In Alabama, families struggled despite a growing U.S. economy, with more than a quarter of the state’s children living in poverty and without reliable sources of healthy food, a new report found. 
The report describes a state where there has been little sustained progress in key areas of poverty over the last decade. In 2000, 21.5 percent of children lived in poverty, and by 2009-13 26.9 percent of children lived below the poverty line, according to a Dec. 1 report released by VOICES for Alabama’s Children. The percentage of children living in extreme poverty – households with incomes below $12,000 a year – also rose from 10.2 percent to 12.6 percent.
In addition, the report found that 26.2 percent of children in Alabama are in homes with an unstable, or insecure, supply of healthy food.
“Like other states across the southeastern corner of the country, Alabama has recovered significantly slower following the Great Recession,” the report, which was released with the Annie E. Casey Foundation, said. “Fewer parents have secure employment, more children live in extreme poverty and more families struggle with the burden of high housing costs, all illustrating how vulnerable families bear the brunt of Alabama’s anemic economy.”
There were also weaknesses in Alabama’s schools. By the fourth grade, only 38 percent of students read at grade-level proficiency, a key barometer because research shows students from low-income families who are not reading at grade-level by third grade are three times more likely to fail to finish high school on-time, a separate 2011 report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation found.
Advocates and policymakers are working to address poverty and the many challenges tied to it, among Alabama’s families. Alabama’s First Class Pre-K program, for example, has been shown to close achievement gaps between children in low-income families and other students by 26 percent, Rhonda Mann, policy and research director at VOICES for Alabama’s Children, said.
Read the full report, Alabama Kids Count Data Book, for more information on poverty, economic security, education, and other barometers of families’ health around the state.
VOICES for Alabama’s Children is a statewide non-partisan nonprofit whose mission is to ensure the well-being of Alabama’s children through research, public awareness and advocacy.