Report shows improvements, decline in S.C. children's status

By: Morning News | SCNow
Published: June 19, 2008

There is yet another report and yet another set of not-so-good figures about the well-being of our state’s children.

South Carolina is ranked 46th in the nation for child well-being, according to the Kids Count Data Book recently released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

There was some good news.

Figures from 2006 show improvement on four of the 10 standards.

But we declined in five categories.

One problem area involves juvenile crime in South Carolina, where the arrest rate for violent youth offenders is higher than the national average.

In 2006, the estimated number of those arrested and jailed was 1,320. But keep in mind about 68 percent of those were involved in non-violent offenses.

So, one way to improve that number is to find ways to deal with problem youth without having to lock them up.

Also, the number of children living in poverty increased 16 percent. According to the report, it considers any child who is part of a family of two adults and two children with an annual income of less than $20,444 to be “living in poverty.”

And once again, our state’s infant mortality rate is a problem.

It has increased 8 percent, and the percentage of low-birthweight babies increased by 5 percent, putting us 47th in the nation in those categories.

Thirty-six percent of our state’s children live with parents who have no full-time job.

The report says that the national average for that category is 33 percent.

Results in other categories show:
-- In 2006, 40 percent of children in South Carolina lived in single-parent families — a 14-percent increase from data reported in 2000.
The national average of children in single-parent families is 32 percent, according to the Kids Count Data Report.
-- About 100,000, or 10 percent, of children in South Carolina don’t have health insurance, which is slightly less than the national average.
-- Eleven percent, or 8.1 million, children in the nation don’t have health insurance, according to the Kids Count Data Book.

So, what does all this mean, and what can we do to improve it?

It takes efforts in each community and on the state and federal level, as well.

The foundation says it issues the report annually to help those in government and our residents have a benchmark to see whether or not we are making progress and where we need more attention.

Let’s hope our legislators, other government officials and our community leaders are paying attention.