Early childhood experiences have lasting impacts on a child’s ability to reach their full potential. When looking at measures of children’s well-being, Louisiana consistently scores poorly in comparison to the rest of the United States. It is important that policymakers, public health professionals, and other key stakeholders understand these trends in early childhood well-being. To this end, the 2021 Early Childhood Risk and Reach in Louisiana report is designed to help all early childhood stakeholders – governmental and nongovernmental – make informed decisions about the distribution of critical health resources. The report complements information included in the Early Childhood System Integration Budget. The following dashboard section contains high-level data overviews of early childhood in Louisiana. For additional context and policy recommendations, we strongly recommend downloading the full Risk & Reach report with the button below.
Explore the Data
Here you’ll find interactive maps of the same data found in the Risk and Reach report. You can explore each topic by clicking the down arrow icon at the top of the data table columns to sort by parish or indicator value. Hover over the map of Louisiana or click an area of interest to display numbers for a specific parish. Reset the dashboard by clicking anywhere outside of the map.
Note: The dashboards look best in Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or Mozilla Firefox. Having trouble seeing the data? We suggest refreshing the webpage or switching browsers to adjust the display. If the issue persists, please contact Jason Lochmann, BFH Communications Specialist.
See the Approach
Risk
The Risk section includes an analysis of 21 state- and parish-level measures of health risk for Louisiana children ages 0-5. The Risk indicators cover five domains that impact young children and their families. The categories are based on the World Health Organization’s Social Determinants of Health as defined in their Healthy People 2030 framework. For each indicator, parishes are ranked from “Low” to “High” risk relative to other Louisiana parishes. A parish’s Overall Risk score is equal to its average of all 21 indicators. Based on this calculation, parishes fall into one of four Overall Risk groups: Low, Low-Moderate, Moderate-High, and High.
Reach
The Reach section includes an analysis of parish-level availability of 8 publicly-funded programs for young children. The Reach indicators are based on parish-level data for the 8 major publicly-funded programs serving young children in Louisiana. All programs are administered by either the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) or the Louisiana Department of Education (DOE). Similar to the risk indicators, parishes are sorted into ranked quartiles based on enrollment. The Reach maps overlay program enrollment data onto the Overall Risk map, showing program availability relative to the needs of young children in each parish.
Have thoughts about the dashboards? Share them with Amy Zapata, Director of the Bureau of Family Health.