| State | Rank |
|---|---|
| Maine | 12 |
| New Hampshire | 2 |
| Massachusetts | 3 |
| Connecticut | 6 |
The report finds that number of children in poverty, as well as the number of children living in high-poverty areas and the number whose parents lack secure employement, worsened from previous years (leading to the WCSH headline, "2015 Kids Count shows Maine sinking lower into poverty"). One in five children are in poverty in Maine. "Maine's economy is not working for all our children. Too many kids are living in families where no parent has full time work, where housing costs take up a large portion of the faily budget, or where ages don't meet the basic needs of a family," said Claire Berkowitz, executive director of the Maine Children's Alliance, which produces the state-level Maine KIDS COUNT reports.
There were bright spots. There were a number of improvements in education: more children attending preschool, more high schoolers graduating on time, and improved proficiency rates for 4th graders and 8th graders. There were also improvements in health: the teen birth rate is at a historic low and the death rate for children and teens has fallen.
There's a nice infographic summarizing the findings:
See the full report here, or dig into the Maine indicators here.