Louisiana ranks 49th in the country for overall child well-being according to the Kids Count Data Book that’s put together by the Annie E Casey Foundation. Director of Data and Research at Agenda for Children, Tereasa Falgoust, says one of the main reasons for the poor ranking is that 20-percent of Louisiana children live in a high-poverty neighborhood ranking, compared to just eight percent nationwide.
“Unfortunately we know the when kids live in households where they don’t have enough money to make ends meet, they are more likely to have challenges in other areas as well such as education and health care,” Falgoust said.
Falgoust says a lot more work needs to be done to make communities safer. She says Louisiana’s child and teen death rate was ranked 49th out of 50 states as 30-percent of deaths to children and teens were due to homicide, double the national rate.
“It’s something that we can really think about how to work with kids to create better opportunities and to improve things like conflict resolution skills, so conflicts don’t escalate to a point where somebody thinks that harming another person is the solution,” Falgoust said.
Louisiana ranked 48th last year in this child well-being report. Falgoust says the state has dropped a spot in the rankings despite gains in education. She says Louisiana ranks 35th in education as reading scores have improved thanks to high-dosage tutoring.
“Making sure that kids who are struggling a bit get identified early and then they get the support that they need and the dosage they need has really been transformative” Falgoust said.
