The 29th Annual Report on the Conditions of Children in Orange County

By County of Orange on December 18, 2023

The 29th Annual Report on the Conditions of Children in Orange County studies four interdependent focus areas: Good Health, Economic Well-Being, Educational Achievement, and Safe Homes and Communities. Each focus area highlights recent data that indicate improving or worsening trends over a 10-year period.

The Conditions of Children Report has closely documented the impacts of the novel coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19) over the last three editions. While disruptions in data collection impacted several indicators, the report captured the challenges faced by children and families. The next crucial step is to assess the longer-term impacts and the underlying inequities that were exposed.

This year’s report reflects positive improvements in health insurance access, early prenatal care, and reduced child poverty and high school dropout rates. The percentage of Orange County high school graduates considered ready for college also increased.

At the same time, several indicators showed negative movement, suggesting areas for continued focus to improve children’s outcomes. These include:

A 4.3% decrease in the percentage of third-grade students meeting English Language, Arts, and Math standards since 2019.
A 12.1% increase in the chronic school absenteeism rate from 2021 to 2022.
An 8.5% increase in the percentage of eleventh-grade students experiencing depression-related feelings, with students who identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) being over 1.5 times more likely to experience these feelings.
Lastly, suicide is now the leading cause of death among 10-to-14-year-old children.

The Orange County community has and will continue to create community-led solutions to address the issues facing children and families. Several such solutions are explored further in the next section called, “Local Solutions To Advance Equity In Orange County.”