The 2025 KIDS COUNT Factbook, released on May 5, has identified affordable access to housing, education, health care and nutrition as continued top priorities when it comes to supporting children and families in Rhode Island.
What’s uncertain, however, is whether the federal funding needed to sustain key programs for children and families in the state will remain intact.
KIDS COUNT, a nonprofit children’s advocacy group, publishes the Factbook annually to create a statistical portrait of how children across Rhode Island are performing. It looks at several key areas: family and community, economic well-being, health, safety, and education. The 2025 Factbook also introduced three new indicators to track child wellness: family structure, maternal health and infant health.
The 2025 Factbook was officially released at a special breakfast held May 5 at the Crowne Plaza in Warwick. The large meeting room was packed with more than 450 attendees that included dignitaries and high-ranking, state, local and federal officials. Those in attendance included members of Rhode Island’s Congressional delegation as well as members of the General Assembly and various community leaders.
The organization stressed that many federal programs that have traditionally supported children and low-income families in the state are at now at risk. One such program is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides monthly benefits to low-income families in order to purchase food at retail stores and some farmers markets.
According to the Factbook, 44,951 of children under age 18 across Rhode Island received SNAP benefits as of October 2024. That number includes more than 5,000 children across Johnston, Warwick, and Cranston.
“We’ve been hearing a lot about an increase in hunger in Rhode Island,” Stephanie Geller, deputy director for KIDS COUNT. “The Rhode Island Community Food Bank has noted enormous increases in the number of people coming to food pantries because they can’t afford food. So, we know that that’s an area… we’re worried about.”
Geller, a longtime Cranston resident, also mentioned several early childhood education programs in the local area that could be affected if federal funding were cut –- perhaps most crucially providers of Head Start and Early Head Start programs. For 60 years, Head Start has provided comprehensive services to low-income children, and their families. The services range from hands-on learning programs for the youngsters to childcare, health care, nutritional support, and more for the for families.
The 2025 Factbook reports that, as of October 2024, Early Head Start programs in Rhode Island supported 540 infants and 13 pregnant women. Head Start program enrolled 1,073 children with an additional 365 children dually enrolled in Head Start and RI Pre-K programs.
While the initial White House budget request for FY2026 released on May 2 does not mention Head Start, an earlier draft of the budget suggested eliminating funding for the program. Head Start programs across the country have already been impeded by layoffs of federal employees who support the programs.
“Congress is the one who makes the decisions about the budget, so we have to see what Congress passes,” Geller said. “But those have also been looking fairly ominous.”
The 2025 Factbook’s new indicators have also highlighted how crucial federal programs have been to supporting Rhode Island families in recent years. Under the new “Maternal Health” indicator, the Factbook notes that women who received health coverage through RIte Care, the state’s Medicaid-managed aid program, were much less likely to have a delayed start to their prenatal care than women who are uninsured. From 2019-2023, delayed prenatal care affected 448 women in Warwick, 211 in Johnston, and 588 in Cranston.
Housing is another area where the loss of federal funds could impact Rhode Island families. Federal funding has been used extensively by the state to support affordable housing efforts; from FY2022 to FY2024, the Factbook reports, the state used $332.2 million in federal State Fiscal Recovery Funds to provide housing. With these funds now ending, funding sources such as housing bonds will have to be used to fill the gap. The loss of funding comes at the time where housing expenses in Rhode Island have risen, with the cost of rent in the state increasing by 17% from 2020 to 2024, according to KIDS COUNT.
In its executive summary, the organization stresses the need to continue programs the serve the state’s children and their families: “We must ensure that families will be able to access the programs that help them thrive.”
—With reports from Barbara Polichetti
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