Report: Iowa fifth-best state for children

Children in Iowa are better off than most of the country's youth, according to the annual Kids Count report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation released today, though improvement has slowed in some areas.

Ranked fifth overall this year, Iowa regularly places high in the Kids Count Data Book, a report that analyzes data from federal statistical agencies to rank states on the health, education, economic well-being and communities of American children.

'We're not going in a bad direction,” said Mike Crawford, Iowa Kids Count director with the Child and Family Policy Center in Des Moines. 'We've just plateaued a little bit.”

Iowa ranked third for the economic well-being of children, sixth in education, seventh in health and eighth in family and community metrics.

Nationally, there have been 'steady improvements” in children's well-being in recent years, according to a news release from the Casey Foundation, a private philanthropic organization based in Baltimore.

The foundation urged state and federal legislators not to turn away from policies that benefit children - including the Affordable Care Act and the Children's Health Insurance Program, which the foundation credited for historically high health insurance rates among children, as well as tax credits aimed at low-income families.

Backing away from those policies on a state level, Crawford said, would be worrisome and could affect Iowa children.

'Compared to other states, we do quite well,” Crawford said. 'But Iowa compared to Iowa (in the past) ... it's kind of a mixed bag.”

The number of children enrolled in prekindergarten in Iowa has stagnated, for example. About 52 percent of eligible children have enrolled every year since 2010, and Crawford said that rate could improve with increased financial aid from the state.

Only families that earn 145 percent or less of the federal poverty level - about $36,000 for a family of four - can receive financial assistance for early education in Iowa, he said. Iowa Kids Count would like to see that increased to a 200 percent level.

The number of Iowa children without health insurance also has flattened - at 4 percent. Nationally, that rate has fallen from 8 percent to 5 percent since 2010.

With so few children uninsured in Iowa, it could be difficult to improve the statistic further, Crawford said. But its leveling also could be due to a lack of awareness of free children's health insurance programs, he said, such as Medicaid and Hawk-i, an Iowa program for low-income children.

'We would like to see health care coverage for everyone,” he said. 'If adults in the family have health care coverage, it's more likely for children to have health care coverage.”

To address the economic well-being of Iowa children - about 15 percent, or 106,000, of whom are living in poverty - Crawford said Iowa Kids Count backs an increase to the state minimum wage to at least $10.

To read the full report, visit aecf.org/databook.

l Comments: (319) 398-8330; molly.duffy@thegazette.com