Colorado’s latest report card on kids is in, and it is a mixed bag. The 2026 KIDS COUNT in Colorado! Data Book, released June 10, shows clear gains in high school graduation and preschool access, while affordability, vaccination rates, and basic student proficiency are sliding in the wrong direction. Nearly one in three Colorado households with children is straining to cover essentials, and many classrooms are still wrestling with pandemic-era learning loss, even after big-ticket policy wins like new tax credits and universal preschool.
New book, familiar gaps
The 2026 KIDS COUNT in Colorado! The Data Book comes from the Colorado Children’s Campaign, which released the report on June 10. The full package, including county fact sheets and interactive tools, organizes dozens of indicators into four big buckets: economic security, health, early childhood and K‑12 education, according to the Colorado Children’s Campaign.
Family budgets under pressure
On the economic front, the numbers are blunt. Nearly 30% of Colorado households with children are struggling to afford basic needs, and almost 70% of single mothers report financial hardship, according to a statewide analysis highlighted by The Denver Gazette. That pressure looks very different depending on where you live: in Summit County, a family needs more than $131,000 a year just to cover the basics, while in parts of the San Luis Valley, more than one-third of children are growing up in poverty.
Education: gains and worrying declines
Education remains the soft spot. In the national KIDS COUNT Data Book, education was again the weakest domain, and Colorado’s overall education score has fallen since 2019. The share of fourth graders who are not proficient in reading climbed from 60% to 64%, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation. At the same time, the state’s on-time high school graduation rate has improved, a reminder that statewide averages can hide big differences from one district or county to the next.
Health and school meals
The health picture is similarly uneven. State and local data show Colorado now ranks in the low 30s nationally for routine immunizations among two- and three-year-olds, and kindergarten vaccination coverage has dropped below the 95% level that public health officials say is needed to prevent measles outbreaks. That decline occurred alongside actual measles cases and several hospitalizations, The Denver Gazette reports.
One bright spot: food security at school. The Healthy School Meals for All program served nearly 650,000 meals per school day in the 2024‑25 school year, providing a statewide safety net for students. Program rules and structure are detailed by the Colorado Department of Education.
Child care and the workforce crunch
For families with young children, the child care math is especially brutal. KIDS COUNT in Colorado data show there are only about 164,000 licensed child care center slots for nearly 39,000 children under six, and the average annual cost for center-based care is about $38,500. The combination means that at least half of Colorado families are spending one-third or more of their income to send two children to care.
Staffing is another pressure point. Nearly 20% of child care and early childhood education professionals left the field in fiscal year 2023‑24, and more than 9,000 families sit on a waitlist or face an enrollment freeze for state child care assistance, according to the Colorado Children’s Campaign.
Policy levers: tax credits and tradeoffs
On paper, state policy has not been standing still. One of the headline changes in the report is the Family Affordability Tax Credit, created in 2024 to provide refunds to families with children. The law sets a base credit of up to $3,200 per child under six, and 75% of that amount for older children, according to HB24‑1311.
A first-year evaluation by researchers at Appalachian State University and Washington University estimates that the Family Affordability Tax Credit alone could reduce child poverty by about 20%. When it is combined with Colorado’s Child Tax Credit and the expanded Earned Income Tax Credit, the overall reduction in child poverty could reach roughly 37%, the analysis from the Appalachian State/Wash U evaluation finds.
The hard part now falls to lawmakers and advocates: turning those policy wins into day-to-day stability for real families. The data book spells out where new investments have started to move the needle and where stronger, longer-term funding, targeted outreach, and better workforce support are still needed if statewide gains are going to translate into reliable outcomes for every Colorado kid, an argument echoed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
