CONCORD, N.H. – New Hampshire ranks among just 10 states in the nation that saw the percentage of children living in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty increase, according to a new report by The Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Rebecca Woitkowski, Kids Count policy coordinator for the advocacy group New Futures, says the state is experiencing multiple social crises with devastating consequences for children.

"New Hampshire has been in the midst of a substance-use, mental health and child protection crisis for a number of years,” she points out. “So, we might be feeling the negative impact of that."

Growing up in an area of concentrated poverty is one of the greatest risks to healthy child development, according to the report.

The report also says, more than 12% of all children in the nation live in neighborhoods where fresh food and quality medical care are scarce, and poor air and water quality are commonplace.

Woitkowski says access to high-quality child care, home visiting and policies aimed at ending food insecurity can help families.

"It's really alarming, and it should underscore the need for lawmakers to focus on child well-being," she stresses.

Scot Spencer, The Casey Foundation’s associate state director of advocacy, says despite the economic expansion the country has seen over the past several years, concentrated poverty has worsened in many states.

"No children should be living in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty,” he states. “The fact that we still have 8.5 million children after multiple years of economic expansion and growth should not be a satisfactory solution for anyone in the United States."

The report also found that African-American and Native American children are seven times more likely to live in high poverty neighborhoods, compared with white children.

Child well-being in New Mexico appears to be slowly improving with a marked decline in child poverty.
Data from New Mexico Voices for Children found child poverty in the state is lower than it was a decade ago - having dropped from 29-percent in 2012 to 24-percent in 2022 - keeping with a national downward trend.

Report author Emily Wildau, senior research and policy analyst for New Mexico Voices for Children, said the improvement is due to new state policies and the pandemic-related expansion of the federal Child Tax Credit. She said while poverty rates declined, disparities still exist.

"They exist along racial lines and by income, so it's really important for us to choose equity in all of our public policies - really making sure that we are considering how every policy passed can help us to close some of those gaps," she explained.

Wildau added following expiration of the federal tax credit, gaps in poverty by race and ethnicity widened again.

The annual well-being report tracks economic security, education, health and family and community. Voices for Children is encouraging state lawmakers to fully fund the Early Childhood Education and Care Department and increase the state Child Tax Credit for low-income families with young children.

The report includes several new indicators, including county-specific rates of illnesses among children due to extreme heat and as well as cases of asthma. Wildau said it's important that lawmakers understand how climate change is impacting the state's health-care system, given that New Mexico is a major oil- and gas-producing state.

"Which is really relevant to just consider how environmental contaminants can cause environmental health concerns for our kids," she continued.

Wildau said absenteeism remains high among New Mexico's school students, but the rate of teens who are not in school and not working -- often referred to as "disconnected youth" -- continues to decline.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation's 2024 Race for Results report examines child well-being, and finds children of color in Louisiana face significant disparities when compared to their peers across the United States.

According to the report, policy choices at the state and local levels, combined with the lack of support for families, have resulted in poor outcomes for children.

Teresa Falgoust, director of data and research with Agenda for Children, said one major challenge in the state is the poverty levels.

"Just 30% of Black children and 44% of Latino children in Louisiana live in households with incomes above 200% of the Federal Poverty Level," she explained, "and that's really the starting point at which families can make ends meet without having a lot of extra support."

Falgoust added there are ways to improve this, and the report suggests that policies such as the expansion of Medicaid and family tax credits can play a crucial role in strengthening the well-being of families in Louisiana. Other key factors that could benefit families include expanding paid leave for every worker and increasing direct funding for college scholarships for low-income students.

Despite the state's overall performance, she noted there are promising improvements when it comes to education. Falgoust said every year between 2017 and 2020, the number of young adults ages 25 to 29 who have at least an associate's degree has increased across all demographics, and added they are also seeing improvements in literacy across all demographics.

"Another area that Louisiana has done really well in is improving our fourth-grade reading proficiency, among virtually every racial and ethnic group. And some of the reasons that we've seen for that have been we've made some pretty substantial commitments to increasing access to early care and education," she continued.

Falgoust said the report highlights a need to focus on the unique needs of each community to overcome some of the variations in outcomes based on race or ethnicity.

Other suggestions for improvement from the report include target programs and policies to close the well-being gaps for people of color and calls for lawmakers to consider "baby bonds" and children's savings account programs. Recently, Congress reached an agreement to bring back the pandemic-era Child Tax Credit.


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Tennessee's "State of the Child" 2023 report shows some progress, but also highlights ongoing areas of concern. From the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth, the report examines kids' health and mental health, education, family economics, child care and the state's child-welfare and youth-justice data.

Kylie Graves, director of policy and legislative affairs for the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth, said a key finding is that, among children of all age groups, those younger than five are most likely to live in poverty. The proportion of those children living in poverty has increased to one in five.

"We did see in 2022 17.6% of children in Tennessee lived below the federal poverty line," Graves said. "That is still too high and too many of our kids, but it is closer to the national average than we've ever been. Nationally, that number was 16.3%."

Graves said the report showed between 2019 and 2021, the number of children in poverty declined. But between 2021 and 2022 among Tennessee kids younger than age five, it increased to 20%. However, the increase or decrease associated with the child poverty rate over the last couple of years was not due to pandemic assistance.

Richard Kennedy, executive director of the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth, said the report highlights the continued decline in teen risk behaviors such as substance use, but mental health challenges have continued to increase. He pointed out that the Tennessee General Assembly has focused on increasing resources for access to mental health.

"We know that access to high-quality, easily accessible mental health services, especially those that are in school-based settings, can really provide those additional supports and services for young people, as they grow into adults that will help them be more successful, better citizens going forward," Kennedy explained.

Graves said the report finds progress in child welfare and neglect, including Tennessee's extended foster care, giving young people more time in the system and smoother entry into adulthood.

"In fiscal year 2023, 369 youths accepted extension of foster-care services; that's the second-largest number ever accepted," said Graves. "So, we're seeing that program expand, which just means that we're helping more and more kids bridge that transition that can be really challenging, and can be a cause of a lot of negative social behaviors."

Graves emphasized that Tennessee's rate of substance-exposed newborns is well below the national average, and the state has a successful "plan of safe care" program that helps keep mothers and babies together safely. Nearly 99% of these infants have such a plan, which is much higher than the national average of 70.4%, the report said.


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