Laila Bell, vice president of learning and impact at the Detroit-based Skillman Foundation at the Michigan League for Public Policy’s 2025 Champions for Kids luncheon. Sept. 16, 2025 | Photo by Kyle Davidson/Michigan Advance
Michigan is seeing positive trends in childhood health, though some measures of educational success and food security are still a cause for concern among policymakers and child wellness advocates.
The conclusion came during a data release presentation on Tuesday from the Michigan League for Public Policy.
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For years, the nonpartisan organization has tracked data on various aspects of childhood wellbeing as part of a national effort to measure changes at the state and local level. The Tuesday presentation and ensuing discussion marked the release of the organization’s
2025 Kids Count in Michigan data book
.
Anne Kuhnen, the Kids Count in Michigan policy director, told the Michigan Advance on Monday that the data in last year’s report remained steeped in pandemic-era policies, reflecting support from several programs that benefited both families and kids.
This year’s report focuses on data from 2023 and 2024.
“We saw some pretty positive trends this year in child health,” Kuhnen said. “But then, we also see some of those areas like education where we continue to need to do more.”
The data book notes several improvements in health outcomes for Michigan children, with 97% receiving coverage from some form of health insurance.
Michigan experienced a decrease in infant mortality between 2018 and 2023, as well as a decrease in the number of births coinciding with less than adequate prenatal care.
There has also been a substantial decline in teen pregnancy, which is associated with negative incomes for both the mother and the child, including a higher likelihood of the child growing up in poverty. The data also pointed to a decline in educational outcomes, with a 4.3% decrease in the number of third graders proficient in reading between 2018 and 2024. The number of students proficient in eighth-grade math also declined 9.7% across the state.
While 65.4% of Michigan students were not college ready in 2018, that number increased to 71.9% in 2024.
With negative trends in education, the League also pointed to the rising cost of childcare in 77 of the state’s 83 counties. The poverty rate for children up to the age of 17 has declined by 9% since 2018, which the League said is an indicator that many Michigan families are struggling to make ends meet.
The data book noted an increase in the number of children facing food insecurity, rising from 14.7% in 2018 to 17.9% in 2022. That was a point of particular concern, Kuhnen told the Advance, considering a more than 20% increase in children facing food security following a decade of improvement.
Food insecurity rates could continue to rise, Kuhnen noted, pointing to federal cuts to SNAP benefits, and the lack of specific funding for free school meals in the Michigan House of Representatives’ school aid budget.
“This combination of factors, both at the federal and state level could be very damaging moving forward,” Kuhnen said.
The League on Tuesday issued several policy recommendations to improve health, education and economic wellbeing for Michigan children and families.
Recommendations include:
- Fully funding early childhood care and education including investments into the workforce and a focus on affordability
- Providing continuous Medicaid coverage for young children
- Increasing access to mental health services in public schools
- Fully funding the Opportunity Index, the formula used to shift funding to schools with greater needs and higher levels of poverty
- Reducing teen smoking by increasing state spending on tobacco prevention and cessation programs
- Expanding the earned income tax credit to young adults under 25
- Adopting universal free community college
- Ending life without parole for young adults
- Adopting a Michigan Child Tax credit that includes kids who are left out of the federal credit because their parents earn too little
- Enacting a paid family and medical leave policy for Michigan employers
- Investing in affordable housing
- Increasing access to the Family Independence Program, which provides cash assistance to families with dependent children
In Michigan, children rely on lawmakers to prioritize their needs in the state budget and in their policy decisions, Kuhnen said. The investments the state makes today, determine the future those children will grow up into.
While the state has begun providing avenues for students to receive community college for free or at a reduced cost, barriers remain. Students must attend a community college within their district to have their tuition covered. Students attending schools outside their districts receive discounted tuition instead.
“This leaves out thousands of young adults who live outside of established community college districts,” the League’s President and CEO Monique Stanton said while presenting the data book. “Universal free community college should be made available to young adults so they know that they can get a good start in life.”
As the federal government shrinks its investment into the states, that raises questions on how states will continue to meet their residents’ needs, Laila Bell, the vice president of learning and impact at the Detroit-based Skillman Foundation said during the panel discussion.
“It puts pressure on state budgets,” Bell said. “The funding landscape is now creating challenges for our schools and for programs across the state, as we’re trying to make up what has been a loss of investment at the federal level in Americans and in citizens.”
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