SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Dual reports featuring new data on child outcomes reveal persistent health inequalities among children in Illinois.

The 2020 Illinois KIDS COUNT report, released in conjunction with the national 2020 KIDS COUNT Data Book from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, shows that roughly 30,000 more Illinois kids were uninsured in 2018 compared with 2016.

Bill Byrnes, KIDS COUNT project manager with Voices for Illinois Children - Powered by YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago, explained there also was a higher percentage of children of color without health insurance than white children.

"When you look at the percentage of kids who are Black who are uninsured, their rate is 3.9%. For Latinx kids, it's 4.4%," Byrnes said. "And when you look at white children, by way of contrast, their rate of uninsured is 2.7%."

Other disparities uncovered in the health report include infant mortality among Black infants was two times the state rate, and blood lead levels were at their highest among Black children.

The Casey Foundation's 2020 Kids Count Data Book looks at 16 indicators of child well-being, and Illinois' overall national ranking slipped from 23rd to 24th in the last year.

Byrnes said the national Data Book examines factors long considered important social determinants of health, such as high housing cost burden, educational achievement and single-parent households. And he said economic inequalities persist.

"The rate of child poverty was 19% in 2010 and it decreased to 16% in 2018," he said. "Even though that's a good decrease, there's still in 2018, 457,000 kids in the state who live in poverty."

Byrnes contends policymakers will need to consider some of the issues outlined in the report, especially in terms of the long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said this includes mandating that state agencies collect data broken down by race and ethnicity and increasing the availability of community-based mental-health services.

"We would also argue that we need to provide more economic supports to children and their families whether that's in the form of direct cash payments, increases in food stamps, utility assistance, rental and mortgage assistance, and so on," he said.

The national 2020 Kids Count Data Book noted the pandemic has had a negative effect on kids, and the foundation will continue to monitor child well-being outcomes as the nation recovers.


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May is mental health awareness month. As part of that, groups in Idaho are using HOPE Week to help kids in crisis and reduce the state's worrying number of child suicides.

Jean Mutchie is president of the Idaho Resilience Project and a community health manager at Saint Luke's Health System. She said the project and Optum Idaho are teaming up to promote positive moments for kids, which can ease adverse experiences.

Mutchie said Optum Idaho is distributing 20,000 kites across the state - to gets them outside and playing.

"We're really focusing on kites, bikes and hikes," said Mutchie. "So really encouraging people to get outside with somebody else and engage in a positive activity."

HOPE stands for "Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences," and the theme for this year's HOPE week is "hope lives here."

Mutchie said there are a lot of ways to promote the mental well-being of children. She said connections with an adult who is not a family member can help protect their state of mind.

"And if you ask a lot of kids, they can't identify a trusted adult who's not part of their family," said Mutchie. "And so that one non-family member who is that trusted adult in a child's life can make an enormous difference. And data backs that up."

COVID-19 has taken a big toll, and is raising concerns about the number of Idaho children in crisis.

Recent surveys show as many as three quarters of respondents thought the pandemic had worsened mental health in the state, and a huge majority say addressing children's mental health is an especially urgent priority.

Mutchie said one key is that people should feel like they can ask for help.

"Really encourage people to seek help, destigmatize, understand that it's OK to not be OK and it's really OK to reach to somebody," said Mutchie. "And also encourage other people to start to build connection and support to really combat isolation and some of the lack of connect that we've faced during COVID."

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 takes calls twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.




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May is National Foster Care Month and Idaho is focused on bringing more foster parents into the fold.

It's always been difficult for states to recruit the number of foster parents they need to support children. But Julie Sevcik, project manager for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, said the pandemic has added another challenge.

She said the state relies on recruitment coordinators who can speak to potential applicants face-to-face, at in-person events, about the critical need for foster parents.

"Those two years of not being able to attend events, because they were canceled because of COVID," said Sevcik, "that did decrease our inquiry numbers quite a bit, as well as our new foster parents."

There were 1,5000 children in foster care in 2020, according to Idaho Department of Health and Welfare data. It also notes 65% of children are eventually reunited with their families.

Since there have been fewer foster parents over the years, Sevcik said her agency can struggle to identify the best matches for children with a smaller pool to choose from.

She said that presents other challenges as well, for parents who already are fostering children.

"We also will struggle to provide those foster families with a break in between their placements," said Sevcik. "To allow them the time that it takes to come back together again as a family and be prepared to accept another child in their home."

Sevcik said her agency provides resources for prospective foster parents, including a mentor with experience in this field, and training also is available.

She said it can be difficult work, but also rewarding for foster parents to see biological families make the changes they need to reunite with children.

"Foster parents are our absolute greatest asset," said Sevcik, "to being able to meet the needs of children who are unable to be safely managed in their own biological families. And we just appreciate everything that they do."

Last year, a whistleblower at Facebook lifted the curtain on how the platform, and its sister companies, impact young kids' mental health.

Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager, alongside teachers and health experts, is raising concerns about the long-term effects social media can have on kids. In an event this week hosted by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), she described the corrosive effects social media have on kids' mental well-being as a public health crisis.

"If we hold children's toys to a product liability standard, where you need to demonstrate you did safety by design, why aren't we asking the same thing of these virtual products for children?" Haugen questioned. "Especially as we move into the land of the 'metaverse,' which is going to be an emergent harm."

Haugen argued social media companies should be held to Congressionally-mandated standards, an idea which has rare bipartisan support on Capitol Hill. Meta, Facebook's parent company, contended it already has adequate internal safeguards and protocols.

Among other things, Haugen revealed leaders at Instagram, which is also owned by Meta, knew the platform's algorithm fed kids potentially harmful content, but opted to essentially double down in order to drive user engagement.

Dalia Hashad, director of online safety for the Washington, D.C.-based organization ParentsTogether, said such strategies have long-term consequences.

"Without fail, the longer a child spends online, the higher their level of anxiety, the higher the level of mood swings, aggressive behavior, feelings of worthlessness," Hashad outlined.

Dr. Warren Ng, president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychology, said having open lines of communication can help prevent issues before they arise. He explained it starts with simply asking kids how they're doing.

"And don't ask them in a way that 'You're OK, right?' No, really ask them, 'Things are really tough right now, how are you doing?' And really being open to that; but also being open to hearing not good news," Ng advised.

The AFT has an archive of previous webinars and educational resources for parents and teachers looking to provide emotional and psychological support for students.