BOOTHEEL BAD FOR KIDS

The lives of Missouri children are improving, according to the 1996 Kids Count report. However, youngsters living in the Bootheel aren't sharing the same good fortune.

Several Southeast Missouri counties are among the worst places in the state for children, according to the fourth annual report, produced by Citizens for Missouri's Children.

Statistics concerning children, which are kept by various state agencies, are compiled for the Kids Count report.

Areas like dropout rates, teen births, violent deaths and child abuse are studies. Missouri's 114 counties and the city of St. Louis are ranked based on the results.

The worst place for children to live, according to the report, is St. Louis City, which was ranked last at 115.

Pemiscot, Mississippi and Dunklin counties in the Bootheel were ranked 114, 113 and 112.

In Pemiscot County, for example, the report showed improvements in the number of poorly educated mothers and births to teens. But conditions got worse concerning poverty, infant mortality, child deaths, high school dropouts and teen violent deaths. The county had the most incidents of suspected child abuse in Missouri.

In Mississippi, the trends were even more disappointing, the report said. Only one area, teen violent deaths, changed for the better. All the other indicators showed a change for the worse.

In Dunklin County, changes for the better were seen in child deaths and teen violent deaths, with changes for the worse in all other categories.

"The gap between children who are most vulnerable and those who are most secure is widening," said Beth Griffin, executive director of Citizens for Missouri's Children.

Statewide, several promising trends appear:

-- Teen birth rate decreased 9 percent from 1990 to 1995.

-- The number of infants who die before their first birthday has declined over the past decade. In 1995, 539 infants died, a rate of 8.5 per 1,000 live births.

-- The rate of babies born to poorly educated mothers decreased 12 percent between 1990 and 1995.

-- The teen violent death rate may have reached its peak. The number of teen homicide deaths decreased 23 percent between 1994 and 1995.

However, other areas show negative trends worsening.

-- The high school dropout rate increased from 6.5 percent in 1990-91 to 7.4 percent in 1993-94. More than 17,000 Missouri students left school during the 1994-95 school year.

-- The low birth weight rate continues to show a steady upward trend and is now at 7.5 percent. In 1995, 5,547 infants, or an average of 15 per day, were born with low birth weight.

The report shows poverty adversely affects every area of children lives. Poor children are more likely to have low birth weights, die in infancy or childhood, suffer from abuse or neglect, enter out-of-home care, drop out of school, give birth or die violently as teenagers.

The majority of studies show that family income level was a stronger predictor than race for negative outcomes.

In Pemiscot County, half the children live in poverty and a third live in single-parent families.

By comparison, 14.2 percent of children in Cape Girardeau County live in poverty. The median family household income in Cape Girardeau County is more than $13,000 higher than the median family income in Pemiscot County.

The 1996 report is available online through the Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis web site. The URL is: http://oseda.missouri.edu/kidscount/96/.