Nevada rates near bottom for children’s well-being, though poverty, teen births tick down

Nevada children’s health, economic well-being drop as state holds on to low ranking

Nevada children’s health and economic well-being dropped for a second year in a row, as the Silver State continues to rank 47th out of 50 states in children’s well-being in the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2025 Kids Count Data Book. 

The report looks at 16 indicators of children’s well-being in four categories: economic well-being, education, health and family and community. 

This year’s data book notes some bright spots across the country in the latest data for 2023 compared to 2019, including a slight reduction in child poverty, fewer teen births and more children with health insurance. 

But the foundation said serious challenges remain as 16 percent of children still live in poverty, and nearly 1 in 3 children live in households struggling with high housing costs. 

In Nevada, that equates to 108,000 children living in poverty and almost 250,000 children living in households with a high housing cost burden. 

Nevada did worse overall in education. The state experienced a decrease in the percentage of children ages 3 and 4 not in school — 67 percent between 2019-23 compared with 64 percent between 2014-18 — and saw drops in the percentage of fourth graders not proficient in reading and eighth graders not proficient in math. The percentage of high school students not graduating on time also slightly increased from 16 percent during the 2018-19 school year to 18 percent in 2021-22 school year. 

This year’s data book came out June 9, a week after the conclusion of the legislation session. 

Tara Raines, deputy director of the Children’s Advocacy Alliance of Nevada, a local nonprofit, said the data book is meant to be a guide on what areas the state should focus on improving. 

“There are little ways in which we as a state can build an infrastructure to ease the burden of families and improve family and child well-being overall,” she said. 

One of the ideas is expanding access to pre-K in Nevada to improve student achievement. 

She said pre-K not only prepares young children socially and academically to enter the K-12 school system, but it also helps parents by freeing up their time so they can go to work. 

Before the session, Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro (D-Las Vegas) had proposed funding universal pre-K in her education omnibus bill, SB460. The Children’s Advocacy Alliance estimated the state would need to spend an additional $117 million per year on pre-K above its 2024 funding level, which was about $107 million, to get there, according to the nonprofit’s analysis. 

But the universal pre-K proposal fizzled out during the session after economic uncertainty at the state level. Cannizzaro’s bill’s funding for early childhood education was reduced to $21 million. 

It also included provisions to expand state-funded pre-K programs to 4-year-olds from families with incomes below 250 percent of the federal poverty level, an increase from the previous level, 200 percent. The expansion also adds in children whose primary language is not English or who are from a historically vulnerable and underserved population. 

“By having programs that are targeting the kids who are less likely to have access to it … it’ll be a game changer because it’s so expensive,” she said. 

In Nevada, pre-K can cost between $700 to $1,000 per month for families who don’t qualify for the state-funded programs, according to Raines.   

Raines said she was also concerned about the slight uptick in low birthweight babies in Nevada. She said a bill proposed this session, AB340, would have mandated insurance companies cover screenings and assessments for developmental disorders, which would have allowed families to access early intervention services. 

“We know those babies are at the highest risk for the development of various developmental disorders and middle-class families are going to have to come out of pocket to pay for that testing and likely the interventions,” she said. 

But Raines is optimistic that legislation that did make it through that could benefit children in the near future, including SB165, which would establish regulations and licensing opportunities for behavioral health and wellness practitioners. Those providers are trained to identify early warning signs of mental health disorders, trauma and emotional distress, and can offer kids and families strategies on how to mitigate those issues. 

“I’m excited about the addition of this new profession to Nevada, because I think it really will help in education, and it could help in other areas as well,” she said.

Have a student or staffer who we should feature in the next edition of School Spotlight? Share your nominations with me at rocio@thenvindy.com.

Read the rest of this article, which was shared with Noticiero Móvil, over at The Nevada Independent. This story was reported by Rocio Hernandez and originally published on June 16th 2025.