Anne Kuhnen

The 2026 KIDS COUNT Data Book released just a few weeks ago revealed uneven progress on child well-being. Despite improvements in family and community factors – including a decline in the share of children living in high-poverty neighborhoods, a decrease in the share of single-parent families and a falling teen birth rate – economic and educational outcomes continue to worsen.

Michigan’s child poverty rate of 18% remains stubbornly high even as the national rate fell in recent years. In addition, over a quarter of children in the state live in a household where no parent has full-time, year-round employment.

These trends are concerning because children growing up in poverty are much more likely than their peers to experience stress and deprivation that hinders health, development and school readiness, and children living in families lacking secure parental employment are especially vulnerable.

These poor economic trends are even more pronounced for children living in rural communities, which largely have fewer workforce opportunities and lower wages. The unemployment rate for workers in the Alpena region – at 7.32% in 2025 – is higher than for the state as a whole, while the median household income is substantially lower. Indeed, nearly 23% of children in Alcona, Alpena, Montmorency and Presque Isle counties are living in poverty, a rate that has risen since the pandemic.

These trends suggest new federal work requirements to access the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid will hit families in rural areas especially hard. Without addressing the underlying barriers to employment in rural communities, work reporting requirements will simply increase red tape while threatening coverage and benefit loss.

Child health insurance coverage was one of the highlights in this year’s data. Just 4% of children in Michigan go without health insurance, putting us in the top 10 states nationally. Public insurance options like Medicaid and MiChild help the state maintain this high ranking. Although the new work requirements for Medicaid only impact adults, loss of coverage among parents increases the likelihood their children will go without coverage.

More than 40% of children statewide rely on Medicaid each year, including 58% of children in Alcona, 47% of children in Alpena, 50% of children in Montmorency and 44% of children in Presque Isle. But enrollment rates have been falling in the past two years. Since January 2025, Michigan has seen 50,000 fewer children enrolled in Medicaid and MiChild.

SNAP cuts will also impact economic security for children at a time when prices are rising not just for food, but for gas, childcare and other essentials. One in 5 children in Michigan is food insecure, but the rates are higher in Alcona, Alpena, Montmorency and Presque Isle counties, where 23.5%, 22.2%, 24.9% and 20.1% of children, respectively, face food insecurity. Despite our robust agriculture industry, poor food security leads to high healthcare costs and unfulfilled potential among students and workers.

This new data and the worsening economic outcomes for children point to the need for state lawmakers to fill gaps left by federal cuts to programs like SNAP and Medicaid. We can do this first by reducing the burden of work requirements on SNAP and Medicaid recipients. Michigan needs strong data systems that can efficiently determine work requirement compliance or exemption status, such as for caretakers of dependent children under age 14.

In addition, we need to fully fund Medicaid in the state budget and establish dedicated, stable revenue sources for the program. If we want to provide for children in Michigan and reduce public costs in the future, meeting family health needs today is essential.