COLUMBUS, Ohio -- With myriad public health and economic challenges looming, a new report offers local leaders in Ohio pre-pandemic data on child well-being to help guide the path forward.

New 2020 Kids Count County Profiles released yesterday by the Children's Defense Fund Ohio feature research on financial security, health, safety and education -- all of which is timely and relevant, said CDF Ohio Kids Count Project Director Kim Eckhart.

"It's a time when, more than ever, we need to focus on the needs of children and families in our communities," said Eckhart. "And setting these benchmarks really allows us to have child well-being as the key performance indicator of an economic recovery."

The report shows before COVID-19, Ohio showed slight progress in the areas of poverty, median income and unemployment.

Eckhart noted areas that need more work include child abuse and neglect and children in foster care - demonstrating the need to support programs that protect some of the state's most vulnerable residents.

In the area of health, babies born with low birthweight also continue to be a challenge for Ohio. Eckhart said mothers and infants could be better supported by extending pregnancy-related Medicaid coverage, from the current 60 days after delivery, to twelve months.

"A mother's health is so intimately related to a baby's health," said Eckhart. "And so, continuous eligibility for a year can tie into the measures of infant mortality and babies born with a low birth weight."

Eckhart said the county profiles can be used help to ensure kids are kept at the forefront of policy discussions. She added families are living with challenges they've never experienced before.

"Right now, housing is also an educational institution," said Eckhart. "And so, what are leaders' plans to prevent housing instability and to increase access to internet service? So, thinking about funding for utility assistance, funding for rental assistance."

Summit County was cited in the report as an example of local leaders elevating the needs of children. Eckhart said county leaders there are leveraging CARES Act funding to support rent and utility assistance, food banks and small business grants.

Colorado and other states are hoarding more than $6 billion intended for struggling families, according to new analysis.

In 2020, Colorado denied more applications for cash assistance through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program than it accepted. Ali Safawi, a research associate at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, said many Colorado families with children are not getting the help they need, even though the state has some $87 million in unspent TANF funds.

"So in Colorado, we see that for every 100 families with kids living in poverty, just 20 receive TANF," he said. "That means that 80 families out of that 100 are not, even though they are experiencing poverty and could really use that assistance."

Welfare reforms passed under the Clinton administration, aimed to help families transition to jobs that would end what critics called a cycle of dependency, gave broad leeway to states for how to use TANF funds. In Colorado, TANF distributions vary greatly depending on which county you live in.

Safawi noted that most Colorado families living in poverty already are working, but at jobs that do not pay a living wage. He added that investing in children's well-being pays off down the road. When families have cash resources to meet their basic needs, their kids do better in school, earn better wages as adults and are more financially self-sufficient.

"We know from a lot of research that giving cash to families who are struggling with very low incomes has a significant difference for children," he said, "and these impacts are not just immediate; we see improvements in their health and their economic outcomes well into adulthood."

He pointed to Columbia University research showing that raising a low-income family's income by just $1,000 a year, about $83 a month, creates more than $10,000 in societal benefits. Safawi said one way to get assistance to more Colorado families is to increase qualifying income limits, which are exceptionally low.

"It's $421 a month for a family of three," he said. "That means if they make over that, they don't qualify. We don't really see income eligibility that low anywhere else outside of the Deep South, which has a long history of limiting assistance primarily to Black families."

Washington state lawmakers are considering a policy which could help close the wealth gap for future generations.

The Washington Future Fund is a policy typically known as "baby bonds" and would allocate $3,200 to children born under the state's Medicaid program Apple Health. They would have access to it between the ages of 18 and 30.

Jennifer Tran, research and policy director for the Washington State Budget and Policy Center, said the policy would help address the racial wealth gap in particular.

"We know that children of color disproportionately represent households that have fewer wealth and assets," Tran observed. "It's really building at the state level a program that would encourage wealth building for kids in Washington state."

Recipients of the one-time benefit would be able to spend it in-state to help pay for a home, post-secondary education or to start a small business. The legislation was requested by the State Treasurer's office and modeled after legislation enacted in Connecticut last year. The House version of the bill, is scheduled for a public hearing today.

In the legislation's current version, the first distributions would go out 18 years from now for children born this year. Tran argued lawmakers should consider more flexibility with how the fund can be used.

"While buying a home and pursuing higher education and starting businesses might be the right mix of opportunities right now, there could be new, emerging ones to consider in the future," Tran pointed out.

The Washington Future Fund would be pooled in an investment fund. According to the State Treasurer's office, there are about 40,000 Apple Health births each year, or about half of the births in the state. A baby bond policy has been proposed at the federal level by Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.

Finding and affording child care is no cakewalk for Oregon families right now. A new report details the pressures and some potential policy fixes.

The average Oregon family spends 30% of its monthly income on child care. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, families should spend no more than 7%.

Jyoni Tetsurō Shuler, research analyst for Our Children Oregon, which is taking a closer look at the issues.

"We're seeing that this lack of providers, the burnout there, as well as the lack of slots and availability to access, is impacting every single socioeconomic group," Shuler observed. "And then certainly, disparities exist among racial and ethnic lines as well. We're seeing Black and Latinx families, in particular, really struggling to afford and access care."

Shuler pointed out wages for child-care workers are among the lowest of any profession, affecting a workforce largely made up of women and people of color. Nearly one in seven child-care centers in Oregon faces staffing shortages.

Shuler added the pandemic has created additional hurdles, both for families and providers.

Shuler argued Oregon should reduce barriers for establishing child-care homes and centers, to improve access in those areas considered to be "child-care deserts" in the state, and added the federal government can do more to improve wages for providers and bolster subsidy programs for parents, such as the Child Tax Credit.

"Expanding the availability and the accessibility of care, and then, really investing in our workforce and ensuring that they're getting their needs met and really invested, at that governmental level," Shuler urged.

Our Children Oregon also suggested investments to ensure the availability of care and education services that are developmentally and culturally responsive, and in multiple languages.

Shuler remarked ultimately, this is about children, saying kids need trained providers to support proper child development in their first five years.

"We're really seeing a lot impacts on the children," Shuler stated. "Long-term, too. We're not just talking short-term, but on the long-term trajectories of their development."