More kids receive food assistance

The Annie E. Casey Foundation has released its annual report ?Iowa Kids Count? about the well-being of children in the state. The report contains statistics on matters such as child abuse, child poverty, educational proficiency and graduation rates.

The report begins by stating that Iowa?s figures are better than most states year after year. However, the report also shows that Iowa has not improved on all fronts. Eight of the 20 indicators of well-being are worse in recent years than they were a decade ago.

A few of the successes are the child death and infant mortality rates, which have dropped precipitously since 2000. Unfortunately, teen deaths (age 15-19) rose 6 percent over this same time frame.

The statistics on education show that Iowa kids are more proficient in reading and math than they were 10 years ago.

The most alarming statistics in the report dealt with the marked increase in food assistance for children. The number of children who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program rose 168 percent in Iowa. The percentage of children who receive free and reduced-priced lunches rose 39 percent from 2000 to 2010.

The percentage of children who lived below the poverty level jumped 45 percent from 2000 to 2009. The number of unemployed people in the labor force increased 137 percent. The report stated that these two indicators of well-being was expected to fall considering the state of the economy in the last few years of the prior decade.

The Foundation listed statistics for child abuse and neglect, which is the number of children age 0-17 who are confirmed to have been abused or neglected. In Washington County in the year 2000, there were 5,389 children under 18 and 75 cases of neglect or abuse. That rate, 13.9 cases of abuse per 1,000 children, remained nearly unchanged in 2010 when it was 13.2 cases per 1,000. That rate compares favorably to the state average of 17. 3 cases in 2010 but not to the national average of 10.2.

In 2000, 10.3 percent of children in Washington County lived below the poverty line. That number had risen to 16.7 percent in 2010. The state wide average had risen by about that same amount, going from 10.8 percent to 15.6 percent. Nationally, the figure rose from 16.2 percent to 20 percent.

Eighth-graders in Iowa improved their proficiency in mathematics from 2003 to 2010. In 2003, 72 percent of students were proficient in mathematics compared to 77 percent seven years later. Washington County did not fare well by comparison as its proficiency in math slipped from 80 percent to 74 percent.

Fourth-grade reading proficiency also rose slightly in Iowa while it declined slightly in Washington County. From 2003 to 2010, the state average went from 77 to 79 percent, while at the county level it went from 70 to 68 percent.

The number of individuals receiving food assistance in Washington County has nearly tripled in the past decade. In 2000, the figure was 3.3 percent of the population. By 2010, it had grown to 9.6 percent. The increase was nearly as large at the state level where it rose from 4.3 percent to 11.4 percent. In the U.S., the number went from 6.1 percent to 13.1 percent.

More children are eligible for free or reduced-priced lunches at every level than they were in 2000. In Washington County, the number grew from 22 percent at the start of the decade to 33 percent by 2010. At the state level it grew from 27 percent to 37 percent and at the national level it rose from 34 percent to 42 percent.

High school graduation rates showed little change at either the county or the state level. Washington County?s graduation rate was roughly 91 percent in both 2000 and 2010, while the state average was approximately 89 percent both years. The national average rose somewhat from 72 percent to 76 percent.

The percentage of children ages 3-4 who attend preschool is noticeably higher in Washington, slightly higher in the state and down a little in the country. Preschool participation in Washington County was 31 percent in 2000 but in the years 2005-2009 it was 42 percent. The state average went from 45 percent to 47 percent and the national average went from 49 percent to 47 percent.

Single-parent families were more common in Washington County in 2010 than 10 years prior. The percentage of single-parent families in the county was 19 percent in 2000 and 26 percent in 2010. The state average rose from 25 to 31 percent and the national average climbed from 30 to 34 percent.

Births to unmarried teen mothers in Washington County was about the same in 2000 as in 2010, and in both cases was about half the national average. The statistic measures the number of births to unmarried teen mothers divided by the total number of births. In 2000, 4.5 percent of births in Washington County were to unwed teens. The number fell to 4 percent in 2010. The state average dropped from 8.4 percent to 7.1 percent and the national average fell from 9.3 percent to 8.8 percent.

The unemployment rate rose at the county, state and national level in the past 10 years. The unemployment rate was a meager 2 percent in 2000 in the county but by 2010 had climbed to 5.1 percent. That was still below the state average of 6.1 percent that year and the national average of 9.6 percent.