Overall, the state saw many improvements across the board in the Florida Policy Institute's 2023 Child Well-Being Index. It ranks each county on factors including economic well-being, education, health, and community.
Reductions in child poverty, high school students using alcohol and drugs, and graduation rates improved. All but one factor stayed the same or got better.
The top issue found in the index was childhood obesity, said Kids Count Director Norin Dollard.
"In urban and rural areas, there's not high quality, accessible food for a lot of folks. They were much more sedentary, I think than we have been historically, so that plays into it," Dollard said.
Childhood obesity is the one of the only factors in which the state did worse. One factor was that fewer people got outside and were less active during the pandemic, Dollard said.
"We didn't do this index to pit counties against one another. Everybody wants to have a good ranking," Dollard said. "But our point is that the counties take a look at their ranking and looking at what they invest in kids and communities and, and consider if they're investing enough or looking for opportunities to invest more."
Rural areas rank lower
Dollard said a main difference between the higher and lower ranked counties are how those investments function.
DeSoto County came in as one of the lowest ranked in the state overall, with a third of kids living in poverty (the state average is 20%).
They saw a higher obesity rate, but did the same or better in other health domains. But the county is rural and doesn't have a large tax-base to give the same kind of investments like its neighbor, Sarasota County, Dollard said.
A lot of the indicators measured are inter-related.
"Having lower levels of poverty is probably associated with higher levels of employment, and families being able to better support their families," Dollard said.
Along with access to a full grocery store or having the ability to make healthy food choices, she added.
Struggle to find affordable child care
The cost of child care has been an ongoing problem for most of the state.
The index found households in Pinellas spent over 23% of its monthly income on child care, leading to the states' worst ranking for affordable care options.
Despite this, the overall rank was pretty good ,said Dollard.
“Statewide, the fact that there's this big discrepancy between families that are able to afford child care and quality child care, and those that can't, is a really big problem,” she said.
Lafayette County in North Florida was ranked the most affordable for child care and Saint Johns County ranked the best for overall child well-being.
Dollard recommends people check out their county's rankings.
"And if you're not happy with it, take it up with your school board or the legislature, or whoever this decision maker is, for that indicator," she said.
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