New KIDS COUNT Factbook outlines what's a stake for vulnerable R.I. kids

Yahoo

05-05-2025

Toys sit on a table in an empty Head Start classroom in the Cranston Child Development Center. Enrollment in Head Start has dropped from a decade ago, but the waitlist for the early childhood education program remains long, according to the latest Rhode Island KIDS COUNT Factbook released Monday. (Photo by Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current)
Data-crunching policy and advocacy nonprofit Rhode Island KIDS COUNT presents what it does every year in its 31st annual Factbook scheduled for release Monday: scores of charts, graphs and numbers to illuminate how things have changed for the babies, kids and teens of Rhode Island in the past few years.
But as the executive summary for this year's Factbook notes, things are not the same as last year. The new report highlights what could be at stake for kids within the context of sweeping proposals to cut federal social services and programs, like Medicaid, SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), Head Start, and programs promoting child immunizations and healthy school meals
Nearly 50,000 Rhode Island schoolchildren could no longer be eligible for breakfast and lunch at no cost during the school day. The wait list for Head Start early education programs could grow even longer. And the percentage of children living in poverty who visit a dentist each year, already alarmingly low, could continue to drop.
'We must ensure that families will be able to access the programs that help them thrive,' the executive summary states.
More than 44,951 children in Rhode Island were on SNAP as of October 2024, with a family of three receiving an average monthly food stamp benefit of $766. Of these SNAP households, 70% made under the federal poverty level of $25,820 for a family of three.
National school meal programs are another source of nourishment for kids. In December 2024, 35,314 Rhode Island kids received free breakfast at school, and 75,933 ate free lunch.
But the executive summary notes that a Congressional GOP proposal to retool the Community Eligibility Provision would reduce the number of eligible schools in the state, as it would require schools to have a higher percentage of low-income students to qualify. Raising that threshold from 25% to 60%, as the House proposal in February suggested, would reduce the number of students in Rhode Island eligible for free school meals from 98,092 to 49,155.
Advocates are also concerned about federal budget proposals targeting programs like Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which together enrolled 117,890 Rhode Island children through the managed care health insurance program RIte Care at the end of 2024. Finally, there's the early education program Head Start, which has shuttered five regional offices, generating unease amongst providers. There were 1,438 children enrolled in Head Start in Rhode Island in October 2024, with 493 children still on a waitlist.
In an email Sunday ahead of the report's release, Paige Parks, the executive director of Rhode Island KIDS COUNT, emphasized diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as also being 'under attack from the federal government despite the persistent and unacceptable disparities in child well-being by race, ethnicity, income, disability, language, sexual orientation, gender identity, neighborhood, and zip code.'
'These disparities will continue to persist among children and families if equity and equitable policies and investments are removed and if federally collected data becomes less available,' Parks said. 'We must use data as our compass to address disparities and to ensure all children have the opportunities needed to thrive.'
The report adds three new 'indicators' this year — family structure, maternal health and mental health — for a total of 67 categories of insight into the state's youth population. Those indicators are grouped into five major areas of family and community, economic well-being, health, safety and education.
The report also breaks down data at the community level, with specific stats for indicators as observed in Rhode Island's 39 communities.
'Communities and neighborhoods do matter — the actions of community leaders, government leaders, elected officials, businesses, faith organizations, and parents greatly influence children's chances for success and the challenges they will face,' the Factbook reads.
This year's report clocks in at 198 pages, and as in past editions, spotlights continuing disparities linked to race, income and geography.
One example: Rhode Island's racial demographics are gradually becoming less homogenous, and in 2020, about 47% of Rhode Islanders under 18 were people of color, compared to only 28% of adults. Those figures may not represent the state's entire population of children of color either; the Factbook notes that the 2020 Census undercounted the demographic even more than it did in 2010.
But poverty, a perennial concern of the Factbook, continues to disproportionately affect this growing segment of the population. While only 7% of Asian/Pacific Islander and white children lived in poverty between 2019 and 2023, 25% of Hispanic children and 24% of Black children lived in poverty. Among American Indian and Alaska Native children, that figure rose to 29%, and 28% among children who identified as 'Some other race.'
'Children in poverty are most at risk of not achieving their full potential,' the introduction states.
Between 2019 and 2023, Rhode Island had a 13% child poverty rate, which equated to 27,224 children living in families with incomes beneath the federal poverty threshold.
Other data points forming this year's Factbook:
Homelessness is up again, as it was last year. Public school officials noted 1,966 children as homeless during the 2023-2024 school year. Since the 2021-2022 school year, the number of students identified as homeless has risen by 35%. Additionally, In 2024, 951 children stayed in shelters or hotels funded by the state's child welfare agency, and 100 children were reported sleeping outdoors for at least one night during January 2025.
In 2023, 78% of children were fully immunized by age two — a slight decline from 82% in 2013, but still above the national average of 67%. Meanwhile, vaccine exemptions are rising: 185 kindergartners and 382 seventh graders received exemptions during the 2024–2025 school year, with over 90% citing religious reasons in both grades.
Only 47% of children with Medicaid visited the dentist for preventive care in 2023, while 65% of children with private insurance did. That same year, 413 children were treated for dental issues in ERs, and 69 were hospitalized with dental problems.
During the 2023–24 school year, schools issued 219 disciplinary actions to kindergarteners, with 182 of them given out-of-school suspensions. Of 9,208 out-of-school-suspensions across all grade levels that year, 54% were for nonviolent offenses.
New indicators in this year's Factbook are family structure, maternal health and infant health, which consolidate or replace some previous metrics, including children in single-parent families, grandparents caring for grandchildren, preterm births and low birthweights.
The 2025 Factbook is set to debut Monday morning with a breakfast event at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Warwick. U.S. Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse and U.S. Reps. Gabe Amo and Seth Magaziner are slated to attend, and Patricia Silva of the futurism-focused nonprofit FutureGood iss scheduled to give the keynote address. Classical High School student Mariah Ajiboye, who is also board co-chair of youth advocacy group Young Voices, is scheduled deliver the youth keynote.
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