The Alabama Kids Count Data Book reports state trends and county-level data on child well-being across the state. It annually explores more than 70 key indicators across four issue areas: Health, Safety, Education, and Economic Security.
This year’s report analyzes data mostly collected from state agencies before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, it found that Alabama’s children were struggling to overcome numerous inequities before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unless state policymakers intervene, these disparities are likely to grow larger.
The Montgomery-based, statewide nonprofit VOICES for Alabama’s Children produces the Alabama Kids Count Data Book annually since 1994.
“The 2020 Alabama Kids Count Data Book provides a comprehensive glimpse into how children and families were faring prior to the onset of COVID,” said Stephen Woerner, the executive director of VOICES for Alabama’s Children. “Even though most of this report focuses on data collected before everything was turned upside down by the coronavirus, it was important to us to publish this year’s data book to help establish a clear benchmark from which we could measure the full impact of the pandemic on Alabama’s children and families.”
Among the statewide highlights included in this year’s report, VOICES for Alabama’s Children observed that:
- Since 2000, Alabama’s total population has grown by just over 10 percent while the child population has decreased by three percent.
- The makeup of the child population continues to show children of color will soon be the majority of the child population, and by 2030 the majority of the workforce.
- In 2019, 33,118 children received mental health services for a Serious Emotional Disturbances (SED).
- Alabama children with an indication of abuse or neglect increased between 2008 and 2019 from a rate of 5.1 per 1,000 to 11.1 per 1,000.
- Gaps in educational achievement for Fourth and Eighth grade reading and math are 26 to 29 percentage points lower for children in poverty compared to children above poverty.
- The total rate of poverty for Alabama in 2014-2018 averaged 17.5 percent compared to 16.1 percent in 2000. Of all age ranges, children under five have the highest rate of poverty at 28.4 percent. More children of color, especially black and Hispanic, have a poverty rate of 41.9% and 42.6%, respectively, while 16.5% of white children are growing up in poverty. If you look at the base year, you can see that this trend was evident even in 2000 for black children with a rate of 40.5%, Hispanic children 29.1% and white children 12.0%.
“Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the state has rightfully been focused on addressing the most pressing needs exposed by the virus,” Woerner continued. “But what the Data Book tells us is that many of the inequities exposed by COVID existed before the virus. The coronavirus did not create our fragile childcare system, but it has caused significant challenges. The outbreak did not lead to a lack of broadband access in rural counties, but it left many students without access to online learning. That is why it is important that we not only tackle the immediate needs of children and families, but we also work to find long-term solutions to address the systemic inequities that existed before they were exposed – and worsened – by the COVID-19 crisis.”
According to the 2020 Alabama Kids Count Data Book, Shelby County ranks number one in the state for overall well-being, followed by Limestone, Lee, and Baldwin counties. Greene County ranks sixty-seventh.
This year’s state Data Book also incorporates national comparisons drawn from the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s national KIDS COUNT Data Book. Nationally, Alabama ranks 47th, ahead of Louisiana, Mississippi, and New Mexico.
Longleaf Strategies advises on communications strategy and leads media outreach for VOICES for Alabama’s Children’s Kids Count activities.