Data: State fails kids in support
Texas children aren’t getting the early support they need to succeed in school, according to data compiled by the advocacy group Texans Care for Children in a new online dashboard.
The organization evaluated a number of metrics to assess children’s well-being, finding alarming rates of child hunger, lackluster child care options and obstacles to access quality health care across the state. All of those factors could negatively impact a child’s early years before kindergarten, a period crucial for brain development, advocates say.
“There’s no one issue that, in a silo, is going to make it or break it for kids to succeed in school,” said Stephanie Rubin, the CEO of Texans Care for Children. “There has to be this whole range of positive early childhood experiences.”
The dashboard focuses on four key areas: health, household resources, adult-child interactions and early learning experiences. On health insurance, for example, Texas has the highest percentage of uninsured children despite being eligible for Medicaid.
More than half of low-income children under age 6 do not live in an area that has adequate access to subsidized child care. And 7.5 percent of households with young children report moderate to severe child hunger, while the state ranks 46th nationwide in the percentage of children enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, according to the data.
The site provides state legislators with dozens of recommendations to improve those measures, such as providing extra funding to child care providers, expanding access to home visiting programs and extending postpartum health coverage to a year after pregnancy.
The Legislature last year lengthened postpartum Medicaid coverage to six months instead of two, though many advocates and lawmakers had asked for a full year. The longer proposal fell flat in the conservative state Senate.
“Everything they said seemed very intuitive to me,”
said state Sen. José Menéndez, a San Antonio Democrat. “It seems like common sense that families need to have the resources available to them so their children aren’t hungry, so they’re healthy, so that they have the basic needs covered. Only then can children have the clarity to be able to think about learning. If you’re hungry, it’s not easy to focus and concentrate.”
Texans Care for Children has long advocated for many of the recommendations included in the new dashboard. The organization’s 2023 priorities include using the state’s $27 billion
surplus to fund child care and mental health initiatives, supporting programs to keep kids out of the foster care system and facilitating access to health care.
There are roughly 2.4 million kids under age 6 in Texas, accounting for roughly 10 percent of all young children across the country. About a third of them are living in or near poverty, with children of color twice as likely to have that status than white children.
“Early childhood education and school readiness is not just a family issue, it’s an economic issue,” said state Rep. Angie Chen Button, R-Richardson. “Let’s make sure that more parents have access to high-quality child care and other resources so they can go to work and give their kids the support they need to be ready to succeed in school.”
The racial disparities extend to other markers, too. About 11 percent of all Texas children are born prematurely, which can result in physical challenges early on and long-term developmental hurdles, according to the dashboard. Black babies are far more likely to be born preterm than other racial groups.
Children also need positive interactions with adults in their early years to learn how to eat, speak and walk. But 74 percent of Texas children under 6 aren’t read to every day, and the state ranks 49th nationwide on that marker, according to the dashboard.
Advocates say the Legislature should invest in mental health care resources for children and parents to improve interactions between them, and lawmakers should also support programs that promote early reading and literacy.
“It sounds so simple, but if all parents would be able to talk to their baby and interact, talk about letters, numbers, shapes … then they truly are setting their kids up for success,” said Michele Hand, a teacher at Whitehouse Independent School District outside of Tyler.
Texans Care for Children plans to update the dashboard annually with new data.
“It seems like common sense that families need to have the resources available to them so their children aren’t hungry.”
State Sen. José Menéndez, a San Antonio Democrat