GOV
Youth At The Center
Child wellbeing, educational quality, and educational attainment
The Youth at the Center theme encompasses the following topics: Child Well-being, Education Quality, and Educational Attainment. For the vast majority of these metrics, we have centered children and young people as the topic of study. This means when we are looking at issues related to schools, we frame our findings in terms of the students enrolled in those schools.
Child Well-Being
The Child Well-being topic examines the disadvantages and burdens that children carry with them from outside school that affect their ability to perform in school.
Education Quality
The Education Quality topic is focused on access to effective learning environments in public and charter schools across the city.
Educational Attainment
The Educational Attainment topic studies the educational attainment levels of the entire population and highlights young adult outcomes.
More Information
How many children are there in St. Louis?
According to the most recent estimates, there are 60,837 residents under 18 in St. Louis. Children make up a fifth of the city’s population.
Does this data track academic outcomes for all St. Louis students?
The numbers presented here track academic outcomes for approximately 77% of our school-aged children. Data is not publicly available to track academic outcomes for St. Louis students that do not attend St. Louis public or charter schools.
There are an estimated 43,000 children between the ages of 5 and 17 in St. Louis. However, only 33,352 children were enrolled in public or charter schools in St. Louis. In 2017, 4,235 students attended public schools outside the city through the Voluntary Interdistrict Choice Corporation (VICC) program. The remaining 5,400 or so school-aged children likely attend private and parochial schools. Private schools are not obligated to report information on enrollment or performance to the State of Missouri.
How many schools are there in St. Louis?
In 2017, according to Missouri Department of the Elementary and Secondary Education records, there were 19 school districts operating in the city, which includes St. Louis Public Schools and 18 charter school districts. All together, there were 112 public or charter schools in the city. In addition, there were an estimated 31 private schools inside city limits, but their students are not reflected in our findings.
What departments in city government work on child issues?
The City of St. Louis Department of Health includes the Bureau of Women, Children, and Adolescent Health. This division manages child asthma, lead testing, smoking cessation, and school health services. The Department of Human Services includes the Division of Youth and Family Services, which provides administrative oversight over the federal Child and Adult Care Food Program and the Summer Food Service Program. The City of St. Louis Treasurer’s Office provides college savings accounts to all kindergarten students enrolled in City of St. Louis Public Schools.
