Black, Multiracial Children in Ohio Lag Behind Statewide, Countrywide Counterparts for General Well-Being

Kids are returning to school, and parents have questions about Covid Credit: JoeWolf/FlickrCC

While long-standing gaps in general well-being have closed between minority and white children in recent years, partly thanks to pandemic-era government support, those gaps are still very much real, according to The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2024 Race for Results report.

Measuring developmental milestones from birth to early adulthood, the report scores progress on an index of 1,000, factoring in metrics including birth weight, reading proficiency, enrollment, graduation, employment and proximity to low-income neighborhoods.

Black, Latino, and American Indian children fared worse than their white counterparts, the report found. Asian and Pacific Island children fared best, however.

And while Ohio children in general fared worse than kids in other states, minority children specifically are seeing worse outcomes near the bottom of rankings across the country: Ohio ranked 43rd for Black child well-being, 22nd for Latino children, dead last for biracial and multiracial kids, 37th for white children, and 18th for Asian and American Pacific children.

Although the report noted across-the-board improvement for children living in poverty and in two-parent families, it lamented a general decline from 2017 numbers for healthy baby weights (all worsened save for whites), kids enrolled in preschool or kindergarten (all worsened) and fourth and eighth grade marks for reading and math (all worsened save for AAPIs)

Meant to highlight the “need to address a legacy of discriminatory practices and policies so all children can succeed,” the report noted welfare has “improved over the past decade, but despite this progress, the nation is not sufficiently equipping children to reach the milestones they need to succeed.”

“Out of 1,000 possible index points,” it added, “no racial or ethnic group came close.”

As for Ohio, and the Midwest in general, the index noted the “widest differences between groups” compared to other states—mostly coastal ones with big metropolises, like Massachusetts and Connecticut, or Western states with high concentrations of Native Americans.

For improvement in the future, the Foundation stressed that state legislators expand tax credits for families in poverty, popularize baby bonds to grow kids’ savings accounts early on, and improve Medicaid access at a state level—especially for pregnant mothers.

And, of course, to have lawmakers read its report: “Follow the data,” its website reads.

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