Infant and maternal health outcomes are just two of many factors indicating the overall health of West Virginia. They create a narrative about connections with health and communal care and indicate areas for improvement. Over the past several years, the data around infant and maternal mortality have lagged in West Virginia, making it difficult to…
Health
West Virginia News - Recent reports have shown positive improvements in children’s health in West Virginia. Read the full article. The 2024 Kids Count Data Book ranked West Virginia 35th nationally in the category of health, a four-place improvement from last year’s ranking. Indicators such as low birth-weight babies, children without health insurance, child and…
West Virginia Public Broadcasting - Forty-two million Americans, or about 12 percent of the the population, need help feeding their families. Read the full article. That help often comes from a federal program called SNAP — which stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly called food stamps. The Mountain State is one of the top…
West Virginia Watch, News from the States, Beckley Register-Herald - One quarter of children in West Virginia live in poverty, and new data shows the number has increased since the COVID-19 pandemic. Read the full article. The Kids Count Data Book ranked West Virginia 47th out of 50 states for children’s economic well-being. The data, released Monday by the…
Public News Service - Math and reading proficiency among West Virginia kids has worsened over the past five years, according to new data. Read the full article. The latest Kids Count Data Book from the Annie E. Casey Foundation showed in 2022, 85% of the state's eighth graders were behind in math and 78% of fourth graders…
Dominion Post, Aol - The 2024 KIDS COUNT Data Book is out, and while West Virginia is steadily climbing rungs in its general showing from last year, the state still remains in the lower tier of the nation related to children’s health. Read the full article. West Virginia’s composite rating was 35th in the country –…
Earlier this month, state lawmakers met in Charleston for a special session mostly to allocate funding for budget needs that were shorted when they passed the state budget in March. Of 15 bills passed, 12 dealt with appropriations and state spending, with lawmakers continuing a troubling trend of using one-time surplus funds to pay for…
Huntington Herald-Dispatch - Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government has lifted pauses on SNAP benefit time limits that helped more able-bodied adults without dependents have access to food without restrictions. Read the full article. Now that these time limits are back, hundreds of adults in Cabell County have lost their SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance…
West Virginia Public Broadcasting - The West Virginia House of Delegates refused to concur with the state Senate’s amendment to Senate Bill 1001 in a late-night session Monday. Read the full article. Senate Bill 1001 and its counterpart, House Bill 101, aim to restore funding to the Department of Health and the Department of Human Services, focused…
West Virginia MetroNews - Lawmakers have rolled into a special session focusing on the state’s level of funding for human services plus additional surplus spending priorities. Read the full article. Senators on Sunday evening took up more than a dozen bills and passed about half of them without much disagreement or discussion. The Senate’s Republican…