The annual Kids Count in Nebraska Report was released today. The report looks at five areas of child well-being: health, education, child welfare, juvenile justice and economic stability.
Chrissy Tonkinson, Research Coordinator with Voices for Children, says this year’s report features a new section called the Index of Race & Opportunity for Nebraska Children.
Tonkinson says Voices for Children pulled 13 different data indicators that they consider to be strong predictors of future success and opportunity for six different racial ethnic groups.
She says these included Black/African American, American Indian, Hispanic, Asian, White/Non-Hispanic and kids of two or more races.
"We took these 13 indicators and made a composite score to get an idea of how much disparity is impacting children of each of these racial groups. And what we found is, from a score of 0-100, at the bottom we have American Indian children with a score of 24 and at the top, not surprisingly, is our White/Non-Hispanic children with a score of 89.”
Tonkinson says American Indian children have the lowest median family income and the most involvement in the child welfare system.
She says Black/African American kids scored lowest in third grade reading proficiency and have the most children living in poverty.
Tonkinson says these indicators factor together to severely limit these children’s chances for success which furthers the cycle of intergenerational poverty.