Children in Poverty Racial Disparity in Texas

Texas

Poverty is a significant driver of health disparities among children. Growing up in poverty can have negative effects on children’s physical health, development and educational achievement. Children from low-income households are more likely to experience health challenges, including low birth weight, asthma, obesity and high blood pressure. Poverty increases the risk of exposure to environmental hazards and violence. Children living in poverty are more likely to experience adverse childhood experiences and the negative health outcomes associated with chronic stress and trauma. 

Child poverty rates vary significantly across racial and ethnic groups — even in apparently prosperous areas, where lower average poverty may mask differences. While the overall child poverty rate in the U.S. decreased between 2023 and 2024, the rate did not improve in all racial and ethnic groups. 

Across all age groups, American Indian/Alaska Native, Black, Hispanic and multiracial populations are overrepresented in poverty rates. Studies show that Black and Native American children who experience childhood poverty are more likely than their white counterparts to experience poverty in adulthood.

The prevalence of childhood poverty is higher among:

• Black and American Indian/Alaska Native children, both of whom have a prevalence approximately three times that of white children. 
• Children of single mothers compared with those who live in a household with two parents or a single father. A higher percentage of Black and American Indian/Alaska Native children live in single-parent households.
• Children in the South compared with children in other areas of the U.S. 
• Children of immigrant families compared with other children.

Access to fair educational opportunities for low-income individuals and people of color is needed to strengthen communities. Investing in early childhood education and distributing state and federal funds for K-12 schools more equitably could improve poverty rates and alleviate the negative effects of childhood poverty.

It is also important to address the social-emotional effects of childhood poverty. Research suggests that children and families may benefit from interventions that use the two-generation approach, which promotes family resilience by combining support and education programs for parents with early childhood intervention programs.

Many government programs and community interventions exist to help reduce the number of children in poverty and support low-income families: 

• The earned income tax credit (EITC), the largest poverty-alleviation program in the U.S., provides a tax credit to employed families and individuals living in poverty.
• The child tax credit, created to help offset the cost of raising children each year, provides a tax credit to families based on wages earned and the number of children in the household. In 2024, the child tax credit assisted 5.6 million children and lifted approximately 2.4 million children above the poverty line. 
• The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), previously known as food stamps, provides nutrition benefits to families in need. 
• The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) provides food and nutritional support specifically to pregnant and postpartum women and children. Research shows that the program has helped reduce the prevalence of low birth weight and preterm births and increase breastfeeding rates.
• Child First is a comprehensive program that provides financial, housing and food support and early childhood interventions for low-income families. 
• Medicaid provides health care to low-income adults, pregnant women and children.
• Universal basic income programs can provide those living in poverty with regular cash transfers to meet basic needs regardless of employment status, age or other restrictive conditions.

Interventions like these are most effective when combined with other policies and programs. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine has created a set of policy package proposals that could cut the child poverty rate in the U.S. in half by building on existing programs with proven effectiveness like EITC and SNAP.

While not specific to children, reducing the proportion of people living in poverty is a Healthy People 2030 economic stability objective.

Acevedo-Garcia, Dolores, Pamela K. Joshi, Emily Ruskin, Abigail N. Walters, Nomi Sofer, and Carlos A. Guevara. “Including Children in Immigrant Families in Policy Approaches to Reduce Child Poverty.” Academic Pediatrics 21, no. 8 (November 1, 2021): S117–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2021.06.016.

Carlson, Steven, and Zoë Neuberger. WIC Works: Addressing the Nutrition and Health Needs of Low-Income Families for More Than Four Decades. Policy Futures. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, January 27, 2021. https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/wic-works-addressing-the-nutrition-and-health-needs-of-low-income-families.

Coley, Rebekah Levine, Dana Charles McCoy, and Sarah Farnsworth Hatch. “How Poverty Shapes Children’s Home, Neighborhood, and School Environments: An Integrative Conceptual Framework and Review.” American Psychologist, September 18, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0001573.

Committee on Policies and Programs to Reduce Intergenerational Poverty, Board on Children, Youth, and Families, Committee on National Statistics, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, and National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Reducing Intergenerational Poverty. Edited by Greg J. Duncan, Jennifer Appleton Gootman, and Priyanka Nalamada. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2024. https://doi.org/10.17226/27058.

Council on Community Pediatrics. “Poverty and Child Health in the United States.” Pediatrics 137, no. 4 (April 1, 2016): e20160339–e20160339. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-0339.

Francis, Lucine, Kelli DePriest, Marcella Wilson, and Deborah Gross. “Child Poverty, Toxic Stress, and Social Determinants of Health: Screening and Care Coordination.” OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing 23, no. 3 (September 30, 2018). https://doi.org/10.3912/OJIN.Vol23No03Man02.

McDermott, Brendan. The Child Tax Credit: How It Works and Who Receives It. CRS Report R41873 Version 32. Congressional Research Service, November 13, 2025. https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R41873.

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty. Edited by Greg Duncan and Suzanne Le Menestrel. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2019. https://doi.org/10.17226/25246.

Shrider, Emily A., and Christina Bijou. Poverty in the United States: 2024. Current Population Reports P60-287. Washington, D.C: U.S. Census Bureau, September 2025. https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/2025/demo/p60-287.pdf.

Trisi, Danilo, and Matt Saenz. Economic Security Programs Reduce Overall Poverty, Racial and Ethnic Inequities: Stronger Policies Needed to Make Further Progress. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, July 1, 2021. https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep28437.

Wilson-Simmons, Renée, Yang Jiang, and Yumiko Aratani. Strong at the Broken Places: The Resiliency of Low-Income Parents. New York: National Center for Children in Poverty, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, April 2017. https://www.nccp.org/publication/strong-at-the-broken-places/.