Several critical metrics worsened in recent years for children in Nevada, including the number of eighth graders proficient in math, youth living in households with a high housing cost burden and kids living in poverty, according to a recent report from The Annie E. Casey Foundation, a private philanthropic group.
The foundation’s KIDS COUNT 2023 Data Book ranked Nevada as the 47th state out of 50 for child well-being, using data that ran through 2022.
The percentage of children whose parents lack job security worsened significantly in the most recent report — rising from 26 percent of the juvenile population in 2019 to 33 percent in 2021 — a total that includes 233,000 youths. Fourth graders not proficient in reading, and child and teen deaths per 100,000, also worsened in Nevada between 2019 and 2022.
Holly Welborn, executive director of the nonprofit Children’s Advocacy Alliance (CAA) that promotes child well-being in Nevada, told The Nevada Independent in an interview last month that her number one priority is improving the state’s early childhood systems.