(SAVANNAH, Ga.) Georgia has fallen to 39th in the nation for overall child well-being, according to the 2025 KIDS COUNT® Data Book released in June by Georgia KIDS COUNT, an initiative of the Georgia Family Connection Partnership. The report highlights troubling trends for Georgia’s children, including increased poverty rates, lower proficiency in reading and math, and persistent disparities in health and economic stability.
“This drop in the rankings confirms what many local families are already experiencing,” said Kim Clifton, executive director of Coastal Georgia Indicators Coalition (CGIC). “The data is clear. We have serious challenges to address, but we also have the local tools and partnerships to create real change.”
The KIDS COUNT Data Book ranks states based on four categories: economic well-being, education, health and family and community factors. Georgia showed particular declines in childhood poverty rates and fourth-grade reading proficiency, dropping two spots overall from previous rankings..
“By looking at what the data is telling us at the zip-code level, we can target efforts where they are most needed,” said Clifton. “That is how we create measurable, long-term improvement.”
Clifton says CGIC is striving to enable the achievement of those goals by:
– Monitoring the Chatham Community Blueprint and convening community stakeholders six times per year to strategize around key indicators;
– Coordinating the Chatham Family Connection Collaborative that uses CGIC’s aggregated data to develop and implement strategies to address child well-being on a local level;
– Educating local policy makers about the data to ensure they understand the urgent need to address these issues; and
– Supporting trauma-informed work in the community.
As coastal Georgia’s only regional data aggregator, CGIC provides community health dashboards and annual status reports that track over 290 vital indicators, comparing county-level data with state indicators. The Coalition also compiles and analyzes local data on children and families, in addition to being the lead agency supporting Resilient Coastal Georgia, which aims to build resilience and a trauma-informed community across coastal counties.
“Some of our recent efforts include supporting trauma-informed care programs in schools, expanding neighborhood-level data access and developing a coordinated strategy to reduce childhood poverty in Chatham County,” said Clifton..
As the lead agency for the Georgia Family Connection Partnership’s (GaFCP) Chatham Collaborative —the state’s designated KIDS COUNT grantee and host of Georgia KIDS COUNT, a GaFCP project, CGIC reports year-to-year data highlights, trends, and disparities on child well-being to inform planning, budget, and policy decisions regarding priorities, services, and resources that affect children, families, and communities in our state.
“The Coalition is coastal Georgia’s central source of nonpartisan, real-time data,” said Clifton. “Our community dashboards and annual indicator reports track over two dozen key quality-of-life metrics, including school readiness, food security, early childhood education access and youth mental health trends. These tools guide decision-making for nonprofits, schools, funders and local governments.
CGIC additionally maintains comparison data for Healthy People 2030, enabling stakeholders to pinpoint disparities and intervene quickly. This national databank, managed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, identifies public health priorities to help individuals, organizations, and communities across the United States improve health and well-being. Healthy People 2030, the initiative’s fifth iteration, builds on knowledge gained over the first 4 decades.
The full KIDS COUNT Data Book report is available at www.aecf.org. Find more about the Georgia Family Connection Partnership at gafcp.org. You can learn more about CGIC, support their work, and review the data at coastalgaindicators.org
ABOUT COASTAL GEORGIA INDICATORS COALITION
Coastal Georgia Indicators Coalition (CGIC) is composed of community members and advocates working together through a comprehensive coordinated approach for planning accountability to address overall health and well-being while leveraging resource initiatives. Also serving as the Chatham Family Connection Collaborative, CGIC is the local arm of the only statewide network in the country dedicated to the health and well-being of families and communities. The purpose of the Coalition is to improve community well-being by engaging and leading the community to work collectively in its development of strategic priorities that guide policy, programs and resource allocation. CGIC is the responsible organization for the development, and with partners, the implementation of the Chatham Community Blueprint. CGIC has strength and capacity related to leadership, management, systems and partnerships.
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