Kids Count survey shows increase in poverty in Idaho.

One in five Idaho children lives below the poverty level. 67 percent of 4th-graders are not proficient in reading. Those are just a couple results of the 2015 Kids Count study on child well-being released today.

Some of those children living in poverty live with their mothers at homeless shelters like The Haven. Cassie Fahlsing has had that experience. She’s the single mom of a 10 year old. She was struggling when she came here.

“It happens when we get into a position and we’re struggling so hard to get out of it, and it seems like every time we take a step forward, it seems like we’re going backwards and it just seems to get harder,”
Fahlsing said.

But with the support of the people who run this shelter Fahlsing found work.

“So I work two jobs not only to provide for him, but as well as let him be a kid and let him do those special things that kids want to do,” Fahlsing said.

Haven manager Anne Johnson says education is the key to getting out of poverty.

“In order for people to be able to make more money they have to have some sort of training — some kind of education — and that’s the biggie,” Johnson said. “So we encourage people to go to school for some kind of certification that can get them up from minimum wage.”

The statistic that one in five children in Idaho lives in poverty doesn’t surprise the head of the United Way, Cindy Ozaki.

“It doesn’t surprise me because we have some of the highest food insecurity rates here.” Ozaki said. “That means people don’t know where their next meal is coming from, or they can feed their kids one time but they can’t feed their kids in another day. The homeless shelters and temporary housing we have for families are all full. We again have families living in cars around here and so we do have a poverty issue here.”

Those involved in the study say there’s a definite link between lack of education and poverty.

“When our young adults can be ready to succeed in school and be ready to succeed in college they’ll be better equipped to earn good wages for their family,” Idaho Voices for Children director Lauren Necochea said.

Necochea said that education needs to start early.

“In Idaho, it’s notable that in the past few years we’ve really slipped in our 4th-grade reading proficiency,” Nocechea said. “We were at 20th and we’ve slipped to 33rd so we’re declining while other states are improving.”

Elijah Beck, who will be going into 4th-grade grade, likes to go to the library and read during the summer.

“I like learning about stuff,” Elijah said.

The United Way recently held a book drive for school kids. They are especially concerned about kids Elijah’s age.

“We know if kids aren’t reading at grade level by third grade, that that’s when they don’t tend to generally catch up,” Oazki said.

But for those who find themselves in poverty there’s hope.

“I do have hope because just with the help and everything that I’ve had and the little bit of a push that I’ve had, it’s helped me become a better person,” Fahlsing said. “It’s helped me realize I can do the things that I thought I was so bad at that I couldn’t do.”

Overall Idaho ranks 22nd in the nation in the Kids Count study.