LANSING, MI— Federal COVID dollars have helped increase some sectors of child wellbeing in the U.P., but more permanent solutions need to be found. That’s one of the takeaways from this year’s Kids Count in Michigan report.
Kids Count is an effort to measure the well-being of children and families in the state and use that information to drive decision-making.
Director Kelsey Perdue says early education is an important part of a child’s education overall, but childcare remains an expensive prospect.
“For a family in the UP, on average, making minimum wage, childcare for one month would take about 36 percent of their income,” she says.
Perdue says COVID money is helping fund childcare in the state, but it’s only temporary.
The U.P. has held steady, like the rest of the state, by having a graduation rate of over 80 percent.
Officials haven’t been able to prepare complete reports on the test scores of third grade reading and eighth grade math because of the COVID pandemic. 2021 had fewer test-takers than normal. But collected data indicates less than half of third graders in the U.P. are reading at grade level and only 36 percent of eighth graders are proficient at math.
Those are negative points within the positive graduation trend.
Overall, the poverty rate for children and young adults in the U.P. improved over the past decade, but the number of households that are unable to make ends meet because they are ALICE—Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed—has increased and is higher than the state average.
Perdue says a bright spot is in the last decade, the birth rate to U.P. teenagers 16 to 19 is less than half of what it used to be. But child abuse and neglect remain a concern, and more families are under investigation.
“Some of that can be attributed to better training, where mandatory reporters are calling more. That might not always translate to actually a confirmed case; however, the increase, it is cause for concern and a point to begin asking questions,” she says.
Perdue stresses the Kids Count report is a tool in communities’ toolbox that shows policy really does matter in helping kids and families across Michigan.
Additional data is at www.mlpp.org/kids-count.
