For the third straight year, the share of federal spending on children ages 0-3 declined in fiscal year 2024. 

That’s according to First Focus on Children, which just released its annual report, and found that the percentage of federal dollars going to programs that wholly or partly serve young children dropped from 1.98% in FY 2021 to just 1.52% in FY 2024. 

The report, Babies in the Budget 2024, noted that federal spending on children actually increased between FY 2023 and FY 2024. But resources dedicated to children actually declined as a share of federal spending during those two years. 

“This demonstrates that the growth in the total federal budget is outpacing what we spend on our youngest children,” a report summary states. “On top of that, the small increase in FY 2024 funding failed to keep up with inflation, ensuring that support for babies lags behind the estimated average rise in the cost of living for families.” 

Babies in the Budget 2024 analyzes the share of spending allocated to children ages 0-3 across more than 150 government programs in the federal budget. First Focus categorized spending into six investment areas: Early Childhood, Health, Housing, Income Support, Justice and Child Protection, and Nutrition. 

In a forward to the 112-page report, First Focus President Bruce Lesley states that budgets reflect what political leaders value. “Our federal budget makes it abundantly clear that babies and toddlers are not a priority,” he writes. “For the third year in a row, the share of federal spending for children ages 0-3 has declined…It makes no sense to try to solve the nation’s debt by cutting children’s supports when we know the near- and long-term outcomes from healthy investments in our youngest children benefit not only them, but their families, society, and the nation’s ability to grow the economy.” 

Among the highlights in Lesley’s forward: 

• “The U.S. infant mortality rate in 2022, which already was much higher than in other wealthy countries, increased for the first time in two decades. 

• “10% of all U.S. children (7.3 million kids) did not have enough food to keep them healthy in 2022. That is a nearly 7% increase in the number of children over the previous year. Rates of food insecurity were significantly higher for households with children that included a Black or Hispanic adult.

• “Recent studies have shown that children are at the greatest risk of eviction. Children are more than 40% of the individuals that face eviction yearly. Additionally, households with children under 5 make up the largest group of households that have had evictions filed against them.
  
• ”Millions of children are losing health care. More than 5 million children have lost access to Medicaid through the unwinding process. In some states, such as Utah and Texas, roughly one-third (34% and 29% respectively) of children enrolled in Medicaid have lost coverage. 

• “Child poverty more than doubled in 2022 compared to 2021, with the rate of children living in poverty increasing from 5.2% to 12.4%. This increase represents more than 5 million children (about twice the population of Mississippi) that we allowed to backslide into poverty within a single year. Black, Hispanic, and American Indian and Alaska Native children experience poverty at a rate more than twice that of white children.” 

 Lesley’s conclusion: 

 “We can and must be doing better by our babies and our children,” he wrote. “It’s time to shift the momentum and ensure greater funding for our babies and toddlers. The nation’s youngest deserve it.”