Published: October 6, 2002
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| Child Care and Early Childhood Education | ||||||
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Fast Facts Who's in child care? Forty four percent of infants under the age of 1 year
are in non-parental care for an average of 31 hours
a week. Eighty four percent of 4- to 5-year-olds are
in child care for an average of 28 hours per week. For approximately 13 million children under age 6 and
31 million children between the ages of 6 and 17, both
parents or their only parent is in the work force. ...and school performance: ...and caregivers: Caregiving arrangements for young children vary according
to the age of the child and the demographics of the
family. ...and its cost: One on four American families with young children earn
less than $25,000 a year, and a family with both parents
working full time at minimum wage earns only $21,400
a year. In Spring 1997,there were 32.6 million mothers who
lived with at least one of their children under age
15. Thirty-three percent reported they paid for child
care for at least one of their children. Those who paid
for child care paid an average of $71 per week. (p.
16). Relatively few grandparents were paid for caring for
their grandchildren of preschool-age (15 percent). While
grandparents were the least expensive arrangement for
preschoolers of employed mothers, day care centers were
the most expensive. (p. 14) ...and availability of assistance: Over one-third of states place eligible families who
apply for help on waiting lists or turn them away without
even taking their names. In 1998, just 15 percent of children eligible for Child
Care and Development Fund (CCDF) assistance actually
received help through the program. If every state set
eligibility limits at the maximum levels that federal
law allows, some 14.7 million children would have been
eligible for subsidies in fiscal year 1998, of whom
only 10 percent were served.
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[7]| Family and Work Issues | ||||||
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Fast Facts Who's working Low-income families—where many children
are The working poor have significantly more family care-giving
responsibilities than do higher-income workers, including
care for children with special needs, but few low-wage
jobs offer flexible schedules, sick days, or other benefits
to help parents meet their family obligations.
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| Health | ||||||
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Fast Facts Who's covered—and who's not? Despite the passage of the SCHIP, at the start of 2002
there were still some 8.2 million children who remained
uninsured. Some 52.7 million children—two out of three —
were privately insured in 1999, mainly through their
parents' employers. One in five children are covered
by Medicaid. More than 3.3 million children were enrolled
in the State Children's Health Insurance Program in
fiscal year 2000, an increase of almost 1.4 million
from the previous year. However, more than 6 million
children remain eligible for, but not enrolled in, either
S-CHIP or Medicaid. Recent state expansions of coverage for children dramatically
increased the availability of health insurance for low-income
children in working families. However, coverage for
those children's parents is extremely limited, Does health insurance matter? Yes.
Health Trends are Improving, Disparities Remain More than one in eight children was overweight in the
United States in 1999, nearly triple the rate of the
1960s. Cigarette use among adolescents shows continued indications
of decline from 2000 to 2001. The percentage of high school students carrying weapons
declined from 26 percent to 17 percent between 1991
and 2001, with the greatest decrease among non-Hispanic
black students. The teen birth rate dropped by more than one-fifth
between 1991 and 1998. In 1998, the birth rate was 30
per 1,000 females ages 15 to 17—the lowest it
has been in at least 40 years. But Rising Health Costs are Threatening Health
Care for Vulnerable Families Facing fiscal crises, many states have started cutting
back their Medicaid programs this year—and the
crises are not over—falling state revenues and
rising health costs are very likely to persist, increasing
the risk of further Medicaid cutbacks this fall or in
early 2003.
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| Education | ||||||
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Fast Facts Schools and Budgets In 2000 state governments contributed $186 billion
for elementary and secondary public school funding.
Local governments contributed $161 billion, and the
federal government, $27 billion. The average public school in America is 42 years old.
Forty-six percent of America’s public schools
lack the electrical and communication wiring to support
today’s computer systems. How U.S. Students Perform Average mathematics scores increased for all age groups
between 1982 and 1999, but average reading scores have
not improved among students since 1980. The average reading scores for America's fourth-graders
have remained unchanged over the past eight years, but
there is a widening gap between the best readers and
the worst. The reading gap between racial groups has
remained steady over this period. Students with Learning Disabilities
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| Environment | ||||||
| Fast Facts Currently, use of more than 70,000 chemicals
is allowed in the United States. Little is known about
the health effects of the majority of these chemicals
on children. Despite new regulations and standards,
children continue to be exposed to toxicants in the
air, water and food.
In proportion to their body weight, children breathe
twice as much air, eat 3 to 4 times more food, and depending
on age, drink 2 to 7 times more water. Many studies
show that as children's exposure to home, lawn, and
garden pesticides (including lice shampoos) increases,
so does their risk of NHL (non-Hodgkin's lymphoma),
brain cancer, leukemia, and other cancers. Of all the problems caused by our environment, lead
poisoning is one of the most serious. Infants and toddlers
can get sick by putting their fingers in their mouths
after touching lead dust, eating lead paint chips, or
breathing in lead dust. Lead poisoning can cause learning
disabilities, behavioral problems, anemia or damage
to the brain and kidneys. According to the Environmental Working Group, wood
in picnic tables, playsets and many school and public
playgrounds that has been treated with chromated copper
arsenate to protect against pests and decay may expose
children to unacceptable levels of arsenic. According to a 1999 Government Accounting Office report,
only two states—Louisiana and New York—have
in place mechanisms to collect information about pesticide
use in schools, and neither of them is analyzing the
data. There is a national network to track infectious diseases,
like polio and yellow fever, but no such network to
track chronic diseases, like asthma and diabetes and
potentially associated environmental factors. even though
chronic disease is responsible for 70% of all deaths
in America.
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| Safety | ||||||
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Fast Facts Trends look good The prevalence of heavy drinking among adolescents
has been stable over the past few years. In 1999, 31
percent of 12th-graders, 26 percent of 10th-graders,
and 15 percent of 8th-graders reported having five or
more drinks in a row at least once during the past two
weeks. The number of children who were victims of child maltreatment
increased from 826,000 in 1999 to 879,000 in 2000, reversing
a decline between 1996 and 1999. The presence of a weapon such as a gun, knife, or club, increases the chances that violent behavior will have serious health consequences. Homicide is the second highest cause of death for youth 15-19, accounting for 15 percent of all deaths in 1999. http://www.childtrendsdatabank.org/socemo/delinquency/19StudentsCarryingWeapons.htm [88]
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| Financial Security | ||||||
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Fast Facts Kids are the Poorest among Us: While overall child poverty rates declined in the late
1990’s, the decline was not uniform across states.
Between 1990 and 2000, the percentage of children in
poverty decreased in 29 states, increased in 16 states
and the District of Columbia, and remained about the
same in 5 states. Poor Families Work, but Earn Little Many children live in households that have housing
problems, such as physically inadequate housing, crowded
housing, or a high cost burden. The percentage of households
with children that have these problems has been increasing
since 1978; 35 percent had one or more housing problems
in 1999, up from 30 percent in 1978. Poverty Puts Kids at Risk —for Learning For adolescents, growing up in poverty is associated
with a lower probability of graduating from high school.
Growing up in poverty is associated with lower occupational
status and a lower wage rate as an adult. The problems
associated with being raised in severe poverty (less
than 50 percent of the poverty threshold) are correspondingly
worse. Research indicates that extreme poverty during the
first five years of life has especially deleterious
effects on children’s future life chances compared
to less extreme poverty experienced later in childhood. —for Good Health In 2000, 18 percent of children lived in households
reporting any level of food insecurity, down from 20
percent in 1998. Children in families below the poverty
line were nearly three times more likely to experience
food insecurity and hunger than children in families
with incomes above the poverty line.
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http://www.connectforkids.org/node/404
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[2] http://www.connectforkids.org/resources3139/resources_show.htm?doc_id=123903
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