Four takeaways from a new report on the status of Colorado’s children

Teen pregnancies are way down in Colorado. Teen suicides are alarmingly high. More of the state’s kids are attending full-day kindergarten than ever before, but half of them start school without the skills they need.

These are a few of the findings from the annual KIDS COUNT in Colorado report released today by the advocacy group Colorado Children’s Campaign. While the report always includes a trove of state and county-level data about child well-being, this year’s version — the 25th anniversary edition — touches timely topics ranging from gun control to the state’s school funding formula.

Here are four takeaways from the 147-page report. Read it in full here.

Half of Colorado kids aren’t ready for kindergarten
KIDS COUNT highlights the results of a new state report that looks at how prepared Colorado kids are for kindergarten. The report, mandated by an ambitious 2008 school reform law and released for the first time this year, reveals that just under half of the state’s kindergarteners meet benchmarks in all six areas of kindergarten readiness, which include everything from basic math knowledge to language comprehension and motor development. About a quarter of kindergarteners meet three or fewer benchmarks. (Here’s a look at the debate over the assessments used to gather kindergarten readiness data and one county’s effort to clarify what students need to know when they start kindergarten.)

The KIDS COUNT report also spotlights racial and ethnic disparities in kindergarten readiness, revealing, for example, that 55 percent of Hispanic kindergarteners met at least five of six benchmarks compared to 73 percent of non-Hispanic kindergarteners. While the authors of the KIDS COUNT report laud the new baseline data, they note one major shortcoming: The state report doesn’t pinpoint the specific areas where kids most often fall short, limiting the public’s ability to identify trouble spots.

School funding lags and full-day kindergarten explodes
Picking up on Colorado’s perennial school funding squeeze and recent efforts to get a statewide education tax measure on the ballot, KIDS COUNT examines the state school funding landscape. It shows that in 1995, Colorado spent $402 less than the national per-pupil average with adjustments for regional cost differences. By 2014, that number had ballooned to nearly $2,700 less per student.

Even as the state’s school funding has lagged, there’s been impressive growth in its full-day kindergarten population. This year, nearly 80 percent of kindergarteners are enrolled in full-day programs, compared to 14 percent in 2001-02. Still, the state only pays part of that cost, leaving districts to make up the rest through other government funding or parent tuition dollars.

While some lawmakers routinely seek (and fail to get) full state funding for full-day kindergarten, the coming gubernatorial election could mix things up this year. At least one candidate wants to offer free full-day kindergarten to all Colorado kids.
Colorado’s youth suicide rate is alarming —  and guns figure into the equation
At a time when school shootings are fueling a push for gun control legislation in some quarters, KIDS COUNT’s authors note the prominent role that guns play in youth suicides, especially for boys. About half of males 10 to 19 who die by suicide use firearms. (In comparison, only about 20 percent of suicide deaths in girls involve firearms.)

Besides noting that suicide risk is lowest for youth who live in homes without firearms, the report says, “Evidence suggests that laws aimed at preventing children and youth from accessing firearms reduce firearm suicides among this age group.”

KIDS COUNT also raises concern about Colorado’s high youth suicide rate, which came up in the state legislature earlier this year after a high-profile suicide of a 10-year-old Aurora girl. In 2016, there were 18 suicides for every 100,000 people aged 15 to 19 in the state — higher than in all but two of the last 25 years. The problem is particularly acute in two counties: El Paso and Mesa, where teen suicide rates were 29 per 100,000 in 2016.

Teen pregnancy goal met, with a caveat
One success story highlighted in this year’s KIDS COUNT report is the sharp decline in Colorado’s teen pregnancy rate over the last two-and-a-half decades. Given the likelihood that teen mothers are less likely to graduate from high school, the decrease is good news educationally and otherwise.

In 1991, there were 56 births per 1,000 Colorado teens. In 2016, it was down to 18 — well below the goal of 25 cited in the 1991 edition of KIDS COUNT. (The teen abortion rate has also dropped substantially in the last decade.) Despite major decreases in teen pregnancy for every racial and ethnic group, Colorado’s Hispanic teens still fall short of the 1991 goal with 30 pregnancies per 1,000 young women.

Even with huge strides across the state and nation in reducing teen pregnancy, recent cuts to a federal pregnancy prevention grant don’t bode well. One victim was the nonprofit Colorado Youth Matter, which focused on teen pregnancy prevention and sexual health. The organization, which got most of its funding from the federal grant, closed its doors at the end of December.