New Survey Reveals Top Health Concerns Among Georgia Parents

By Ellie Pourbohloul

As policymakers weigh the most pressing issues facing Georgia’s children and families, new findings from a statewide survey highlight which concerns are top of mind for parents —and where public health efforts can have the greatest impact.

The State of Child Health and Well-Being in Georgia 2025 is based on a survey conducted in early 2025 by researchers at the Emory Center for Child Health Policy based in the Rollins School of Public Health. It gathered input from nearly 1,000 parents across the state on a wide range of child health and safety topics. These include insurance coverage, mental health, food security, and school safety.

“Behind every data point in this report is a child—a child struggling with anxiety, facing hunger, navigating social media, or worried about safety at school,” says lead author Stephen Patrick, MD, chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at Rollins.

“Georgia’s parents are telling us loud and clear: their kids need help. The State of Child Health and Well-Being in Georgia 2025 is more than a report—it’s a call to action. We want Georgia to be the best place in America to be a kid, and that means listening to families and building a future where every child can grow up healthy, safe, and supported.”

What Georgia Parents Say Matters Most: Education and School Quality

Georgia parents ranked education and school quality as their most urgent concern, with nearly 40% listing it among their top three priorities. Social media (34%) and bullying (32%) closely followed.

Survey results also show that priorities shift when broken down by race, ethnicity, and geography.

Gun violence was the top concern for both Hispanic and Black non-Hispanic parents.

Drug and alcohol use was among the top five concerns for rural parents but did not make the list for non-rural parents.

Georgia’s Children Rely on Federal and State-Sponsored Health Insurance

Medicaid and PeachCare for Kids are primary pathways to health coverage for many of Georgia’s children. Overall, 41% of children in the state rely on these programs. The rates are even higher for Black non-Hispanic (57%), Hispanic (50%), and rural (51%) children.

Thirteen percent of children covered by these programs experienced disruptions in coverage over the past year—most commonly because of family income changes or paperwork problems.

Parents are Worried About Opioids and Mental Health

Among diagnosed behavioral health conditions, ADD/ADHD tops the list (17%) for Georgia’s children as reported by parents, followed by anxiety and depression (at 15% and 5%, respectively). An additional 17% of Georgia parents worry their child may have undiagnosed anxiety, suggesting more than one-third of children in the state are managing anxiety. More than three out of five (63%) children diagnosed with a mental or behavioral health issue are not receiving mental health services.

“Despite state efforts to improve access to mental health care, this finding suggests a persistent mental health treatment gap among Georgia's children," says Ben Druss, MD, professor and Rosalynn Carter Chair in Mental Health at Rollins.

Though there is a growing risk of overdose from counterfeit pills containing fentanyl, less than half of parents (44%) have talked to their children about these risks, and only 35% feel very confident they could recognize the signs of an overdose. The survey highlights an opportunity for parents to talk to children about the risks of counterfeit pills and recognizing the signs of overdose.

Hunger and Food Access Are Serious Concerns for Georgia Families

This survey found that more than one out of every three (36%) households with children are food insecure—more than double the national rate of 17.9%. Hispanic (47%) and Black non-Hispanic (44%) households report the highest levels of food insecurity, compared to 29% of white non-Hispanic households. Additionally, many parents have changed food spending habits in the past year.

Support for solutions to these challenges is strong. An overwhelming 91% of Georgia parents favor free school meals for all children, which is mirrored by proposed legislation by Georgia State Representative Imani Barnes to provide them to eligible children.

Vaccine Hesitancy is An Issue to Watch

Most Georgia parents (86%) view childhood vaccines as safe and trust their child’s doctors (59%) to counsel them on vaccines. More than half (50%) believe they should be required for school attendance, with exemptions for medical (35%) or religious (20%) reasons—closely mirroring current state law.

Beliefs about school vaccine requirements differed depending on where parents live. Nearly one in four (23%) rural parents said vaccines should not be required for school, compared to one in eight (13%) parents in non-rural areas.

“With childhood vaccine rates dropping, we are more likely to see vaccine-preventable diseases, like measles, circulate. Helping parents understand vaccines is not just about science—it’s about trust, protection, and giving every child the chance to grow up healthy and strong,” says Jodie Guest, PhD, professor of epidemiology.

Parents Agree: Safe Gun Storage, Sound Policy, and School Safety are Critical

Sixty percent of parents believe schools are less safe today than they were 10 years ago. Only around a quarter (25%) of parents said they were not at all worried about their children’s safety at school. These concerns are exemplified as one-third of parents said their child’s school had gone into lockdown in the current school year. Half of Georgia households (48%) with children report having a firearm in the home, and support for firearm safety laws is high.

In Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp recently signed HB268 into law, which requires public schools to identify, assess, and mitigate potential threats made by students and create plans to connect students in need with behavioral health support, a measure supported by more than 80% of Georgia parents.

However, there remain opportunities to pass legislation promoting safe storage benefits that aligns with the views of parents in Georgia. A strong majority (80%) of parents favor incentives for safe gun storage, and there is also strong support for child access prevention laws.

The survey reveals that there are also opportunities for pediatricians to counsel families on firearm safety, including safe storage practices. Only 27% of parents say their child’s health care provider discussed safe firearm storage during the past year.

The Bottom Line

These findings are a first step toward improving outcomes for Georgia’s children and families around the issues that most affect their daily lives. They offer insight to policymakers, health care providers, public health professionals, and community organizations regarding where support is needed most and where it could drive the greatest impact.