Contact:
Mara Powell
mpowell@kyyouth.org

2023 Kentucky KIDS COUNT County Data Book: A Look at Child Well-Being Data Trends and Investing in the “Kid Workforce”

Featuring the latest county-level data for key measures of child well-being

Louisville, KY – The 2023 Kentucky KIDS COUNT County Data Book, released today by Kentucky Youth Advocates, features the latest data on 16 measures of child well-being, showing whether outcomes for children across the Commonwealth have improved, worsened, or stayed the same over a five-year period.

Detailed data are available for every Kentucky county at www.kyyouth.org/kentucky-kids-count/.

“As Governor Beshear enters his second term and the General Assembly prepares for the 2024 legislative session, we are once again emphasizing the blizzard of obligations and opportunities facing Kentucky’s kids. We’ve seen profound resilience of communities through recovery from natural disasters and the pandemic – yet those challenges present lasting impacts on family stability, mental health, education outcomes, and so much more. And unless and until we tackle childhood poverty – impacting more than one in five young people – Kentucky kids will continue to fall behind,” said Dr. Terry Brooks, executive director, Kentucky Youth Advocates.

In this 33rd edition of the County Data Book, we again invited young people from across the Commonwealth to share their aspirations, the needs they see in their communities, and their ideas for the top priorities as the 2024 Kentucky General Assembly drafts the biennial state budget. Overwhelming, their calls were for investments in youth access to food, mental health supports, substance use treatment, and safe spaces for young people in their community.

Additionally, the essay of this edition dives into what Brooks has coined the “kid workforce” – an analysis of the workforce that supports and impacts Kentucky’s children and youth, including teachers, counselors, youth detention and child welfare workers, and many others. Media stories, on the ground voices, and youth experiences illustrate the crisis state of the kid-sector workforce and that it merits the same respect and support given to the private sector.

“A strong kid workforce is an integral piece of our state’s infrastructure, in line with bridges and roads. Yet, the competent and committed adults that make up our ‘kid workforce’ seem to be harder to find and harder to retain. If successful kids lead to strong communities and a healthy and vibrant economy, we must address this crisis with a trifecta-styled commitment to compensation, culture, and creativity,” asserted Brooks.

The workforce crisis and other challenges facing Kentucky’s over 1.1 million children is highlighted throughout the 2023 County Data Book within the domains of economic security, education, health, and family and community.

  • Sustained child care infrastructure for parents and providers: Working parents face the reality of the cost of safe, accessible child care as they pay upwards of 30% of their income on just one child in a year. With 79 of 120 counties being child care deserts, the need for providers is critical; yet centers struggle to recruit and retain staff due to low wages. Kentucky can sustain the increase in affordability and wages made possible with federal relief funding by investing in child care providers.
  • Nutritious free meals for students in all schools: Access to regular, nutritious meals is critical for children to learn and grow. Kentucky students can receive ten meals weekly through school, yet 12% of Kentucky schools do not participate in Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) program. Kentucky can support school nutrition departments in providing free, nutritious meals to students by increasing the reimbursement rate for meals served in schools.
  • Improved access to mental health care: With one in six Kentucky teenagers ages 13-17 experiencing depression or anxiety, there is a shortage of mental health providers across the Commonwealth, especially those that accept Medicaid. Kentucky can increase the reimbursement rates for mental health services to expand the Medicaid network for mental health care.
  • Prioritizing community alternatives to detention: When a child makes a mistake, diversion and other community-based alternatives to detention, such as mental health services, mentoring, and educational supports, are more effective in reducing recidivism. One in five children who completed a diversion program had repeat involvement in the juvenile justice system, compared to one in three who had their case referred to court. Kentucky can hold youth accountable while also keeping them connected to community supports by investing in a continuum of care model.

“We must hear calls from young people like Leondrea, who told us, ‘We need more therapists or counselors that check in with kids – in schools and in the community. I didn’t have that growing up or anyone to talk to about my struggles.’ Understanding the challenges kids are facing through data and listening to their stories are the first steps to helping us realize KYA’s long-standing vision in which Kentucky is – in fact – the best place in America to be young,” continues Brooks.

Child well-being data highlights from the 2023 County Data Book include:

  • While child poverty rates in 2021 improved in 109 out of 120 counties compared to five years ago, over one in five (21%) children overall continue to live in poverty. Due to historic and ongoing barriers to opportunities, 36% of Black children and 31% of Latinx children live in poverty in Kentucky compared to 20% of White children.
  • In 2017-2021, 44% of Kentucky households had a high rental cost burden in which renters spent 30% or more of their income on rent plus utilities. Edmonson County had the lowest rate (20%), while 5 counties have rates of 60% or higher.
  • Just 46% of kindergarteners entered school ready to learn last school year, which is underscored by declining rates in 105 of 169 school districts with available data. Additionally, fewer than half (48%) of fourth graders scored proficient in reading – ranging from 15% of fourth graders in Paris Independent in Bourbon County to 75% in Boyle County – and only 36% of eighth graders scored proficient in math – ranging from 6% of eighth graders at Paris Independent to 75% at Pikeville Independent.
  • In 2021, 96% of Kentucky children had health insurance, which has worsened compared to 2016. Over that time period, 96 counties experienced worse rates in child health coverage with just 17 counties experiencing improvement and 7 counties experiencing no change.
  • In 2020-2022, 32% of children exiting foster care reunified with their parent/primary caretaker, which is a decline from 2015-2017. Owsley County had the best rate (78%) of reunification, while 8 counties had rates lower than 20%. Across Kentucky, 41 counties experienced better reunification rates and 64 counties experienced worse rates.

Access the 2023 County Data Book, county data profiles, the data dashboard featuring state data from the report disaggregated by race/ethnicity, and videos of young people sharing their stories beyond the data at www.kyyouth.org/kentucky-kids-count/.

The 2023 Kentucky KIDS COUNT County Data Book was made possible with support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation and KIDS COUNT sponsors, including Aetna® Better Health of Kentucky, Kosair for Kids®, Charter Communications, and Mountain Comprehensive Care Center. Any findings and conclusions presented in this report are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Annie E. Casey Foundation or other supporters.

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Kentucky Youth Advocates believes all children deserve to be safe, healthy, and secure. As THE independent voice for Kentucky’s children, we work to ensure policymakers create investments and policies that are good for children. Learn more at www.kyyouth.org.