Reports and Fact Sheets

Older youth in foster care, aged 14-21, are embarking on a journey to adulthood, transitioning out of the foster care system and onto self-sufficiency. Despite the numerous challenges they face, including trauma and adverse experiences from their childhood and adolescence, often exacerbated by child welfare system involvement, these youth demonstrate remarkable resilience. Their transition from adolescence to adulthood is a pivotal period, and the support and resources they receive significantly influence their success post-foster care. 

Our 14th annual State of Child Welfare report provides a 5-year analysis of how Pennsylvania fares with practices around child safety, placement, and permanency and includes county-level data and statewide and geographic trends to improve the child welfare system. We continue to analyze racial disparity and disproportionality across the child welfare system’s population (age 0-20).

Kinship care is the full-time care, nurturing, and protection of a child by a relative, either by blood or marriage, and can include informal connections that are not legally related but have a positive, supportive relationship with the child or family.

Infant and Toddler EI is a program that provides services to children from birth to their third birthday who have a developmental delay or a high probability of having a developmental delay. Also referred to as Part C EI, these services aim to improve outcomes that are critical to a family’s ability to support their child’s health, optimal development, educational success, and lifelong well-being.

Since 2022, the Early Learning Pennsylvania coalition and the Thriving PA campaign have been proud to increase awareness of and foster policymaker support for Infant and Toddler Early Intervention (EI), also known as Part C EI. With a statewide advocacy workgroup convened for the first time, an initial goal was to receive and analyze EI related data from the Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL). A formal request was submitted to the state in 2023 for both FY 2021-22 and FY 2022-23 Infant and Toddler EI data, and to date, the workgroup has received and analyzed statewide and county-level data specific to the areas of fiscal, eligibility, and enrollment information. 

Pennsylvania’s comprehensive early care and education system spans the formative years of a child, birth-to-age-5, and provides an opportunity to ensure our youngest citizens are starting out on the right track. The report shows more investments in the early care and education workforce are needed to give Pennsylvania children the foundation they need to succeed.

Home visiting services help nurture a healthy environment for expectant parents and families with young children by focusing on child development, improving maternal and child health, providing positive parental coaching and guidance, and much more. This brief explores the benefits of the Medicaid Maternal Home Visiting program (MHV) created by DHS four years ago and offers recommendations to the department for further improvement.

The Childhood Begins at Home campaign released new fact sheets that show the number of young children and their families receiving publicly funded, evidence-based home visiting services statewide and in each county. While a historic level of increased funding in last year’s state budget helped serve more Pennsylvania low-income families—moving from 5% to 7% served—it still represents only a fraction of those most in need of services.

Each day, families struggle with food security and the ability to provide their children with healthy meals that fuel their minds and bodies. Lack of nutrient-rich food impacts child development, overall health outcomes, mental and behavioral health and academic achievement, performance, and participation. Free school breakfast has been one initiative provided to Pennsylvania school-aged children to combat child hunger and ensure students succeed.

Career and technical education (CTE) combines academic, technical and hands-on skill-building that prepares students to immediately enter high-priority occupations or better define career plans, including post-secondary education. Each year thousands of Pennsylvania students will have already earned higher education credits, completed a pre-apprenticeship program or gained on-the-job skills before graduation because of the CTE path they chose in high school. Unfortunately, not all students get to participate in CTE due to the lack of sustained state investments in funding to support programming.

The physical health and well-being of current service members is vital in supporting military readiness. Likewise, the physical health and well-being of young Americans is vital to the future readiness of the Armed Forces. Ensuring affordable and comprehensive health care access for America’s military families and our next generation is an essential investment in our national security. 

In every community across Pennsylvania, Medicaid and CHIP play a big role in keeping kids covered and healthy. Through these public health insurance options, nearly half of all children have access to check-ups, doctor-recommended screenings, vaccinations and much more. The three fact sheets in this series show enrollment by Congressional, state House, and state Senate districts.

The number of uninsured children in Pennsylvania remains stable following last year’s unwinding of the Medicaid continuous coverage provision, but no progress has been made, according to our 2024 State of Children’s Health report. The report provides the first look at the impact of resuming Medicaid renewals following a three-year federal hiatus during the COVID-19 public health emergency.

Back-to-school season is an opportunity to make sure kids have the health coverage they need to be ready to learn. There’s a lot to do to get kids ready for school. Start crossing off your back-to-school list with free or low-cost health insurance today! With MEDICAID or CHIP, they’re covered for yearly physicals, immunizations, mental health services, dental check-ups, and more.

Children need access to nutrition for their growing bodies and minds to be healthy and develop as they should. The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is a critical component in ensuring infants and toddlers, as well as pregnant and postpartum mothers, have access to healthy nutrition. See WIC coverage rates statewide and at the county level.

Our revamped State of the Child profiles offer a variety of data points about children and families and their well-being in Pennsylvania and all 67 counties, including Population Diversity, Children Living in Poverty, and a variety of Socioeconomic Data. Click on page to see county statistics.