Colorado supports its children better than most states but a new Annie E. Casey Foundation report identified major areas for improvement, including poor academic outcomes and lack of access to affordable housing and health insurance.
The foundation’s latest Kids Count Data Book said the biggest challenges facing children in Colorado include rising uninsured rates, housing costs and academic proficiency gaps.
Maya Gould, vice president of research for the Colorado Children's Campaign, said Colorado’s uninsured rates have been lower than the national average but changes to Medicaid after the pandemic made it harder for children to keep health coverage.
“We’re actually seeing that the uninsured rate, while lower than it used to be, is starting to climb back up,” Gould noted. “That’s just one example about how cuts or changes to these programs at the federal level are having serious impacts on kids in Colorado.”
More than 600,000 children in Colorado rely on Medicaid for health insurance. House Resolution 1, Republicans’ signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act, cuts Medicaid by nearly $1 trillion. The measure also cuts $187 billion in federal dollars from SNAP food assistance, which currently serves 355,000 children in Colorado.
The state’s economic well-being score saw the biggest drop between 2019 and 2024. One in three Colorado children now lives in a family having to pay 30% or more of its income to remain housed.
Leslie Boissiere, vice president of external affairs for the Annie E. Casey Foundation, said the 2026 Kids Count Data Book showed when policymakers prioritize investments in children, children do well. For example, one area of focus for lawmakers and communities has been reducing teen birth rates, which saw a significant decline between 2019 and 2024.
“We encourage all policymakers to look at the data on children in their states, to look at the policies and programs that historically data and evidence show improve the well-being of kids, and to invest in those policies and programs,” Boissiere urged.
Colorado ranks eighth in the nation for education, largely driven by improvements in the state’s high school graduation rate. Gould added children who earn a high school diploma are better positioned to succeed as adults, but stressed this year’s report showed 64% of fourth graders are not proficient in reading, and nearly seven in 10 eighth graders are not proficient in math.
“A lot of kids are still not proficient when they’re taking all these academic assessments,” Gould observed. “We want to make sure that when kids are graduating with that diploma, they’re still getting the skills that they need.”
Source: Public News Service
