By Natalie Krebs (Radio Iowa)

An annual report on child well-being has ranked Iowa sixth in the nation.

The annual KIDS COUNT report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation shows Iowa ranks near the top nationally in areas like the number of high schoolers graduating on time. Anne Discher, executive director of Common Good Iowa, says Iowa has a lot of room for improvement in other areas.

“One of those is teen birth rate, where we ranked 23rd. We ranked 25th on the share of three and four year olds who are attending preschool,” Discher says, “and then we ranked 29th on the share of 10 to 17 year olds who are overweight or obese.”

The report shows Iowa parents also continue to face challenges around obtaining affordable and accessible childcare. “Fourteen percent of Iowa children birth to five had a family member in ‘20, and ‘21, who either quit, changed or refused a job because of problems with childcare,” Discher says.

The Kids Count report ranked Iowa third in the category of economic well-being, ninth for education and 11th for children’s health.