State climbs to 42 in kids’ well-being

— Arkansas ranked 42nd among states in a national ranking of child well-being based on factors related to poverty, education, health and family.

That’s a climb from last year’s 47th place ranking on the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Kids Count report. This year’s report, released today, reflects a trend-defying advancement for the Natural State.

Previously, Arkansas has ranked among the bottom five or six states since 2000.

The organization reworked how it calculated the rankings this year, expanding the list of equally weighted factors used to determine each state’s overall score.

Lawmakers and policy advocates around the country use the report to gauge the success of their efforts and push for further changes.

State leaders attributed Arkansas’ gains to improvements in education funding, the ARKids First children’s health insurance program and greater public-health education efforts.

Rich Huddleston, executive director of Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, called the report a reminder that “the investments we make in our state’s kids really do pay off.”

“Of course, there are areas where we could do a lot more than we’re currently doing — making sure we have quality after-school and summer programs, and promoting the development of our youngest and most vulnerable kids, those from birth to age 3,” he said.

“We would obviously like to see the state ranked higher next year.”

The report is based on data collected between 2008 and 2010, the most recent data available from the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Vital Statistics System.

New Hampshire topped the rankings, followed by Massachusetts and Vermont.

Mississippi was at the bottom of the list, with New Mexico and Nevada rounding out the bottom three.

Nationally, most states saw improvements in education indicators and declines in economic well-being indicators, the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation said.

“This year’s findings reveal signs of hope in the midst of tough economic times for millions of families across the country,” Patrick McCarthy, the Casey Foundation’s president and chief executive officer, said in a statement.

“While we’ve made progress in some important areas, we must work together to make sure every child, not just a select few, has the opportunity to succeed.”

Arkansas showed improvement over previous years in five areas measured in the report: uninsured children, child deaths, teenage drug abuse, school attendance and the number of eighth-grade students proficient in math.

The state worsened in six areas: poverty, parental employment, housing costs, single-parent families, children living in high-poverty areas and high school graduation rates.

Arkansas rates remained unchanged in teenage births, parents without high school diplomas, fourth-grade students below grade level in reading, low birth-weight babies and teenagers not in school or working.

The state showed the most dramatic change in the number of children who live in high-poverty areas, the report said.

In 2010, 14 percent — or 98,000 — of the state’s children under age 18 lived in census tracts where the poverty rate of the total population was 30 percent or more, the report said. That year, a family of two adults and two children was included in the “poverty” category if its annual income fell below $22,113.

Despite high rates of poverty and single-parent homes, Arkansas has made progress because of a commitment to early childhood programs and consistent educational funding while other states are slicing budgets, said Jennifer Ferguson, deputy director of Arkansas Advocates.

“It obviously takes time to turn these things around,” she said. “Investing in education is a long-term investment, but we will see it slowly and surely trickle into those other areas and improve them also.”

The complete report, which details the state’s rankings in all 16 indicators, is online at www.aecf.org.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 07/25/2012

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