Report: State among best for kids

But disparities remain, says Annie E. Casey Foundation

As the overall welfare of children improves in the nation, Connecticut continues to rank among the best states for children according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation. However, those improvements are not being felt in every part of the state, experts said.

According to the Casey Foundation’s annual Kids Count Data Book, which ranks each state based on four domains with four indicators each, the state is third overall in child health, fourth in education, ninth in family and community and 17th in children’s economic well-being. Overall, the state ranked sixth in the nation by the Casey Foundation’s 16 indicators.

Emmanuel Adero, a policy analyst for the Connecticut Association for Human Services, said the ranking is reflective of statewide investments in children, but also of an economically and racially segregated state.

“It’s really no secret we have pockets of affluence and poverty in this state,” he said. “Those pockets of poverty we have, or the census tracks with the highest concentrations of those who are poor, are the highest concentrations of those who are black or Hispanic.”

Last month, CAHS released its report, “Race Equity in the Five Connecticuts,” showing large disparities in health, education and economic well-being in the state based on race, ethnicity and geography.

“Connecticut, we think of it as a small state, but compare it to Kentucky and it’s more densely populated,” Adero said. “You definitely see the effects of this economic segregation are more exacerbated.”

Although the story of Connecticut segregation is not merely racial, Adero said the data reflects major disparities among racial groups. For the economic well-being domain, which averages the state’s ranking in four indicators

— the percentage of children in poverty, the percentage of children whose parents lack secure employment, the percentage of children living in households with high cost burdens and the percentage of teens who are not in school or working — showed racial gaps in 2014. White Connecticut children ranked third in those four indicators across all white children in the nation and Asian Connecticut children ranked seventh among Asian children. However, black children in the state ranked 16th compared to other black children and Hispanic children ranked 24th compared to other states’ Hispanic children.

“There are only two census tracks in Windham County that have poverty rates of 30 percent or more, yet you see around 40 percent of all Hispanic kids and a majority of black kids in that county living in those census tracks,” Adero said. If Connecticut ranked 17th in economic well-being overall in the most recent report, which evaluated data from 2015, it reflects how disparate economic conditions are for children in the wealthy New York City exurbs of southwestern Connecticut and for children in poor, rural or urban areas.

Laura Speer, associate director of policy reform and advocacy at the Casey Foundation, said the national picture is improving because of several policy decisions such as the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion. Additionally, the employment rate has risen and the poverty rate has fallen since the 2008 financial crisis, she said, all of which positively impact children and their families.

“There’s a lot of things that happen when a child has health insurance coverage: the first is they’re able to have preventative health care that helps them identify problems and take care of illnesses early so they don’t miss as many days of school and are more likely to be ready for kindergarten when they get there,” Speer said. “The other side is that when kids don’t have health insurance and they get sick, that can have all kinds of implications for the family in terms of economic ability if the parent has to stay home from work to take care of the child. And if medical costs are high, it can have major economic strain.”

Speer said investments made by the federal government under former President Barack Obama have shown positive results.

“There’s now the potential for these programs to be streamlined or worse with the tight budget requests that have come in. We think the evidence is really clear there are real, important gains we have made,” she said.

Speer said that, although Connecticut is consistently among the report’s topranking states, it ranks very low on the cost of living indicator.

Adero said the state’s results are worthy of celebration, but there is strong evidence that much work remains to be done in order to reach every child in the state.