Boone County Health Assessment Flags Bullying in Schools

Boone County kids are being bullied at a higher rate than the statewide average, according to the county’s newest health assessment — and county health officials say the data is now shaping where federal support dollars go next.

What Did Boone County’s Health Assessment Find on Bullying?

The 2026 Maternal Child Health Assessment, released in mid-August by Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services, draws on hospital records and a community survey that reached roughly 44% of the county’s population — women up to age 44 and children up to 18 — plus 98 responses to a separate community survey. Boone County came in above the state average on bullying, the Columbia Missourian reported: about 13% of Columbia Public Schools students surveyed were measured at risk of disengaging from school, a figure that rose to 17% among the district’s Black students.

The finding lands the same week Columbia Public Schools is already working through its own long-range planning. The district held a community meeting on its 10-year facilities plan Wednesday night, and the county’s bullying data gives that broader planning process one more data point on what students actually need from their buildings and their schools.

What Else Did the County’s Health Snapshot Show?

The same assessment found Boone County doing better than the state on some measures — lower rates of inadequate prenatal care and of perinatal mortality — but lagging on infant sleep safety: 77.9% of county infants sleep on their backs, the recommended safe-sleep position, against a state average of 82.9%.

The county conducts this kind of assessment every five years, pulling together health indicators, the community survey and a capacity assessment of local services. This cycle’s conclusion: strengths-based services and supports — programming aimed at healthy family relationships, resilience and kids’ social and emotional development — is the priority area going forward.

Where Does the Funding Go From Here?

The assessment isn’t just a report card — it steers how the county spends its share of the federal Title V Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant, which the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services passes down to local agencies like Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services. The county’s health coordinator says that funding requires services to be guided by data, which is the point of running the survey in the first place.

Families looking for support in the meantime have local options: the Family Health Center and the MedZou Community Health Clinic, both in Columbia, see patients regardless of ability to pay. The county health department — the same one that brings flu shots to Rocheport every fall — has the full assessment posted on its website for anyone who wants to read the data behind it.