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Research has consistently affirmed that children who grow up in poverty and/or in distressed situations that include homelessness, foster care, incarceration and illness "are more likely to drop out of school, become parents while still teenagers, and repeat the cycle of poverty" (William O' Hare, coordinator of the Annie E. Casey Foundation's KIDS Count project).

The 2005 KIDS Count Data Book reports that while national trends in child well-being are improving, there is still wide variation among states along several critical indicators, including infant, child and teen death rates, teen birth rates, the percent of teens who are high school dropouts, the percent of children in poverty, and the percent of kids living in a family where one or more parent(s) are unemployed due to a variety of factors from homelessness, to substance abuse, domestic violence or physical or mental illness.

Child poverty rates ranged from below 8% in New Hampshire and 9% in Minnesota , to more than 25% in West Virginia , New Mexico, Mississippi, Louisiana, and the District of Columbia, all states where K.I.D.S. has ongoing as well as new programs to address this great need