The Annie E. Casey Foundation releases the Kids Count Data Book annually, with its new 2026 edition mainly drawing on data from 2024. State-based organizations work with the Annie E. Casey Foundation on the report, including Our Children Oregon and the Children’s Alliance in Washington.
The report is a snapshot in time of how well the country is supporting its youngest residents in 16 different indicators, including percentage of children living in poverty, kids who lack health insurance and reading proficiency among fourth graders.
David Wieland, policy and advocacy director for Our Children Oregon, said all of the indicators are related and play a role in a child’s well-being.
“We can’t just say that we’ll address reading outcomes through the educational system,” Wieland said. “We actually need to look holistically at child well-being if we want to really improve any one of these single indicators.”
Oregon lags behind the vast majority of states when it comes to educational indicators, ranked at 44 of 50 states. At 31, Washington ranks a bit higher.
But outside of the classroom, the two states fare better. Both Oregon and Washington are in the top 10 of states in health and community indicators.
“These are often the result of policy choices that we make,” Wieland said. “Oregon has prioritized ensuring that children — we should celebrate that.”
But federal changes may hurt states’ progress.
As Children’s Alliance in Washington state mentions in their press release sharing the Kids Count Data, “The numbers do not reflect the current reality for kids and families impacted by federal cuts to vital programs that have already come into effect.”
One policy choice Oregon made allows students to opt out of standardized testing. As a result, Oregon’s testing participation rates are below 95%, the federal requirement.
Wieland said this policy makes Oregon’s outcomes “less reliable.”
“We simply know with less certainty how we compare,” Wieland said.
In addition to rankings, the report calculates index scores for each state, allowing year-over-year comparisons. Both Oregon and Washington’s scores declined compared to their pre-pandemic scores from 2019, and so have the index scores in 45 other states. Only Mississippi and Louisiana saw improvements. South Carolina stayed stable.
Looking Ahead
Through Oregon’s Early Literacy Success Initiative, the state has sent grants to school districts to help improve reading and provide more support for students in elementary school. But it may be a while before those investments show improvement in reports like the Kids Count Data Book, said Our Children Oregon executive director Bridget Dazey.
“We do have to be patient as the state and school districts try new things,” Dazey said. “At the same time, we can confidently say we’re underinvesting in students and so it shouldn’t be so delayed that we wait five to seven years to see how things start to shape up.”
Going forward, Dazey said her organization is working with a coalition of organizations on the next edition of the group’s Children’s Agenda, a list of legislative priorities for lawmakers. Dazey said the state also needs a vision that looks out beyond the legislature’s two-year budget cycle that school districts use to plan spending.
“We need to be thinking long term,” Dazey said. “Our state has gotten really comfortable with thinking about things in the biennium.”
This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.