PRESS RELEASE

Tonya Thompson-Wilson, the director of New Beginning Christian Child Development Center in Birmingham, with a child who attends her center. Thompson-Wilson says she struggles to staff her center and hopes for additional state support. (Photo courtesy of Tonya Thompson-Wilson )

Alabama has moved up one spot in an annual report that measures child well-being, but still lags behind most of the country in child care access, educational outcomes and child health and wellness.

The 2023 KIDS COUNT Data Book, published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, ranks Alabama 45th over- all. The report compares 16 indicators over four categories – economic well-being, education, health, and family and community.

According to the report, 22% of Alabama children live in poverty, higher than the national average.

This year’s report focused on the child care crisis, finding that from 2020-21, 10% of children under the age of 6 in Alabama lived in families in which someone quit, changed or refused a job because of problems with child care.

According to the report, even if parents can find an opening at child care near their home, they often can’t pay for it. The average cost of center-based child care for a toddler in Alabama in 2021 was $7,501, 8% of the median income of a married couple, and 30% of a single mother’s income in the state.

“A good child care system is essential for kids to thrive and our economy to prosper. But our current ap- proach fails kids, parents, and child care workers by every measure,” said Lisa Hamilton, president and CEO of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. “Without safe child care they can afford and get to, working parents face impossible choices, affecting not only their families, but their employers as well.”

Rhonda Mann, executive director of VOICES for Alabama’s Children, said Alabama has taken steps to address the crisis, including through Department of Human Resources grant programs that give quarterly bonuses of $3,000 to full- time childcare workers and $1,500 to part-time workers. According to DHR, the agency has awarded 6,935 grants to child care providers since the initiative was announced in November 2021.

The legislature also recently added $30 million in funding for a program that helps child care providers improve quality and $12 million for early learning opportunities.

Still, according to the foundation’s report, Alabama needs to do more to improve education and job

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