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Philadelphia families and children are mired in an underresourced and bureaucratically complex system that is not meaningfully meeting their needs and hasn’t been for a decade, according to a far-reaching new report authored by education advocacy group Children First.
Children First researchers examined ten years of data from the city’s school district, early childhood sector, child health care field, juvenile justice space, and more, and determined Philly families have been stuck in a “decade of stalled progress.”
As of this year, the report found:
- An estimated 47% or 152,000 children in the city came from families who were struggling financially to meet their needs.
- Some 65% of students did not pass third grade reading assessments, while 3 in 5 eighth graders didn’t pass the state standardized math test.
- The number of children starting school without the required vaccinations has increased fourfold.
- More than 48% of young people report feeling sad or depressed, and over 67,700 children need access to mental health services.
“We were pretty shocked by what we found,” Donna Cooper, executive director of Children First, said at an event at the school district’s headquarters on Tuesday. “We were surprised when we looked back over the decade that the economic condition of families has worsened by and large.”
The report comes at a time when the Trump administration has threatened to withhold federal funding from school districts, considered deep cuts to Medicaid, and boosted Republican-led plans to gut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, among other government cost-cutting efforts.
“All of that will make the lives of children worse,” Cooper said. “As there’s a national conversation about ‘Is the federal government doing too much?’ Looking at the reality that children face in Philadelphia, the answer is a resounding no. It’s not doing enough.”
Parents like Regina Brown experience the reality of those data points every day. In January, one of Brown’s sons was sent to a juvenile detention center on a gun charge. She said she fought for years to get him services in the school district to help him deal with his learning disabilities and emotional challenges but was unsuccessful. Now, she said, she’s fighting to see him returned to her home safely.
“I felt like they were just tired of him and wanted him out of the school,” Brown said at Tuesday’s event. “I want him to understand that he made bad choices, but he’s not a bad person. That he can come back from it.”
Here are some of the takeaways from the report:
Student demographics are changing
There are fewer Black and white children living in the city now than in 2014 — though Black children still represent the largest child demographic — and the number of Hispanic and Asian American children has grown.
Hispanic children are the fastest growing group of newcomers to Philadelphia. The report determined there are nearly 10,500 more Hispanic children in Philadelphia since 2014 – an increase from 20% to 24% of the child population. The number of public school children whose first language is Spanish increased by 51% since the 2018 school year, according to district data.
That has meant the demand for district language resources, translation, and Spanish-speaking support staff has risen sharply while the supply has struggled to keep pace. Immigrant rights advocates are expected to bring these concerns to the school board meeting on Thursday as the Trump administration’s focus on deportations continues to cause fear and confusion in Philly communities.
Hundreds of thousands of Philly children live in poverty
Nearly half of the city’s children come from families who can’t afford to meet their needs without going into debt, the report found. An estimated 110,852 public school students, or 54% of the city’s student body, live in poverty — enough to nearly fill two of the city’s sports arenas, according to the report.
Despite an overall decrease in the percentage of students living in poverty in the last nine years, the number of children who rely on SNAP benefits has increased by 7,500 children since 2019. Similarly, the number of children benefitting from the federal government’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC, reached a five-year high of 31,619 in 2024. Those benefit programs have been targeted by the Trump administration for cuts.
The number of children experiencing homelessness has nearly doubled, reaching a high of 5,799 in the 2024 school year, according to the report, though community groups say they identified more than 10,000 homeless students last year.
Philly students are struggling academically
Students are also still recovering academically from the school closures during the COVID pandemic. The report states 65% (8,044) of third graders in the city’s traditional public elementary schools cannot read proficiently. State test score results and national test data bear this out.
The schools with the fewest students who can pass the reading test overwhelmingly serve the city’s highest-poverty communities, the report found. Meanwhile, in the two traditional public elementary schools with the highest income rates, Greenfield and Meredith schools, nearly all third graders passed the standardized reading test.
But there were some small bright spots: Hispanic students surpassed their pre-pandemic math achievement levels, and fourth grade math scores improved — a trend Superintendent Tony Watlington has linked in part to the district’s investments in new curriculum.
Philly high schools’ career and technical education programs — which mostly serve students from low-income backgrounds and have bipartisan support from state lawmakers — are also struggling to meet community demand, according to the report’s findings.
The number of Philadelphia students in CTE programs fluctuated but “virtually saw no change” over the last decade, researchers found. Meanwhile, more than 200 of the state’s teacher vacancies are for CTE positions, and an estimated 27,000 students are on CTE waitlists, according to the report.
Students’ mental and physical health is a pressing issue
Among the most pressing issues affecting students in and out of the classroom is their physical and mental health.
One in five children experience a mental, emotional, or behavioral health disorder, the report states. City students who considered and attempted suicide in the past year continued to rise post-COVID, the researchers found.
Donna Fields, a school nurse at Franklin Learning Center, public school parent, and parent advocate with Children First, said she’s seen an increase in students having panic attacks, nosebleeds, and other anxiety-related issues exacerbated in part by school classrooms that are at times, stiflingly hot, overcrowded, and poorly ventilated.
“Physical alterations are just the norm at this point,” Fields said.
Cooper also raised a growing concern about children’s disease immunity and the impact that politics has had on children’s vaccination rates. From 2015 to 2024, the non-medical vaccine exemption rate of Philadelphia kindergarteners quadrupled, from 0.6% to 2.4%, according to the report.
“The appointment of RFK Jr. presents an entirely new challenge for the Philadelphia School District,” Cooper said. Robert Kennedy Jr., a prominent vaccine skeptic, was confirmed to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services this month.
The early childhood field can’t meet families’ needs
Starting to address these systemic issues begins with the youngest learners, advocates and experts said at the Tuesday event. While Philly’s free preschool programs provide opportunities to thousands of children, many families have found them confusing and difficult to navigate, and chronic staffing shortages have limited the access and availability of high-quality prekindergarten.
According to the report, child care providers have had to close classrooms and turn away 3,855 children in 2024 because they don’t have enough staff. Tiffany Chavous, CEO of Somerset Academy Early Learning Center, said she’s been trying to open a new classroom to meet the demand but hasn’t been able to find enough educators and caregivers to staff it.
The report found infant care costs in Philadelphia increased by 22%, and toddler care rose 20% from 2013 to 2024. In 2024, the average family spent almost 24% of their household budget on infant care, more than three times the federal recommendation of 7%.
Recommendations: Spend more money on schools and social services
The Children First report calls for a wide-ranging combination of state and local investments as state lawmakers begin their budget negotiation process.
For the school district, the report recommends investing in teacher training programs, classroom supplies, high-impact tutoring, reducing class sizes, and reaching out to engage families.
Parents who spoke at the event called for the district to reduce bureaucracy, simplify the processes to find good schools and get students enrolled, improve its communication, and provide more direct services to meet young people where they are. Parents said Tuesday they want more case managers, social workers, translators, and school staff to support them and their children.
Parent Donna Fields said from her perspective as a nurse, the district needs new school facilities that are safe, comfortable, and free of environmental hazards.
Carly Sitrin is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. Contact Carly at csitrin@chalkbeat.org.
