The 2026 Rhode Island KIDS COUNT Factbook: Childhood poverty has increased in Rhode Island

Not surprising to see life got tougher for children in Rhode Island

Steve Ahlquist

Rhode Island KIDS COUNT released its 2026 Factbook on Monday, “the thirty-second annual profile of the well-being of children in Rhode Island.” The Factbook was presented at Rhode Island KIDS COUNT’s annual breakfast, attended by all four members of Rhode Island’s Congressional delegation and members of the Rhode Island General Assembly. 

The breakfast was emceed by Paige Parks, Ed.M., Executive Director of Rhode Island KIDS COUNT, and the data was presented by Stephanie Geller, Ed.M., Deputy Director.

The following is taken from the Executive Summary provided by RI KIDS COUNT:

The Factbook is intended to provide data for community leaders, legislators, and policymakers to inform their planning, policymaking, and action, but this year, much of the data has been “harder to obtain, no longer available, or missing key information on disparities by race, ethnicity, or the experiences of LGBTQ+ youth.” The lack of data is mostly due to failures of the federal government, including:

• The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced that it will no longer produce its annual Household Food Security Report, ending over 30 years of data collection on this topic.
• Data on pregnancy risks and maternal and infant mortality are also under threat, and a 2025 Executive Order has halted efforts to include information on sexual orientation and gender identity in national surveys.
• Data on childhood immunizations from the National Immunization Survey were delayed this year and were not available in time for publication.
• There is no October 2025 unemployment rate data available due to the government shutdown.
• Problems like food insecurity, maternal mortality, and high suicide rates among LGBTQ+ youth will not go away just because the data is not there, but not having the data will make it harder to improve child well-being and solve these problems together.

Newport is now a core city:

This year, Newport has been added to the list of core cities, joining Central Falls, Pawtucket, Providence, and Woonsocket. Newport’s inclusion in the core cities reflects a shift in where child poverty is concentrated, as its child poverty rate has been similar to or higher than Pawtucket’s in recent years. From 2020 to 2024, Newport had the second-highest rate of childhood poverty in Rhode Island, with 32% of children living in poverty. Only Central Falls (33%) had a higher child poverty rate. While estimates for Newport (and Central Falls) have a larger margin of error due to their smaller populations, the data points to important changes in the distribution of economic hardship across the state.

Expanded section on immigrant children and youth:

“The Rhode Island 2026 Factbook is a love letter to Rhode Island’s immigrant children,” said Paige Parks.

• About one in eight residents is foreign-born, and most speak English and are naturalized citizens. From 2020 to 2024, more than 160,000 Rhode Islanders were born in another country. As of 2023, nearly one-third (30%) of children in Rhode Island and more than half (58%) of Hispanic children lived in an immigrant family. In Rhode Island, from 2012 to 2025, the number of public school students identified as immigrants has more than tripled (from 1,893 to 6,105).
• Immigration enforcement action and anti-immigrant rhetoric are affecting children’s access to health care. Families and children are delaying or avoiding seeking health care due to the presence of immigration enforcement officers at health clinics, centers, and hospitals.
• Immigration enforcement hurts student attendance, school enrollment rates, mental health, and student achievement, particularly for Students of Color. In Rhode Island, increased immigration enforcement has been associated with lower attendance rates among multilingual students.

Rhode Island continues to experience declining birth rates, with the second-lowest fertility rate in the country. Fewer births have implications for long-term population trends, school enrollment, and the state’s future workforce.

Racial and Ethnic Disparities Persist:

At the same time, racial and ethnic disparities remain a defining feature of child well-being in Rhode Island. Disparities are evident across health, economic, and community indicators, reinforcing the need for policies that address structural inequities and ensure all children and families have access to opportunity. Disparities are evident in areas including:

• Health insurance coverage, with 9.0% of Black children uninsured compared to 3.7% statewide
• Neighborhood poverty, where Hispanic children are significantly more likely to live in high-poverty areas
• Maternal and child health outcomes, housing conditions, and involvement in public systems

These disparities highlight the need for continued focus on policies and investments that promote equity and address systemic barriers. The charts below show racial and ethnic disparities by comparing key indicators

 

 

 

Economic Well-Being

Economic conditions for families have become more challenging, with rising costs and uneven access to safety net supports.

• Child poverty increased to 16.3% in 2024 and is concentrated in the five core cities of Central Falls, Newport, Pawtucket, Providence, and Woonsocket.
• In 2024, 16.3% of children in Rhode Island lived in poverty, up from 13.3% in 2023 and 11.7% in 2022, and higher than the national rate of 15.5%.
• Between 2020 and 2024, 69% of Rhode Island’s children living in poverty lived in just five cities—Central Falls, Newport, Pawtucket, Providence, and Woonsocket.
• In Rhode Island between 2020 and 2024, Hispanic children were about 18 times more likely to live in high-poverty neighborhoods than non-Hispanic white children.
• Housing affordability remains a significant challenge, with rents up 20% since 2015, even after adjusting for inflation, and homeownership out of reach for many families.
• Rhode Island’s FY 2025 budget included approval for a $120 million bond. The bond was the largest housing bond in the state’s history. Rhode Island voters overwhelmingly approved the bond.
• Child and youth homelessness has increased, with 1,994 students identified as homeless during the 2024–2025 school year.
• The number of students identified as homeless in Rhode Island has increased by 36% (533 students) from the 2021-2022 school year.

Safety net supports have weakened in key areas:

• Rhode Island spends a relatively small share of TANF funds on direct cash assistance. In 2023, Rhode Island spent 9% of TANF funds on cash assistance, below the national average.
• The number of children receiving SNAP benefits has declined by 31% over the past decade.

Recent federal policy changes are expected to further impact family stability in the future:

• Changes to SNAP will reduce benefits for some families and increase administrative requirements
• All information is embargoed until Monday, May 4, 2026•Federal policy changes affecting SNAP and Medicaid are projected to leave 40% of families worse off by 2033.

This year introduces a new focus on Family Tax Credits:

• This year’s Factbook introduces a new indicator on Family Tax Credits, highlighting their role in supporting family income and reducing poverty.
• In 2025, 68,800 Rhode Island filers claimed the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, bringing $181.9 million into the state.
• The Governor’s FY 2027 proposed budget includes Rhode Island’s first permanent, refundable Child Tax Credit. If enacted, eligible families would receive $325 per child, providing additional support to low-and moderate-income households.

Health

Rhode Island has made measurable progress in several areas of child and maternal health, while challenges remain.

Areas of improvement include:

• Decreases in infant mortality and preterm births.
• Reductions in psychiatric boarding and fewer “stuck” children in hospital settings.
• Increases in breastfeeding rates.
• Declines in rates of neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). However, several concerns persist:
• The rate of children without health insurance has increased
• We anticipate more uninsured Rhode Islanders as federal tax credits expire and Medicaid is cut. While the Medicaid cuts were not aimed at children, parents losing their insurance will result in children losing their insurance, even if they are still eligible for Medicaid.
• Disparities in maternal health outcomes remain significant.

 Fewer children are accessing dental care, with declines in RIte Smiles enrollment: 5,000 fewer children and youth enrolled in Rite Smiles than the previous year.

• Home visiting services have decreased, including the closure of the Nurse-Family Partnership program:

Environmental and housing-related risks also continue:

• Rhode Island has the highest percentage of low-income children living in older housing in the U.S.
• Lead exposure rates are declining slowly, but remain higher in core cities
• Asthma-related emergency visits increased for younger children

In addition, data limitations affected several indicators this year, including delayed immunization data and changes in how some measures are defined.

Mental health conditions can be diagnosed even in young children.

• 22% of children under age five who are enrolled in RIte Care have a diagnosis of Serious Emotional Disturbance.
• Youth homelessness has increased.
• The number of unaccompanied homeless youth identified by school personnel more than doubled from the 2023-2024 school year to the 2024-2025 school year.
• More youth are involved in the justice system, including increases in youth at the Training School and more cases transferred to adult court.
• The average age of youth at the Training School in 2025 was 16 years; however, 7% of youth who passed through the Training School at any point in 2025 were under 14 years old. Internationally, the United Nations has advised countries to establish a minimum age of criminal responsibility of at least 14.
• Youth Referred to Family Court: In Rhode Island, youth interact with the adult correctional system in two ways—when they are “waived” to adult court at the request of the Rhode Island Attorney General or when they are “certified,” resulting in sentencing beyond age 19 and transfer from the Training School to the Adult Correctional Institutions upon reaching age 19. In 2025, 20 motions to waive jurisdiction to try juveniles as adults and 20 certification motions were filed. This is the largest number of motions to waive jurisdiction since 2018, and the first time in seven years that the number of motions to waive jurisdiction has been more than nine.
• More children in out-of-home placement are being placed out of state, with 68 children in out-of-state placements compared to 59 the previous year.

Disparities persist within the justice system, with differences in how youth experience arrest, referral, and placement across communities.

Education

Rhode Island has seen progress in access to some early childhood services, alongside ongoing workforce and access challenges. Similarly, some K-12 outcomes have improved, especially chronic absence.

Areas of improvement include:

• Reduced wait times for Early Intervention services, following recent rate increases
• Increased participation in school meals in districts offering universal meals
• Declines in chronic absence.Since the 2023-2024 school year, chronic early absence has decreased from 20% to 18%, middle school chronic absence from 25% to 22%, and high school chronic absence from 31% to 29%, indicating continued progress.

At the same time, several challenges remain:

• Child care wages remain low, contributing to workforce instability. In Rhode Island in 2024, the average hourly wage for a child care educator was $16.74, down from 2023, and among the lowest average hourly wages of all occupations in the state.
• Enrollment in RI Pre-K declined after more than a decade of sustained growth.
• Rhode Island has the largest income-based gap in after-school participation in the country.

Student demographics are also changing:

• The number of Multilingual Learners has more than doubled over the past decade, requiring continued investment in language supports and inclusive education practices.

Children Participating in School Meals

• School meal participation among children in schools offering universal school meals is up compared to last year.
• However, federal H.R. 1, signed into law in July 2025, introduced “structural changes” to SNAP and Medicaid eligibility, which may reduce the number of families receiving benefits. With fewer children in families receiving SNAP benefits, the percentage of students identified as low-income may fall below the 25% threshold, resulting in more children experiencing food insecurity, both at home and at school.

Declines in suspensions, but concerns remain:

• During the 2024-2025 school year, the number of out-of-school suspensions (7,648) was 23% lower than in the previous school year (9,208). However, more than half (4,018 or 53%) of out-of-school suspensions were for non-violent offenses.
• Suspension usually does not deter students from misbehaving and may instead reinforce negative behavior patterns. Suspended students are more likely to experience academic failure, youth justice involvement, disengagement from school, isolation from teachers and peers, and school dropout.

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