the right direction on this.

So teens ages 10 to 17 who are overweight or obese in Kentucky is at 33%, so about one inch three.

But that is compared to 37% in 2018 and 2019.

So we're moving in the right direction.

What we know is that often times, access to nutritional programs like Wick, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or Snap, formerly known as food stamps, as well as school meals, can heavily contribute to access to healthy foods and address the, obesity and an overweight.

The data that we see, and especially when we attribute, those programs in early childhood.

One of the things that we know is if a child is in a stable, economically thriving home, they are going to have better outcomes.

And we know that.

So economic opportunities for our families are vital when we're talking about how our kids are faring.

Things, on the policy side, like the state and earned income tax credit.

That is a clear opportunity in Kentucky that we don't have here yet, but could create more money in the pockets of our Kentucky families, which then result in better outcomes for our kids.

Add it all up.

And Kentucky was 36th overall among the 50 states for overall child well-being.

That's the same ranking as last year.