NC Child produces publications that document trends in child well-being and the impact of public policy decisions on children and families.
Child care access and affordability are a struggle for working families across North Carolina. Without an adequate workforce to provide care, children, families, and our local businesses will suffer the consequences.
NC Child's 2024 Legislative Agenda is leading with policy priorities that build family economic security and safeguard youth mental health.
Our children are facing a mental health crisis. Youth suicides and the number of anxiety or depression diagnoses have both risen sharply over the past several years.
Healthy, Happy Smiles gives us a glimpse into the experiences of parents and caregivers in NorthCarolina as they access oral health care for their children and navigate and reflect on the obstacles in their way. This report includes stories from parents and caregivers across the state collected by members of the Parent Advisory Council, and interview results on the experiences of Medicaid members seeking oral health care for their children. This report allows us the opportunity to listen to parents and families’ visions of accessible, affordable oral health care in North Carolina. It is intended to be a reference for advocates, policymakers, clinicians, funders, and others interested in improving the systems of care that address oral health needs for children.
When caregivers are insured through any means and use their health coverage, they are more likely to have children who also have health coverage and regularly attend preventative services like well child check-ups. Known as the “welcome mat” effect, this relationship between caregivers having health coverage and the positive health outcomes of the children under their care is the foundational principle to using a Whole Family Care approach to support child oral health outcomes.
In collaboration with Medicaid members and systems advocates, NC Child believes that solutions are needed to incentivize, modernize, and simplify access to oral health care under Medicaid, particularly for children and families with special health care needs.
North Carolina provides dental benefits for children and adults enrolled in Medicaid, but access to dental care is not uniform throughout the state as all counties, metro and rural, are designated shortage areas for dental care.(1)
The North Carolina Child Health Report Card, published biannually by the North Carolina Institute of Medicine and NC Child, tracks key indicators of child health and well-being in four areas:
Healthy Births
Access to Care
Secure Homes & Neighborhoods, and
Health Risk Factors
The report provides data on such health concerns and risk factors as asthma, teen births, infant mortality, poverty, and child deaths.
Parents need choices for child care. Across the state, parents face a shortage of quality child care options, which has been made worse by the pandemic. Increasing the subsidy rates to the most recent statewide average rates can help child care centers stay open, or reopen, to serve more children & families who need care to go to work.