A Travis County child plays in 2024 with her mother, who had difficulty finding affordable childcare. A new report addresses the question: Are state policies meaningfully improving the quality of life for all children?
Ricardo B. Brazziell/American-Statesman
Texas takes pride in doing things bigger and better. But the new 2026 KIDS COUNT Data Book by the Annie E. Casey Foundation uses new methods to reveal a harsher truth: Texas children are not set up for success.
According to the new data, Texas ranks 44th in the country for overall child well-being, in the company of states such as Alaska, New Mexico and Mississippi. How can we be proud of a Texas that has the resources to improve kids’ lives, yet ranks in the bottom seven in all four domains and dead last for access to health insurance?
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The Data Book introduces a comprehensive state score out of 1,000 to measure whether policies and investments are improving kids’ lives. Rankings show who is ahead and who is falling behind in a given year, but the Data Book’s new scores answer a deeper and more timely question: Are state policies meaningfully improving the quality of life for all children?
With Texas scoring 425 across 16 well-being indicators — lagging behind the national average of 547 — lawmakers have urgent work to do in a state with abundant resources. Policy failures are to blame for Texas’ outcomes for kids.
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The data showed some gains in family and community measures, an entire domain that jumped 116 points. Those gains are the result of years of work by educators, health providers, community advocates, and the lawmakers who chose to invest in young people through expanded after-school programs, access to quality pre-K and wraparound family services at the state and local levels.
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Still, Texas is moving backward. About 1.1 million Texas children went without health insurance in 2024 — 14% of the kids in our state. We have the highest uninsured rate in the nation, and it’s climbing. Since 2019, the country has improved health coverage for kids, but Texas continues to fall further behind.
About 76% of Texas eighth graders scored below proficient in math in 2024 (up from 70% just five years earlier), and 72% of fourth graders scored below proficient in reading. These are millions of Texas children who will attend high school, and eventually the workforce, without the foundational skills they need to thrive in an evolving, technology-driven economy that is reshaping the application of these skills and the proficiency required to succeed.
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While lawmakers must face the challenge of children struggling to gain proficiency at school, they must also face the reality that one in three Texas children now live in a household where caregivers and parents spend more than 30% of their income on housing, an increase from 2019. This means that for hundreds of thousands of Texas families, paying rent comes at the direct expense of basic necessities like nutritious food, healthcare, and stable learning environments at home.
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These problems are solvable in a state that has overcome tougher challenges. Texas lawmakers must prioritize policy solutions at a scale commensurate with the impact of these problems.
Texas lawmakers have a clear roadmap heading into the next legislative session. Invest in the Children’s Health Insurance Program and Medicaid to ensure every child has access to the health care and services they need. Fund our public schools at a level that actually reflects what it costs to educate the next generation of Texans, with targeted support for reading and math recovery. Invest in affordable childcare and pre-K so that every Texas child starts kindergarten ready to learn.
A child who has health insurance and reads at grade level, and whose family is not one bill away from losing their home, will grow up to be part of an advanced workforce, a stronger neighbor and a successful parent themselves. The return on investing in our state’s children will outlive all of us.
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Coda Rayo-Garza is the senior director of research and data at policy nonprofit Every Texan. A fronteriza born and raised in Laredo, Rayo-Garza is a daughter of immigrants, a first-generation college graduate and co-author of “Latinos in the US: Diversity and Change.”