| 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 West Virginia's policy choices alongside other contextual data related to the well-being of young children.
State Highlights1
West Virginia increased eligibility for its Children's Health Insurance Program (WVCHIP) from 220 percent to 250 percent of the federal poverty level. The expansion provided coverage to 400 additional children in 2009, and will cover 700 more children over five years. In the state's CHIP program, families with incomes up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level do not pay a premium and have limited co-payments. Those with incomes above 200 percent of the federal poverty level pay a monthly premium of $35 for a single child or $71 for two or more children, in addition to co-payments. West Virginia allocated $500,000 in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds to its Education Department to improve to increase available early intervention services for infants and toddlers through the IDEA Part C program; these funds will be coordinated between the state's departments of Education and Health and Human Services. West Virginia also anticipates an increase of $5.9 million for pre-kindergarten programs, for a total of $75 million. Enrollment is expected to increase by 1,770, for a total of 15,550 children enrolled.
- Young children (under age 6)2: 128,890
| Health and Nutrition |
Data Notes and Sources
Last Updated: December 4, 2009
Send us recent developments to update your state's profile.
- State Highlights are drawn from states' government and organization websites and reports. For more information, contact ITO@nccp.org.
- State data were calculated from the Annual Social and Economic Supplement (the March supplement) of the Current Population Survey from 2007, 2008, and 2009, representing information from calendar years 2006, 2007, and 2008. NCCP averaged three years of data because of small sample sizes in less populated states. The national data were calculated from the 2009 data, representing information from the previous calendar year.
- National and state data were calculated from the 2008 American Community Survey.