| Overview | Health and Nutrition |
State policies that promote health, education, and strong families can help the early development and school readiness of America's youngest citizens. This profile highlights New Mexico's policy choices alongside other contextual data related to the well-being of young children.
Trends1
New Mexico has maintained the same income eligibility for public health insurance since 2001, with young children eligible in families earning up to 235 percent of the federal poverty level, and working parents eligible up to 65 percent of poverty. Access to child care decreased, from 193 percent of the federal poverty level in 2001 to 145 percent in 2006.
Recent Developments1
In 2005, the legislature mandated a new voluntary prekindergarten program and allocated $5 million in state funds to launch the program in 2006. The program will complement the state’s Child Development Program, which provides prekindergarten as well as home visiting, family support, and other services for children from birth to age 5. New Mexico's 2007 budget increased funding for prekindergarten by $9.5 million. This includes a one-time appropriation of $1.5 million for start-up costs associated with equipment and safety improvements.
| Health and Nutrition |
Data Notes and Sources
Last Updated: September 3, 2008
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- The trends and recent developments come from personal communications with state advocates, administrators, and policymakers. The following publications were also consulted:
Donna Cohen Ross, Aleya Horn, and Caryn Marks, Health Coverage for Children and Families in Medicaid and SCHIP: State Efforts Face New Hurdles: A 50-State Update on Eligibility Rules, Enrollment and Renewal Procedures, and Cost-Sharing Practices in Medicaid and SCHIP in 2008, Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, January 2008 http://www.kff.org (accessed April 11, 2008).
W. Steven Barnett, Jason Hustedt, Allison Friedman, Judi Stevenson Boyd, and Pat Ainsworth, The State of Preschool 2007, National Institute for Early Education Research, 2007.
Karen Schulman and Helen Blank, State Child Care Assistance Policies 2007: Some Steps Forward, More Progress Needed, National Women's Law Center, September 2007.
National Center for Children in Poverty, Map and Track State Initiatives for Young Children and Families, 2000 Edition, 2000
National Conference of State Legislatures, Child Care and Early Education Legislation Highlights 2005, June 2006
National Conference of State Legislatures, Child Care and Early Education Legislation Highlights 2006, unpublished draft
National Governors Association, Front and Center education articles, 2006, http://www.nga.org
ZERO TO THREE, The Baby Monitor, 2006 Policy and Advocacy News Archive, http://www.zerotothree.org - State data were calculated from the Annual Social and Economic Supplement (the March supplement) of the Current Population Survey from 2006, 2007, and 2008, representing information from calendar years 2005, 2006, and 2007. NCCP averaged three years of data because of small sample sizes in less populated states. The national data were calculated from the 2008 data, representing information from the previous calendar year.
- National and state data were calculated from the 2006 American Community Survey.