June 27, 2025 / Basic Needs, Early Childhood, General

Georgia Falls to 39th for Child and Family Well-BeingImage

Are children and families thriving in Georgia? According to the 2025 KIDS COUNT® Data Book, Georgia now ranks 39th out of 50 states—its lowest position in seven years. The report, released by Georgia Family Connection Partnership (GaFCP) and the Annie E. Casey Foundation, tracks 16 indicators across four key domains: health, education, economic well-being, and family and community. While some areas have seen progress, the data shows Georgia continues to face persistent challenges—from rising child poverty to increasing teen death rates and limited improvement in maternal and child health.

Key takeaways:

  • Child poverty rises: 18% of Georgia children lived in poverty in 2023—50,000 more than in 2022, totaling 461,000 (5th highest in the U.S.).
  • Housing burden increases: 66,000 more children live in homes spending over 30% of income on housing—an 11% rise since 2019.
  • Education concerns: 70% of 4th graders read below proficiency (up from 68%), and 76% of 8th graders scored below proficient in math—10% worse than in 2019.
  • Health challenges: Georgia ranks 47th for low birthweight (10.2% vs. 8.6% nationally), while uninsured children remain at 6%, but absolute numbers grew by 5,000 in 2023.

See the full report here.

August 22, 2024 / Early Childhood, Economics, Education

The cost of summer child care for Atlanta familiesImage

In June, Atlanta POV asked residents about summer childcare and the related needs of Atlanta families, whether they are being met, and how they impact their budget.

A total of 293 residents from Metro Atlanta responded to the survey, providing key insights to understand how families deal with the costs and planning related to their children’s summer programming.

Key takeaways:

  • Finding adequate child care during summer is a significant challenge for most families.
  • Finding and paying for summer programs for children is an economic stressor for families and their budgets.
  • Workforce participation and productivity of households with children are impacted by the lack of availability and affordability of program options during the summer months.

See the full survey report here.

December 15, 2023 / Basic Needs, Early Childhood, Education, Equity

There are 79 neighborhoods throughout Greater Atlanta with low and declining child well-beingImage

A few months ago, United Way of Greater Atlanta published the 2023 update of their Child Well-being Index. This data serves as a diagnostic tool to tell where each neighborhood is progressing toward saying that “all the children are well” and to guide how United Way directs its resources to most effectively improve child well-being and transform lives for the better.

Here are some key insights from this year’s update:

  • There are 79 neighborhoods throughout Greater Atlanta with low and declining child well-being.
  • Nearly 500,000 of Greater Atlanta’s 1.2 million children and youth live in high-need areas.
  • Data also shows that low child well-being scores disproportionately impact BIPOC populations.
  • Nearly 14,000 youth are not connected to school or work.
  • The overall regional score remained stable compared to 2018 – largely due to public and private funding and resources to offset damage from the pandemic. However, it is important to mention that since the data for the 2023 index scores was collected, these programs have largely ended.

Read the full report here.

April 26, 2023 / Early Childhood

Gaps in access to early learning programs are region-wideImage

GEEARS recently commissioned Reinvestment Fund to update its ATL ACCESS Map. The ATL ACCESS (or Atlanta Child Care and Early Learning Supply Status) study analyzes regional supply and demand data to better understand where early education programs are most needed.

The key takeaway from the latest study: There is a near universal gap in Quality Rated programs across the five-county Atlanta region.

This supply, demand, and gap data can be found in the ATL ACCESS layer of the new Readiness Radar tool.

April 26, 2023 / Early Childhood, Education, Health, Mental Health

Estimating ACEs risk and protective factors statewideImage

Emory University’s recently launched Georgia Preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences: Data to Action (PACE: D2A) webpage allows for exploring data related to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), student achievement, risk and protective behaviors, and much more.

Users can explore dozens of indicators in multiple layers using the friendly mapping interface and displaying relevant demographic and socioeconomic variables.

One of the key elements of this tool is the use of GaDOE’s student health survey to estimate ACEs risk and protective factors statewide.

Learn more about the project and explore the map here.

January 23, 2023 / Early Childhood, Education, Policy, Postsecondary

These are the Top Ten Education Issues to Watch in 2023Image

The Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education recently published its 19th edition of the Top Ten Issues to Watch Report, informing leaders of Georgia’s most critical education issues.

The issues in this report range from Early Childhood Support and Educator Burnout to School-Community Engagement and Ou-of-School learning. Each of them establishes a goal and a Call to Action laid out in three sections:

  • Invest in people-centered systems
  • Invest in school and community leaders
  • Invest in spreading and scaling local solutions
August 7, 2022 / Early Childhood, Economics, Equity

Childhood friendships across economic classes key to upward mobilityImage

In new research from Raj Chetty’s team at Opportunity Insights (published in two parts in Nature and summarized in NYT), a massive analysis of economic and social networks found that exposure to and friendships among people of different social classes is one of the strongest predictors of upward mobility.

The study found that lower socio-economic groups make connections in their home neighborhood and at religious institutions, while higher SES groups tend to make their bridging connections in college. This research builds on their prior economic mobility analysis and development of the Opportunity Atlas.

So what do we do with this information?

Programs, services, policies, and investments that facilitate interactions across diverse economic groups will likely have lasting impacts. Policy level solutions might include inclusive housing and planning decisions. At a more local level, effort might be made to reduce in-school student segregation. Programmatically, even experiential programs outside of participants’ own neighborhood may have an impact.

February 26, 2021 / Early Childhood, Workforce

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A new study finds that an additional 90-100K Georgia children could be covered by CAPS subsidies over the next three years, allowing thousands of parents to continue and advance in their work and education, if the following are enacted:

  • Under the current setup of CAPS at 50% of the state’s median income (SMI), an additional $198million would cover almost all families who can and want to take advantage of CAPS, realizing that the bar set is very restrictive in its current state.
  • Increasing the SMI to 85% (in line with federal recommendations) would cover thousands of additional families and fill a major gap in workforce development for return-to-work parents among others. This can be done for an additional $340 million.

(Metro Atlanta Chamber, GSU’s Georgia Policy Labs)

January 12, 2021 / Early Childhood, Education, Equity, Policy, Postsecondary, Workforce

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Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education (GPEE) released its “Top 10 Issues to Watch in 2021” report, which includes:

  1. Equity – the imperative for recovery to success
  2. Funding – essential for achieving equity
  3. Early learning – the foundation for an inclusive economic recovery
  4. Delivery of instruction – new approaches to learning
  5. Teachers – professionalism, pay, and preparation
  6. Accountability and assessments – the opportunity to rethink and get it right
  7. Parent engagement– positioning families as partners
  8. Post-secondary completion – a pathway to prosperity
  9. Georgia’s workforce pipeline – creating equitable access and opportunities
  10. Reinventing education in Georgia – a call for leadership and collaboration
December 2, 2020 / Early Childhood, Education, Postsecondary

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The latest State of Education in Metro Atlanta report provides updates on key education indicators. Kindergarten readiness, 3rd grade reading, 8th grade math, and high school graduation are up.  Postsecondary enrollment and completion are down. Learn more in the report and webinar. And view school level data in the interactive dashboard. (Learn4Life)

October 19, 2020 / Basic Needs, Early Childhood, Education, Workforce

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A large share of low-income clients are parents — especially moms — with school-age kids having incredible difficulty finding jobs that allow working from home. Unclear return-to-school plans and timing add to job search barriers. (Family Advancement Ministries)

October 1, 2020 / Early Childhood, Education, Equity, Operations, Workforce

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A lack of publicly accessible and detailed cradle-to-career pipeline data from state agencies (e.g., CAPS, CTAE eligibility and enrollment by race, geography, industry and otherwise) makes decision-making, planning, and evaluation around equity nearly impossible. (Metro Atlanta Chamber)

August 13, 2020 / Early Childhood

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Before March 13th, 48% of young children were in formal child care programs and 12% were at home with a parent or guardian. Now only 11% are in formal programs and 62% are at home. (GEEARS)