Families with children in Colorado have faced higher costs since programs designed to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic ended, according to the Kids Count Colorado report released Tuesday.

The expiration of pandemic programs has increased the costs of health care, housing, child care and many other needs, the report says. The annual report of the Colorado Children’s Campaign, 2024 children count in Colorado!provides state and district-level data on children’s health, education and general well-being.

“We see examples of this story across all of our issue areas and especially in the data on economic security for Colorado families,” said Heather Tritten, president and CEO of the Colorado Children’s Campaign, in releasing the report. “Economic security is fundamental to children’s well-being. But with the price of basic necessities rising faster than incomes, too many Colorado children live in families that are struggling to make ends meet.”

The 145-page report examines demographics, family economic prosperity, child and family health, early childhood learning and development, and youth success for the state’s 1.3 million children. Much of the data is from 2022, the latest year available. Tritten said in addition to rising costs in the state, the data showed stagnation in progress made among children in deep poverty and inequality in academic achievement.

Poverty

According to the report, 11 percent of Colorado children were living in poverty in 2022. That means a family of four lives on less than $28,000 a year. That’s better than the national average of 16 percent and shows little change from Colorado’s pre-pandemic numbers.

However, Tritten said the rate will double from 2021 to 2022 when the supplemental poverty measure is applied, since the expanded child tax credit expired. The supplemental measure takes into account social safety net programs such as Medicaid and tax credits.

The report shows that children of color are more affected by poverty. Between 2018 and 2022, Indigenous children were four times more likely to experience poverty than white children; Black children were three times more likely to experience poverty than white children; Hispanic children were twice as likely to experience poverty as white children, the report said. The child poverty rate for white children was seven percent during those four years. At the county level, the child poverty rate in 2022 was highest in Costilla County at 35 percent and lowest in Douglas County at 2 percent.

Not much has changed from last year: Costilla County had the highest child poverty rate at 36 percent and Douglas County had the lowest at 3 percent in 2021.

Housing

Colorado’s high housing costs are hitting families hard. The latest data shows that 20,000 Colorado children were homeless in 2022-23. Foreclosures, evictions and housing affordability accounted for 26 percent of student homelessness in 2020-21. That percentage rose to 39 percent in 2023-24.

“For families who own a home, housing costs often make up such a large portion of the household budget that they are forced to cut back on other basic needs like food, health care or utilities in order to keep a roof over their heads,” Tritten said.

Deaths by firearms

One of the report’s most striking findings was a nearly 20 percent increase in firearm deaths from 2021 to 2022 among people ages 19 and under.

The report states: “In 2022, 104 children and youth ages 19 and under were killed by firearms in Colorado, up from 83 in 2021…mostly firearm homicides.” The number of firearm deaths by suicide in this age group remained nearly the same over those two years, increasing from 39 to 41.

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If you need help, dial 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also reach the Colorado Crisis Services hotline at 1-844-493-8255 or text “TALK” to 38255 to speak with a trained counselor or professional. Counselors are also available in person or online to chat.

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Attendance of students

When it comes to school attendance, the report managed to pull together many different facts: About a third of students, 31 percent, are consistently absent. The report found that Colorado’s average starting salary for teachers in the 2022-23 school year was among the lowest in the country — 45 states pay more to enter the teaching profession. It also found that nearly one in five teachers, 17 percent, left their jobs in the 2023-2024 school year.

This number has not decreased but increased since the pandemic as teachers have had to create and implement curricula and lessons for students learning from home without being required to turn on their cameras.

Supporting the mental health of students

Given their housing situation, poverty, and everything else students face, some turn to school staff for counseling help, but it is not always readily available. In general, the American School Counselor Association suggests that there should be one counselor on staff for every 250 students. That means that a school with a thousand students would have four counselors if the ratio were adjusted.

This year’s report states: “In the 2023-24 school year, 84 of 178 school districts in Colorado had a higher student-to-counselor ratio, and many other districts had no school counselors at all.”

Lack of support from schools, whether from counselors, social workers or psychiatrists, is nothing new. Last year’s report pointed to similar shortages. As reported last year, the situation was not much different, especially for students from rural areas: “Students in rural districts in particular do not have specialists to turn to. For example, 113 of Colorado’s 178 school districts did not have licensed school psychologists employed by the district. A similar number of districts did not have school social workers. And 35 school districts did not have a school counselor. 46 of Colorado’s 64 districts did not have a practicing child or adolescent psychiatrist.”

Recommendations

The report also includes recommendations for Colorado lawmakers and the community to address the problems facing Colorado children.

The report proposes:

• Continue to address the impact of the pandemic and the consequences of expiring policies and programs
• Better support for teachers, counselors and supervisors
• Don’t set Colorado back with harmful voting measures
• Providing funds and resources to students who have academic, social and emotional problems
• Make sure the government has good data and better metrics to assess children’s lives.