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Crying Tiger, Sleeping Dragon
All of Nebraska’s children deserve the opportunity to grow up to be happy, healthy, successful adults. Our state does many things right, and there is no doubt that our’s is a great state to be a kid. But despite our many successes as a state, there are things we need to fix.
Data and research on kids in Nebraska guides Voices for Children’s policy priorities and serve as a support for the work that we do to help ensure improvements in child well being regardless of race, poverty or geography. In the spirit of Halloween, here are the 5 scariest statistics on children and families in Nebraska:
1) 43% of Nebraska kids have experienced 1 or more Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). These are potentiall traumatic events a child’s life that can have negative, lifelong effects on health and well being. The most common ACEs experienced by Nebraska kids are economic hardship, divorce, having a family member with alcohol problems, and having a parent incarcerated.
2) Only 3% of eligible school districts in Nebraska have enrolled in the Community Eligibility Provision. Community Eligibility fights hunger by allowing all children at schools where 40% or more of the students are from low-income families to receive free school meals.
3) Nebraska’s children of color make up 45% of children in out-of-home placements, but only represent 31% of our child population.
4) 55.8% of the youth held in Nebraska’s youth detention facilities were children of color, a disproportionality of nearly 2:1. If Nebraska is to remain strong into the future, all children must have a path to opportunity.
5) 46.3% of workers in Nebraska cannot earn paid sick days, making it harder for families to obtain economic stability and our communities less healthy.
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