2021 KIDS COUNT Data Book release shows progress for kids in Vermont, but racial disparities remain
Vermont Makes Progress in Supporting Children and Families, Requires Ongoing Commitment to Strengthen Path Toward Recovery
Data Show Both Bright Spots and Pre-Existing Challenges Facing Families as the Covid-19 Crisis Emerged; Hopes for Recovery Hinge on Bold Action, Annie E. Casey Foundation Finds
MONTPELIER, VERMONT — Thanks to gradual improvements in economic well-being and health, Vermont was in a strong position to support children and youth leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, but work is still needed to ensure a path toward an equitable recovery. According to the 2021 KIDS COUNT® Data Book, a 50-state report of recent household data developed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation analyzing how families have fared between the Great Recession and the COVID-19 crisis, Vermont ranked fourth among states for overall child well-being, a slight improvement from the year previous and a reflection of the state’s commitment to progressing toward a comprehensive social safety net.
Sixteen indicators measuring four domains—economic well-being, education, health and family and community context—are used by the Annie E. Casey Foundation in each year’s Data Book to assess child well-being. The annual KIDS COUNT data and rankings represent the most recent information available but do not capture the impact of the past year.
The report offers an expansive view of child and family stability, showing both the long, uneven recovery since the last recession and the position families were in when the current crisis hit. In individual domains, Vermont ranked:
· Ninth in Economic Well-Being
· Fourth in Education
· Fourth in Health
· Third in Family and Community
Vermont showed the greatest improvement in the area of economic well-being, based on factors including the percentage of children living in poverty and whose parents lack secure employment. In 2019, 11,000 kids in Vermont were in households with incomes below the official poverty line, down from 21,000 in 2010. The rate in 2019 was second lowest in the U.S., after New Hampshire. Between 2010 and 2019, the percent of children in families who were spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing decreased from 39 percent to 24 percent. Even though the state has been trending positively, in 2019, 1 in 4 kids in Vermont still lived in households where no parent had year-round full-time employment, an important indication of economic vulnerability.
“The recent federal actions taken toward economic protection are expected to cut the child poverty rate in half in the next year,” says Michelle Fay, executive director of Voices for Vermont’s Children, an independent policy organization and Vermont’s KIDS COUNT partner. “With Vermont in a relatively strong position already, we could go even further toward eliminating child poverty with targeted state investments. We should leverage this tremendous opportunity to create stability and economic mobility for Vermont’s kids, youth and families.”
Vermont made similar gains in the area of health, proving itself to be a national leader both prior to and during the COVID-19 crisis. In 2019 for example, only 2% of Vermont children lacked health insurance—and the state has taken significant steps to make sure this safety net was accessible during the last year to adults as well as children, by expanding eligibility criteria and enrollment windows. Vermont also took the step of creating a program to ensure coverage for children and pregnant people, regardless of immigration status. The recent Household Pulse Survey data included in the report indicate that even for adults, among those in households with children in Vermont, only 5% lacked health insurance in the latter part of 2020, compared with 13% nationally. Vermont also has among the lowest rates of low-birth-weight babies in the country, at 6.6. percent. New to the index this year is an indicator measuring the rate of obesity among youth ages 10-17: this is 29 percent in Vermont, and 31 percent in the U.S. as a whole.
Other areas showed mixed progress: in the Education domain, the state moved from 20th place to 3rd for the number of 3- and 4-year-olds attending pre-school, with 64 percent of young children enrolled in school in 2017-2019 versus 48 percent in 2009-2011. However, standardized tests showed more scores falling below the "proficiency" threshold, with 63 percent of 4th grade reading scores and 62 percent of 8th grade math scores falling instead at the "basic" level or below. There was also a slight increase in the percentage of high-school students who did not graduate in four years, from 13 percent in 2011 to 16 percent in 2019.
In the domain of Family and Community, the number of children living in high-poverty neighborhoods has trended upward, with an estimated 4,000 children (or 3 percent) living in areas where the overall poverty rate was at or above 30 percent. Other indicators were more stagnant: a third of children were in households with single (unmarried) parents in 2019, and about 5,000 kids (4 percent) were in households where the household head lacked a high school diploma—both essentially unchanged since the baseline year used in the report.
Additional survey data from the last year collected by the Census Bureau, also referenced in the report, add to the story of Vermont’s children and families in this moment and highlight racial inequities:
● Between April and December of 2020, 12% of households with children in Vermont had little or no confidence in their ability to pay their next rent or mortgage on time. As of March of 2021, this had decreased to 8%. In the United States as a whole, 18% of households expected to be behind on housing payments. Yet the Vermont data also show that Asian survey respondents with children reported this struggle at a rate of 32%, Black or African American respondents at a rate of 23%, and those identifying as Hispanic or Latino at 19%, between April and December of 2020.
● The data also indicate that 20% of adults living in households with children felt down, depressed or hopeless in March of 2021 (basically unchanged from the 19% rate shown by the aggregated 2020 data).
● Disparities are evident in pandemic data, too, with Black or African American respondents in 2020 reporting feeling depressed at a rate of 23%, those identifying as two or more races or another race 33%, and Latino or Hispanic respondents 31%.
“The effects of the past year have been monumental, and we've seen families and children struggling in really acute ways with mental health, housing and access to food,” explains Sarah Teel, research director at Voices. “In spite of our ranking, many families experienced precarious circumstances to begin with, and racial injustices in our systems need to be addressed. It’s essential for us to commit to eliminating these disparities and imagine different possibilities for the future.”
Where can the state go from here? The Foundation makes policy recommendations that go beyond recovery, and toward greater change and equity, suggesting that re-establishing pre-pandemic levels of support does not go far enough. Investing in children, families and communities must be a priority for both Vermont and the nation at large. Several of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s suggestions have already been enacted in the American Rescue Plan, and additional recommendations include:
● Congress should make the expansion of the child tax credit permanent. The child tax credit has long had bipartisan support, so lawmakers should find common cause and ensure the largest one-year drop ever in child poverty is not followed by a surge.
● State and local governments should prioritize the recovery of hard-hit communities of color.
● States should expand income support that helps families care for their children. Permanently extending unemployment insurance eligibility to contract, gig and other workers and expanding state tax credits would benefit parents and children.
● States that have not done so should expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The American Rescue Plan offers incentives to do so.
● States should strengthen public schools and pathways to postsecondary education and training.
About Voices for Vermont’s Children
Voices for Vermont’s Children is a research-based, multi-issue advocacy organization focused on promoting public policy that centers children and youth. We apply research, analysis and the lived experience of Vermont’s children and families to the pursuit of equity and justice for all kids. To learn more, visit www.voicesforvtkids.org.
About the Annie E. Casey Foundation
The Annie E. Casey Foundation creates a brighter future for the nation’s children by developing solutions to strengthen families, build paths to economic opportunity and transform struggling communities into safer and healthier places to live, work and grow. For more information, visit www.aecf.org. KIDS COUNT® is a registered trademark of the Annie E. Casey Foundation.