A clean environment

Water that is safe to drink

Ten years since negligence and environmental racism allowed thousands of Flint residents to be exposed to lead-contaminated drinking water, communities across the state continue to see high rates of lead poisoning. Lead exposure is associated with developmental delays as well as learning and behavior problems.

In 2023, 3,460 toddlers in Michigan were confirmed to have elevated blood lead levels, but efforts to replace lead pipes can reduce many of these adverse outcomes. One recent analysis found a return on investment of $2.44 for every dollar invested in replacement costs.¹ Filter First legislation passed in 2023 requires touchless hydration stations and faucet filters in schools and child care centers, but will require more state investment to ensure all children are safe.

An area of concern regarding environmental health is that lead testing rates fell during the pandemic so some exposures may have gone unaddressed.

Bipartisan legislation requiring universal lead testing was signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2023 and came into effect in May 2025. The new law will require lead testing for all toddlers at ages 1 and 2 as well as at age 4 for children in high-risk geographies. This will help to identify elevated blood lead levels earlier and reduce the harm of lead exposure.

Clean air

Air pollution is especially harmful to children, whose brains and bodies are still developing. On average, 1,600 children ages birth to 14 are hospitalized for asthma each year across Michigan. Rates of asthma in children are highest for Black children as well as for children living in poverty.²

The harms of pollution are not equally felt, as segregated neighborhoods established through redlining and maintained through discriminatory mortgage lending practices leave some people of color disproportionately exposed to air pollution.³ Black, Asian and Latino neighborhoods are often located closer to highways, industrial plants and other sources of air pollution that undermine health and well-being.

Access to healthy food

Food insecurity among children in Michigan has risen 26% compared to pre-pandemic levels after falling steadily for nearly a decade after the Great Recession. Childhood hunger can contribute to increased health problems, developmental disruptions and trouble focusing in school. Food insecurity is a systemic issue, not a personal failure. Labor force factors like unemployment or low wages as well as cost of living factors like expensive housing put households, especially those with children, at risk of food insecurity.

Numerous nutrition programs – like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and the National School Lunch program – are important tools for mitigating the harms of food insecurity. Michigan is one of just 10 states that has adopted Healthy School Meals for All in recent state budgets to ensure all public school students have access to a nutritious breakfast and lunch.

Children with access to SNAP are less likely to utilize emergency room services, have longer life expectancy, are less likely to repeat a grade and have increased food security into adulthood. Their families also benefit through reduced financial hardship, allowing them to pay for other nonfood essentials like housing and utilities.⁴

Food insecurity refers both to the lack of access to food generally and to food of high nutritional quality, the latter of which contributes to unhealthy diets and obesity. Obesity is influenced not just by nutrition but also social and environmental factors as well as genetics and other underlying health factors. One in 3 children in Michigan is overweight or obese, putting them at increased risk for health conditions like heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, asthma, joint problems, anxiety and depression.

Communities free from gun violence

Firearms are the leading cause of death of children and teens in Michigan. In 2023, firearms contributed to the deaths of 129 children and teens, a number that has risen by 34% since 2018. The easy availability of firearms exacerbates the challenges that already exist, contributing to a public health epidemic for young people experiencing poverty and mental illness.

Since shootings at Oxford High School and Michigan State University took the lives of seven students, state lawmakers passed 18 bills over the 2023-2024 legislative session addressing gun violence in an effort to make our schools and communities safer. Some of these include:

Extreme Risk Protection Law: From February to December 2024, courts issued 287 orders restraining an individual from possessing a firearm if they are at risk of harming themselves or others.⁵

Child Access Prevention Law: Michigan’s safe storage law requires firearm owners to safely store their firearms to prevent unintended access by children. In 2024 at least 24 unintentional shootings in Michigan were attributed to children, some as young as 2 years old.⁶

Background Check Law: Michigan joined 21 other states and Washington, D.C. in closing a loophole that allows individuals to purchase firearms without undergoing a background check, a policy change associated with lower rates of homicide, suicide and gun trafficking.⁷

Families kept together

Children do best when they grow up in safe, stable and secure families, but 8,552 children were removed from their homes due to substantiated maltreatment in 2024. Young children remain at the greatest risk of maltreatment; of 23,433 confirmed victims in 2022, 69% were ages birth to 10. Maltreatment in young children is especially harmful due to the increased risk of developmental challenges throughout life, but researchers have shown decreased instances of substantiated abuse and neglect in states with evidence-based economic and family planning support policies.⁸

Building on research showing children fare better when they are able to remain with family caregivers, the national Family First Prevention Services Act (Family First) that was passed in 2018 has sought to promote prevention services for children at risk of out-of-home placement as well as prioritize family foster care over congregate care settings.⁹ The share of children in foster care living in congregate care was already falling even before Family First took effect, but the improvements may continue as the state has more flexibility in funding to prioritize prevention and family preservation programs.

Limiting justice involvement

Although the U.S. still leads advanced economies in the rate at which we lock up young people, youth incarceration and confinement rates are rapidly declining. In Michigan, the number of young people confined in juvenile detention facilities dropped by nearly 80% from 2001 to 2021. The majority of young people in detention are charged with nonviolent crimes, including those who are charged with status offenses – such as running away, truancy or curfew violations – which are crimes only because the individuals charged are not adults. In Michigan, 1 in 5 young people in the juvenile justice system has been charged with a status offense.¹⁰

Michigan sees significant racial and ethnic disparities in the juvenile justice system. Black youth are five times as likely and American Indian youth are three times as likely to be incarcerated as their white peers as a result of racial bias in policing and harsher sentencing. Providing diversion opportunities like those supported by the bipartisan Justice for Kids and Communities package passed in 2023 may help to further reduce disparities in detention and overall justice involvement, which is associated with lower academic achievement, worsened health outcomes and future justice involvement.