PA ranks high in rate of uninsured children: PPC report

No child should be without health insurance. However, Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children’s recently released 2020 State of Children’s Health Care: Unlocking Access to a Healthy Childhood report shows Pennsylvania has the 8th highest number of uninsured kids in the nation, with nearly 128,000 uninsured children who ultimately do not have regular access to care for optimal development and learning.

Since last year’s report, Pennsylvania’s uninsured rate increased slightly from 4.4% to 4.6%. Although it remains lower than the national average of 5.7%, the state rate is heading in the wrong direction when it comes to children’s health insurance.

What’s worse? The 2020 report uses the most recent uninsured data from the U.S. Census Bureau, which was captured prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. That means more Pennsylvania kids headed into the public health emergency without basic health coverage.

Factors such as age, poverty level, race and ethnicity, and geographic region impact children’s access to health insurance. In the commonwealth, children younger than six years of age and children from low-income families are more likely to be uninsured, and children who identify as American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, or White have increasing uninsured rates compared to the prior year.

In addition to health care coverage, several social determinants of health are a focus of the report, including maternal health, access to safe, lead-free housing, nutrition, and access to oral health care.

This report sets forth a robust public policy agenda for maintaining and strengthening the ability of children in Pennsylvania to access health care. Working together with child health care advocates, medical professionals and policymakers, we can give children the key to achieving life-long learning and future success, because no child should be locked out of a healthy childhood.

To view the full report, go here.

Last week, Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children released its 10th annual State of Child Welfare report, which provides a 5-year analysis of how Pennsylvania fares with practices around child safety, placement and permanency.

This year’s report shows child abuse referrals are the highest recorded to date, at 76 percent, and that more work is needed to ensure foster youth are placed with kin.

To view individual county reports online, or download the report, go here.

Report: 2019 State of Child Welfare

The Juvenile Law Center and PA Partnerships for Children have released a fact sheet about Transition Age Youth, Fostering Successful Youth Transitions in Pennsylvania: Laying the Groundwork for Positive Change.

The fact sheet shows how young people fare from foster care to adulthood, as confirmed by recently released data by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Specifically, Transition Age Youth in foster care have poorer outcomes, compared to youth in the general population, across areas such as employment, education and housing. In addition, far too often, Transition Age Youth are aging out of foster care without a permanent family or a positive supportive connection.

The fact sheet outlines steps to advancing protections to ensure the successful transition for this population, and these efforts can begin now by first enacting legislation to promote permanency.

In July 2018, the Supreme Court invalidated Act 80 of 2012, which includes an array of provisions, but specific to older foster youth impacts extended adoption assistance and permanent legal custodianship subsidies for young people between the ages of 18 and 21. Without these provisions, there is no clear authorization for county child welfare agencies to enter into agreements for permanency subsidies with kinship or foster families for this age group. Act 80 has been integral in increasing adoption and permanent legal custodianship rates for Transition Age Youth, which ensures positive outcomes long term. To continue its practice of providing support as young adult’s transition to adulthood—both through extended foster care to age 21 and extended permanency subsidies—Pennsylvania must reenact the provisions of Act 80 in new legislation.

Download the fact sheet here: https://www.papartnerships.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/PPC-FYT-Fact-Sheet-ONLINE.pdf

From PA Partnerships for Children via United Way Common Good newsletter

Each year Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children releases county-based State of the Child profiles that provide a snapshot of child poverty, health care, educational opportunities and other important measures of children’s well-being in all 67 counties.

You can find statistics for each county about:

• How many children are uninsured, and how many benefit from coverage through Medicaid or Pennsylvania’s Children’s Health Insurance Program
• How many children benefit from subsidized child care and publicly funded pre-kindergarten programs
• The number of children in foster care or receiving other child welfare services
• Academic performance data for school districts, charter schools and cyber charter schools

A statewide profile is also available. Learn more by visiting the website.

Home

http://www.papartnerships.org/prekinpa

Pre-K in Pennsylvania

Access to high-quality pre-kindergarten is a fundamental building block of our state’s education system and helps ensure children have the strong foundation necessary to enter kindergarten ready to learn. Decades of research studies demonstrate the positive impact of attending high quality pre-k for all kids, but evidence points to children living in lower-income families reaping the greatest benefits. Every dollar invested in high-quality pre-k returns up to $17 in long-term savings and benefits.1

High-quality pre-k reduces grade repetition and special education placements in later grades, saving our schools money.2 Children who benefit from high-quality pre-k are less likely to drop out of school and more likely to graduate and attend college, boosting their employment opportunities and earning power while reducing social services costs.3 High-quality pre-k can mitigate disruptive and problem behaviors in early years that, if left unaddressed, can lead to anti-social or even criminal behavior in later years. This not only improves our collective quality of life; it also reduces costs in the criminal justice system.4

Pennsylvania’s support for high-quality pre-kindergarten gained a foothold in the early 2000s with Governor Schweiker’s Early Care and Education Task Force. Under Governor Rendell’s leadership, the commonwealth enacted both the Head Start Supplemental Assistance Program and the Accountability Block Grant in 2003 and Pre-K Counts in 2007. Governor Corbett continued to advance small program growth immediately following the recession. Most recently, Governor Wolf proposed the largest funding expansion in the programs’ history and a sizeable increase was realized in both 2015 and 2016. Driven by bi-partisan support, including both Democrat and Republican budget negotiators, pre-k growth was placed as a top state funding priority.

http://www.papartnerships.org/publication_files/ppc-path-foward-report.pdf

Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children has released its latest School Readiness Report showing how Pennsylvania is performing in preparing its youngest children for school.

The new report finds a troubling lack of progress in making high-quality early learning programs more broadly available in the commonwealth:
• Just 18.9 percent of Pennsylvania’s 3- and 4-year-olds – or only 1 in 6 children – have access to high-quality, publicly funded pre-k programs.
• Among children age 0-4 who are in need of child care, only 7.5 percent – or less than 1 in 13 – benefit from high-quality care.
• About 319,000 Pennsylvania children under age 5 – nearly half of this young population – live in low-income households. Greater access to child care subsidy is critical to ensure parents in these struggling households are able to work and their children are safe and well cared for.

To view the report, go here.

http://www.papartnerships.org/news/data-shows-pa-is-shortchanging-young-learners/

Do you know how your county compares to Pennsylvania counties when it comes to child poverty, health insurance coverage, educational opportunities and other important measures of children’s well-being?

To help you get answers, Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children has created county-based “State of the Child” profiles. These profiles provide a snapshot of each county’s data, alongside statewide data and information on counties with similar demographic profiles. For each county, you can find:

• Child population and poverty statistics
• Information on how many children are uninsured, and how many benefit from coverage through Medicaid or Pennsylvania’s Children’s Health Insurance Program
• Data on how many children benefit from subsidized child care and publicly funded pre-kindergarten programs
• The number of children in foster care or receiving other child welfare services
• Academic performance data for school districts, charter schools and cyber charter schools

We also have put together a statewide profile to supplement the county-based profiles.

http://www.papartnerships.org/state-of-the-child/