Child wellbeing: Florida drops in rankings amid reading and math declines
Children engaged in sensory exercises, often used in special education classrooms. (Photo by Getty Images)
Florida's dropping reading and math scores contributed to an overall decline of the state's ranking for child wellbeing.
Florida fell five spots in the 2025 Annie E. Casey Foundation Kids Count child wellbeing rankings. The Sunshine State ranked 35th in 2025 and 30th in 2024.
Florida ranked 19th best in the education category in 2025. Last year, the state ranked 5th in education.
The fall can be attributed to eighth graders' math proficiency dropping, as well as fourth graders' reading, as measured by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
For math, 21% of Florida eighth graders were proficient in 2024, a 10% drop since 2019, and for reading, 33% of fourth graders are proficient, a 5% drop since 2019. Nationwide, 30% of fourth graders are proficient in reading and 27% of eighth graders are proficient in math, data show.
Federal assessments show reading and math performance drop in Florida, nation
When the NAEP data were released by the U.S. Department of Education earlier this year, Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. wrote a letter to the department criticizing the congressionally mandated, nationwide assessment's methodology.
Diaz offered the department 'suggestions to help make NAEP great for educational progress once again,' including letting private schools participate in the assessment and claiming urban and underperforming schools were disproportionately included.
'Florida Policy Institute encourages lawmakers and officials in Florida to use this detailed information to unite across party lines and respond with initiatives that invest in young people,' that organization said in a news release.
The top five states for education were Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Utah.
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The overall rank comprises four categories: economic well-being, education, health, and family and community.
The three categories other than education did not see much movement from the 2024 rankings.
The economic well-being of Florida's children dropped one ranking, from 42nd to 43rd. Between 2019 and 2023, Florida decreased the number of children living in poverty from 18% to 16%. In that same time, Florida increased the number of children living in a household with a high housing cost burden by 2%, from 36% to 38%, a total of about 1.68 million children.
Florida's health ranking dropped one spot, too, from 31st in the 2024 report to 32nd in 2025. Fewer children are overweight in Florida since 2019, dropping from 30% then to 28% in 2023. Florida has the 29th highest child death rate, with 1,377.
Florida ranked 30th in family and community with teen birth rates dropping between 2019 and 2023 and children with single parents dropping from 39% to 37% in the same time frame.
'The proposed funding levels in Florida's budget and in the proposed federal reconciliation bills, if enacted, will lead to substantially reduced investments in child well-being and setbacks for Florida's children be it education, early learning and child care, nutrition, or health care' said Norín Dollard, the Kids Count director at Florida Policy Institute, in a news release.
'We know what kids need to grow up healthy so they can thrive when they reach adulthood, but rather than invest in their futures, funding is nearly flat or has decreased. This is exacerbated by the large potential loss of revenue for state and federal government programs that could support these efforts.'
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