Posted by Tara Manthey on July 27th 2010
2010 KIDS COUNT Data Book shows some improvement, yet decline in other areas
Little Rock - Arkansas's national rank dropped one place from 47 to 48 in the 2010 KIDS COUNT Data Book, a state-by-state study on the well-being of America's children. The Data Book reveals that Arkansas improved on five of the 10 measures affecting child well-being since 2000. Yet on two other measures, conditions worsened for Arkansas kids. Conditions remained unchanged on one measure, and two others were not comparable to previous years.
"This year's Data Book highlights some troubling facts about child well-being in our state," said Paul Kelly, Senior Policy Analyst for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. "Our state officials must take note of these findings and take action soon. Solutions exist, but they cannot be implemented by advocates alone. We need a strong partnership between both sides to really see improvement."
Arkansas's low ranking can be attributed to being ranked in the bottom 10 nationally on eight of the book's 10 indicators. Among the 50 states, Arkansas ranked 50th in the percentage of teens not in school and not working; 48th in the percentage of children in poverty; 47th in the teen birth rate; 46th in the child death rate; 45th in both the teen death rate and the percent of children without secure parental employment; 44th in the percentage of high school dropouts; and 43rd in the percentage of children in single parent families.
"Probably the most disheartening fact in this year's book is our state's percentage of "idle" teens," said Kelly. "The data show that our rate stood at 12 percent, the highest in the country compared to the national rate of 8 percent. That translates into about 20,000 Arkansas teens that were not in school and not working. These are youth who have likely dropped out of school, who do not have job skills, or who are caught up in the criminal justice system because of substance abuse. Quality afterschool and summer programs are effective in keeping youth engaged in school by offering alternative learning opportunities, teaching job skills through work-study programs, and providing positive alternatives to the risk taking behaviors that occur when youth lack structure and supervision during out of school times. These programs offer support to the working families often headed by single moms with low wage jobs that struggle to provide structured activities for their children when they are at work."
The Data Book findings were not all so discouraging. Infant mortality rates for Arkansas have fallen 8 percent since 2000 and the child death rate fell 15 percent in the same period - both improvements that can likely be attributed to greater efforts on behalf of state officials being aware of the problem.
"Arkansas health officials have really sat up and taken notice of these rates in recent years," said AACF Health Policy and Legislative Affairs Director Elisabeth Burak. "A renewed focus on improving prenatal care has probably made the most difference, as well as raising the poverty threshold under which pregnant women can qualify for such care under ARKids First. Health reform offers an even bigger opportunity to expand preventive care by funding evidence-based home visiting programs and making prenatal care more widely available."
Additionally, AACF noted that child poverty in the state is a major factor in keeping several indicators low, and if headway is to be made in the long run, addressing that issue must be front and center.
"Reducing the level of child poverty in Arkansas would improve outcomes on a range of issues," said Rich Huddleston, AACF Executive Director. "It is our hope that policymakers will seriously consider the recommendations contained in the final report of the Arkansas Legislative Taskforce on Reducing Poverty and Promoting Economic Opportunity when it is released later this year."
The 21st annual Data Book is complemented by the expanded KIDS COUNT Data Center, which contains hundreds of measures of child well-being and allows users to create maps and graphs of the data at the national, state, county, and city level. To access information for Arkansas go to http://datacenter.kidscount.org/ar.
The 2010 Data Book is available in printed form from AACF or as a pdf here
Also see AACF's "What It Takes to Be #1," a chart that shows how Arkansas can attain a first-place rank in each category.
