Kentucky Youth Advocates released it's 2024 Kentucky Data Book, featuring the latest child well-being data in the commonwealth.
KYA partners with legislators, the governor, and other elected officials to change and enact policies that benefit kids and their families.
The data released by KYA today, shows whether the outcomes for children across the commonwealth have improved, worsened, or stayed the same.
Their goal is to ensure every child has access to nurturing environments where they can grow up healthy and safe, focusing on affordable housing, mentorship, access to healthcare and kinship care.
Data shows that nearly one in four Kentucky kids have experienced at least two adverse childhood experiences, which are defined as traumatic events that occur in a person's life before the age of 18 such as abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction.
Executive Director of KYA Terry Brooks says those events can increase the risk for developing health issues and engaging in risky decision-making.
"We have improved more than any state in country, but we still have 10,000 kids that were abused last year and as I look at that, if a single kid is abused it's one to many," says Brooks.
Brooks says today, one in five Kentucky kids are hungry. Out of 208,000 kids, 20.7% are living in food insecure households, which is up from 16.1% in 2020.
"Think about what the means. For every five kids in Kentucky, one of them is going to bed tonight hungry. That kid is hoping they get a good school breakfast and lunch because the next meal they may have is that school breakfast the next day," explains Brooks.
When it comes to education, data showed that eight out of ten eighth graders in Kentucky are not meeting minimal national standards for math and one out of three fourth graders are not meeting minimal standard for reading.
"You can't look at those basic reading and arithmetic scores and not wonder what does that mean about our workforce and economy in the future. What's it mean that in 20 years we have a workforce that at the moment can't meet minimal standards in reading and math. That should be the focus in Frankfort when it comes to education," says Brooks.
Brooks says in order to make a difference, it takes both community and policy action, which is why he recommends to place a call to your state representative and state senator.
"Ask a simple question, the 2024 Kids Count Report has just come out. I want to know, what you are going to do in Frankfort
in 2025 to make a difference for kids in Kentucky?" says Brooks.
To get a closer look at the data, just visit:
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