KIDS COUNT TARGETS BOOTHEEL COUNTIES

Each year, Kids Count provides a yardstick to measure the health and well-being of Missouri's children.

The good news of this report is that some improvements have been made.

-- The infant mortality rate continues to improve. But the numbers are still too high. About 558 Missouri children died before their first birthday, enough to fill 25 kindergarten classes in 2001.

-- The teen birth rate has decreased 15 percent between 1992 and 1996.

-- The teen violent death rate improved for the first time in almost a decade of growth.

But some statistics continue to worsen.

-- The number of abused and neglected children has increased.

-- Poverty continues to be the single biggest factor in determining the well-being of children, and too many Missouri children live in poverty conditions.

State officials keep trying to improve the conditions in Missouri's urban areas through increased educational and other funding. But reports such as Kids Count demonstrate that much of the attention focused on urban areas should be shifted to Missouri's Bootheel, where poverty is widespread.

Pemiscot, Mississippi and Dunklin counties ranked at the bottom -- 114, 113 and 112 respectively -- out of Missouri's 115 counties.

Kids Count provides a graphic reminder that much work remains to be done to protect Missouri's children in need.