Florida ranked 30th in the 2024 Kids Count Data Profile, a well-being survey conducted by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, with the biggest changes in math and reading scores and child mortality rates.
Four categories — economic well-being, education, health, and family and community — factor into the rankings, which include data on teenage birth rates, children living in poverty, single parent families, and children whose parents do not have secure employment.
The number of eighth-graders in Florida who are not proficient in math increased from 69% to 77% between 2019 and 2022, a period when the COVID pandemic closed schools and forced remote learning across the country.
A similar trend was seen nationally during the same period, with math proficiency increasing from 67% to 74%.
At the same time, Florida fourth graders outperformed the national average in reading proficiency. The number of fourth graders in Florida who were not proficient in reading fell by 1 percentage point, from 62% to 61%, while nationally the number rose from 66% to 68%.
States are divided over how to provide education during the pandemic; Governor Ron DeSantis in Florida Classroom teaching ended between March 2020 and the start of the next school year.
The Sunshine State's best category was education, ranking 5th. The other three categories ranked in the bottom half — 42nd for economic well-being, 31st for health, and 30th for family and community.
The number of Florida high school students who did not graduate on time increased by 3%, with 13% of students failing to graduate on time in 2019, compared to 10% in 2021.
Karen Woodall, Executive Director of the Florida People's Advocacy Center, He said the ranking of higher education appeared to be inconsistent with the low rankings of the remaining categories.
“We're at the bottom of these categories, and so it's interesting to see that we've made improvements in education,” Woodall said. “Because usually if a child is struggling with housing and food and poverty and all of that, it's not conducive for them to achieve high scores in education.”
According to Woodall, failure to invest in people-centric infrastructure is the reason Florida ranks low.
“We're not a poor state, we're not a revenue poor state,” Woodall said. “Mississippi is a revenue poor state, Florida is not, we just don't spend the money on our human infrastructure and don't invest in that capital. When we do put some money in we're so far behind that it's like a drop in the bucket.”
Woodall pointed out one thing Reluctance to expand Medicaidattempts to limit access to Kidcare coverage, and Governor Ron DeSantis refuses to apply Sought federal funds to provide summer meals to children.
Death of children
The child and teen mortality rate in Florida increased from 25 per 100,000 to 30 between 2019 and 2022, on par with the national rate. The report found that firearms were the leading cause of death for teens and motor vehicle crashes were the leading cause of death for children.
Florida's overall ranking improved one spot, from 31st in the 2023 Data Profile. New Hampshire was ranked best overall, while New Mexico was ranked worst. Other southeastern states, including Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Louisiana and Mississippi, are faring worse than Florida.
The nonpartisan Florida Policy Institute responded to the statistics by calling for maintaining motivation in education.
“With 61% of fourth graders not proficient in reading and 77% of eighth graders not proficient in math, there is still much work to be done and more investment in education needed,” Norine Dollard, director of Kids Count at the institute, said in a report. News release,
“The rankings in the other three areas of child well-being, economic (42nd), health (31st), as well as family and community (30th) highlight the fact that we need to continue to focus on Florida’s children and communities,” Dollard said.
The Casey Foundation made recommendations for Florida, including increasing investment in public schools, ensuring internet access, providing study spaces, and access to intensive tutoring for students who are falling behind.
Woodall said Florida's policy “may be increasingly inconsistent with our stated goals of improving the lives of our children and families.”
“A lot of times there will be increases in certain services, but there will be contradictory moves in the overall general policy. So, funding will be increased for mental health, but then policies will be passed that restrict what teachers are allowed to use to teach, which goes after transgender kids or LGBTQ kids. They're just contradictory,” Woodall said.
“Florida has never done a good job funding health and human services,” he said.
“If we look at all of their data books, we'll find that Florida ranks at the bottom of most of the indicators every year, simply because — like I said — we don't invest in our human infrastructure, our children, our families; we spend money on big tax breaks and development.”
Florida has risen to 34th in education and 39th in health since 2012. In 2014, Florida ranked 45th in economic well-being and 35th in family and community.