Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has released his proposed budget earlier this month, including proposals that the Children’s Defense Fund of Ohio says are encouraging.
Based on the CDF Ohio’s 2024 Kids Count Data, more than half of children in Ohio are economically disadvantaged. The data also shows that 20% of children in the state live in poverty.
"Out of 2.6 million children that live in the state of Ohio, somewhere close to 470,000 or so, like about half a million children live in poverty," said Guillermo Bervejillo, the research manager with the CDF Ohio.
More than 20% of children are experiencing poverty in Montgomery, Hamilton, Clinton, Fayette and Clark counties according to the Children’s Defense Fund of Ohio’s 2024 Kids Count data.
"We've still got a lot of work to do in Ohio to make sure that young people are not living in poverty, young people are not going hungry," said John Stanford, CDF Ohio's state director.
The organization's research was sorted into around 16 indicators according to Bervejillo. The information used in the research was collected through a variety of sources including public data from different departments of the state.
"Sixteen indicators of a variety of factors about how children are faring from abuse, questions of health care, questions of education," he said. "We have broken [that] down into five categories: financial, community, health care, safety and education."
The data also looked into all types of regions across the state including Appalachia. Bervejillo said they also looked at urban, suburban and rural regions.
"There's kind of a heightened elevation of that poverty and hunger in the metropolitan areas and in the Appalachian areas," he said. "Actually, they're facing a lot of the same challenges in those two very distinct, very different types of situations."
The organization said parts of DeWine’s proposed budget are a good response to its findings on the state’s poverty rates.
Those include a refundable child tax credit for young families, an expansion of the number of school-based health centers in high-need counties and more.
"A refundable child tax credit, that would be about $1,000 per children," Bervejillo said. "But it is relatively limited — the children that will receive it are young children, and it phases out at a relatively low income threshold. There's also an effort to increase access to quality child care, to provide health centers and schools."
Stanford also pointed to the proposed OhioSEE Program. He said it is vital to the success of young people throughout their education and beyond.
“Students who fail a vision screening between the grades of kindergarten and third grade would receive comprehensive eye exams and if needed, they would receive glasses," he said.
Stanford said investing in programs like these that support children are vital to the future of Ohio.
"Our children are our future and they depend on us and depend on the adults in their communities to provide nurturing environments for them to live in and to learn in," he said. "And so we have that obligation as the adults in our communities and in our state to make sure that we are making the proper investments and that we are making the proper decisions to build those communities that will allow them to grow up with dignity, hope and joy."
Bervejillo said DeWine has historically prioritized children, including in this budget plan.
“We hope that he continues to invest his own political capital into these priorities," he said.
Stanford said the organization will continue to engage with this budget process over the next three to four months to encourage legislators to support Ohio's youth.
"We as members of the community have to be involved in the process," he said. "We are citizens of Ohio, we are citizens of our communities and if we really want these type of investments to be made in our children, then we have to step up and make our voices heard to those who are making the decisions."
