The Annie E. Casey Foundation released its 2016 Kids Count Data Bookyesterday.
Kids Count focuses on key trends in child well-being in the post-recession years.
Chrissy Tonkinson, Research Coordinator for Voices for Children in Nebraska, says the report is broken down into four areas: family and community, education, health and economic well-being.
She says each area consists of four indicators including the number of children without health insurance and the number of low-birthweight babies.
Tonkinson says Nebraska performs above the national average in 13 of the 16 indicators. She says the report indicates teens in the state are doing well.
"More kids are graduating high school on time, we are seeing improvement in math scores and fewer kids are using drugs and alcohol. We are seeing the lowest teen birth rate of all time. So teens are doing great but we know that this is a pretty challenging economic climate so amazing how resilient they’ve been in spite of the economics they’ve grown up in.”
Compared to the national average, Tonkinson says Nebraska is only doing worse than the national average on three of the 16 indicators.
She says those are the number of young children who aren’t attending a pre-school program, the rate of child and teen deaths and the rate of teens who abuse drugs and alcohol
Tonkinson says Nebraska is ranked 9th this year, which is a one-point increase from last year’s report.