(Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Community Change)
A new study of early childhood data in Ohio shows sluggish progress in areas like kindergarten readiness and infant mortality, with the state ranked among the lowest in the country when it comes to child care subsidies and child food insecurity.
The new early childhood dashboard released Tuesday by Groundwork Ohio and the Health Policy Institute of Ohio incorporates two years of information collected about Ohio’s status when it comes to taking care of children. The takeaways from the study show an urgent need for supports and a “crisis” when it comes to educational development and maternal and infant outcomes.
There has been improvement in some areas, Lynanne Gutierrez, president and CEO of Groundwork Ohio, said as her’s and other child advocacy groups push for investment from the state in “proven solutions.”
The study showed improvement trends in areas including early intervention service access, parental incarceration rates, early learning access for those below 200% of the federal poverty level, poverty and housing cost burdens for those where 30% or more of their monthly income was spent on rent.
“Despite all of that, we haven’t achieved those meaningful population-level changes in the way that we’d like to see on early childhood outcomes, whether it’s infant mortality or kindergarten readiness,” Gutierrez said.
Infant maltreatment, including child abuse or neglect, improved, but the state still ranked low compared to the rest of the country in the category, according to the study.
In the newest analysis from Groundwork and the health policy institute, the data showed Ohio ranking dead last in child care subsidy eligibility when compared to the other 49 states and the District of Columbia. The ranking is calculated based on the household income cap for initial eligibility to receive a child care subsidy.
The state ranks 44th in the country for child food insecurity, 43rd in infant mortality (the number of infant deaths per 1,000 births), 42nd in access to Early Head Start programs, 40th in young child poverty up to age five, and 30th in reports of infant maltreatment.
The study showed that a family with two children spends 29% of its income on child care in Ohio, so investing directly in child care would remove barriers to work and help families thrive, the groups found.
“We know that child care is an essential support for working parents, but accessibility and costliness of quality child care is a significant barrier for many,” said Caitlin Feldman, policy director for Groundwork.
But even before child care becomes a topic of conversation, the study showed Ohio families are struggling with affording necessities and accessing maternity care.
“Basic needs like food are out of reach for many families,” said Troy Hunter, Groundwork’s managing director of policy.
The Groundwork/HPIO early childhood dashboard showed that nearly 30% of Ohio’s youngest children live in households that can’t always afford nutritious meals. This increases the risk for developmental delays, poor health and learning disabilities, Hunter said.
Infant and maternal health continues to face a “crisis with alarmingly high mortality rates,” and Black infants are more than twice as likely to die before their first birthday than white infants in the state, the data showed.
Those who birth the babies face access problems in the state, according to the study findings. Feldman said 13 counties in the state have zero maternity care providers. In 2022, nearly 1 in 4 pregnant Ohioans did not receive prenatal care in the first trimester of pregnancy, and pregnant women of color were even less likely to receive “timely prenatal care,” Feldman said.
In 2024, less than 10% of families in need of home visits received them.
The earliest struggles can often lead to school-aged struggles, with less than half of Ohio kindergarten students on track in the areas of language and literacy in the 2022-2023 school year, according to the study.
“Today, 65% of all Ohio kindergartners are not considered ready to learn when they enter the classroom,” Hunter said.
Investments to help improve the state’s rankings could start with Gov. Mike DeWine’s proposal in his executive budget to create a child tax credit that would amount to $890 million in credits over the next two years for Ohio families.
“This is the perfect example of where the level of investment meets the scale of the challenge, not just around the margins, in terms of getting money back into the pockets of families,” Gutierrez said.
To improve the state’s numbers, she said investing in child care will help, but the main driver for policy and budget decisions has to be listening to the Ohioans who are taking care of the children day in and day out.
“Parents are the experts in their own experiences, and their voices have to drive policy decisions,” Gutierrez said.
The child tax credit and other portions of the budget that may be able to help stem some of the issues identified in the data are still under consideration. DeWine’s executive budget currently sits in the Ohio House, where the House Finance Committee and others are looking into different sectors to decide where they want to make changes, or keep the governor’s recommendations.
The Ohio Senate will also create a draft budget, which will then need to be reconciled with House changes and the governor’s proposal to create a unified document by the beginning of July.
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