REPORT RANKS MISSOURI 32ND FOR CHILD WELL-BEING

Despite a booming economy and reduced unemployment rates, children's well-being in Missouri did not make substantial gains last year.

Missouri ranked 32nd among all states in child well-being in the 10th annual Kids Count report released Tuesday by the Annie Casey Foundation. The organization annually tracks factors indicating child welfare issues state-by-state.

The latest report indicates Missouri children are showing improvement in most areas studied, but the improvements have not been significant. Since 1990, Missouri's teen birth rate has improved 23 percent, outpacing the national decrease of 14 percent.

During the same time period, the state's teen death rate fell by 11 percent, but the state still ranks 40th in the country for teen deaths.

"Fifty-three percent of those deaths were in car wrecks that are preventable," said Candee Iveson of Citizens for Missouri's Children, the St. Louis-based organization that coordinates data collection for the report in Missouri. "It's something we have the wherewithal to try and do something about."

Missouri annually ranks between 30th and 35th in the national reports, a trend Iveson said shows little improvement has been gained in relation to the rest of the nation. She said she hopes Citizens for Missouri can help the state achieve a break from that pattern in its role assisting the Annie Casey Foundation in collecting data for the national report and producing an annual, county-by-county Kids Count report each winter.

"I would like to see us get into the 20s to say Hey, we're not just treading water here, we're not just being consistent with national trends,'" said Iveson. "I'd really like us to reach on out to the other shore there rather than just riding along."

Douglas W. Nelson, president of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, said too many American children do not have access to cars, telephones, computers or other technology that would teach them to compete in a global economy. Children from low-income families tend to live in urban neighborhoods and rural areas that also lack access to low-cost shopping alternatives, public transportation, health care facilities and social and community factors that influence a family's success.

"At the Annie E. Casey Foundation, we now believe strongly that the framework of family connections is a powerful tool for understanding and addressing the disadvantages that confront children in America," said Nelson. "We think that this framework can promote a more informed and more action-oriented response to the real barriers that families face when they try to raise healthy, happy and successful kids in poor, troubled and isolated neighborhoods."

Although the national report is beneficial in that it shows parallels conditions for children in every state, some reporting methods could be confusing to people using the report.

For example, Iveson said the national report will indicate an increase in drop out rate, based on all youth ages 16 to 19 who have not graduated and are not enrolled in school. However, the statewide report indicates drop out rates are declining in Missouri, based on the number of students who are enrolled in school at the beginning of the year but later withdraw.

"Even though we both call it drop out rate, it's two different things that are both equally right," Iveson said. "Unfortunately, there's no perfect data. We have raised this issue with the Casey Foundation and we're trying to figure out exactly what it means."

Another difference between the two reports is the type of information that is collected. The national report includes only information that can be collected and considered in the same manner in every state. Information that is collected differently, such as anything relating to child abuse and neglect, will not appear in the national report.

"It's not because they don't consider it an indicator of child well-being," Iveson said. "States are so different in their outlook and procedures that on a national level they can't gain a full perspective."

Despite the differences in the reports, Iveson said the overall indication is that life is improving for Missouri's children. Kids Count helps find the problem areas and give state agencies and private or local organizations a starting point for prioritizing needs.

"Kids Count helps states and counties really look at where they have areas to be proud of and areas they need some work on," Iveson said. "The bottom line is there's still plenty of work to do."