Census data shows poverty hitting Washington County children hard, By Tom Walsh, February 7, 2012, Bangor Daily News: “Nearly one in three children living in Washington County lives in poverty. A recent study titled ‘Poverty in Maine’ shows 30.9 percent of those under age 18 are living in Washington County households with incomes below the federal poverty level. On a county-by-county basis, that is the highest childhood poverty rate in Maine. Statewide, the childhood rate is 18.2 percent, which is less than the national rate of 21.6 percent…”

• Kids Count 2011 report shows children on Medicaid, food assistance doubled in past decade in Southwest Michigan, By Fritz Krug, January 24, 2012, Kalamazoo Gazette: “More children are living in poverty in Southwest Michigan than a decade ago, and the number receiving Medicaid and the Food Assistance Program (food stamps) has nearly doubled over the last 10 years in four counties in the region. The findings are part of the annual Kids Count in Michigan Data Book, released today by the Michigan League for Human Services…”
• Many Michigan kids living in poverty, report finds, By Robin Erb, January 24, 2012, Detroit Free Press: “Fewer Michigan teens are having babies or dropping out of school, and educational benchmarks for some of the state’s youngest students have improved, according to the new Kids Count report. Still, more of Michigan’s families continue to slip into poverty, threatening the health and future of the state’s youngest residents, according to the annual measure of the well-being of the state’s children. More than 1 in 10 children live in extreme poverty — twice as many as a decade ago, according to the report, which draws from several sources, according to the Kids Count in Michigan project at the Michigan League for Human Services, an advocacy group for poor people in Michigan…”
• Kids Count: Nearly half of Michigan students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, By Dave Murray, January 24, 2012, Grand Rapids Press: “Nearly half of Michigan’s students now qualify for free or reduced-priced school lunches, a sign that any economic recovery has not filtered down to the state’s youngest residents, according to a report from two children’s advocacy organizations. The Kids Count in Michigan report also finds that the number of children living in poverty has jumped from 14 percent to 23 percent between 2000 and 2009, and that the number of children in extreme poverty has more than doubled, reaching 11 percent at the end of the decade. But advocates said there is good amid the economic statistics. Teen pregnancies are declining, as are the number of students dropping out of school. Death rates also are slowing, though children are experience more chronic illnesses…”
• Recession affecting Michigan, Great Lakes Bay Region children, Kids Count data shows, By Kathryn Lynch-Morin, January 24, 2012, Saginaw News: “Today’s release of Kids Count in Michigan data paints a bleak picture of kids’ well-being in the Great Lakes Bay Region. More children are living in poverty in Saginaw and Bay counties than were in 2005, and rates of abuse and neglect have increased in both counties over the course of the decade, the report shows…”

Recession’s toll touches children, By Michael Martinez, January 14, 2012, Reno Gazette-Journal: “Heidi Lanini and her four kids live an austere life — by necessity. Lanini, 37, has lived in her southeast Reno apartment for eight years but hasn’t worked in six for a variety of reasons. These include health issues, the inability to find a new job as the economy soured and a lack of training in the technological skills required for her work. And then there are her kids, who require resources she has struggled to provide, leaving the children living on the edge, struggling with everyday life, school work and uncertainty about their futures. She and her family have survived on subsidized housing, food stamps, welfare and Medicare. Lanini’s family could be a portrait of a growing national trend described in a report on how the recession has affected families — particularly children. The report released by Washington, D.C.-based First Focus shows that Nevada children fared worse than American children overall on several key economic indicators of child well-being…”

Poverty level of children in Bristol, Va., among worst in the state, By David McGee, January 17, 2012, Bristol Herald Courier: “One out of every three city children lives below the poverty level - a figure that ranks among the worst in Virginia, a new report shows. Nearly 34 percent of children in Bristol, Va., live in a household where the median income is below $22,000, according to a report released Monday by Voices for Virginia’s Children. The city is tied with Roanoke for having the seventh highest rate statewide. The problem is acute across Southwest Virginia, where the number of children living in poverty is double the state average and significantly higher than the national figure. Released Monday, the report uses information from the 2010 census, which is the most recent data available…”

• Report: Even before birth, low-income children lag behind, By Erin Andersen, January 12, 2012, Lincoln Journal Star: “Before they are even born, children of low-income families lag behind their more economically stable peers in every way.  They hear fewer words. Have fewer developmentally stimulating experiences. Poorer nutrition, child care and health care.  They start kindergarten less ready than their wealthier counterparts, and they fall further behind as the years roll by. They are less likely to graduate from high school, less likely to attend college and less likely to land financially stable jobs. They are more likely to be arrested and jailed, to have babies as teenagers and to perpetuate the cycle of poverty from which they came, according to national and state data compiled in the 2011 Kids Count in Nebraska Report…”
• Report shows more kids in poverty, By Paul Goodsell, January 12, 2012, Omaha World-Herald: “A growing share of Nebraska’s children lives in poverty - a trend that has major implications for the state’s schools, workforce and future vitality, according to the latest Kids Count in Nebraska report. ‘Poverty really underscores so many different aspects of a child’s life,’ said Melissa Breazile, who wrote the report for Voices for Children in Nebraska, a statewide research and policy group. ‘It influences outcomes in all kinds of different indicator areas.’ As it has for the past 19 years, the group’s report provides a report card on how children fare in Nebraska. It includes statistics on subjects such as test scores, infant mortality and juvenile crime.  This year’s report outlines numerous challenges and urges Nebraska to invest in its future through programs that help children, especially in their early years…”

Recession takes toll on Kansas kids, By Ann Marie Bush, December 15, 2011, Topeka Capital-Journal: “Data shows Kansas children are feeling the full impact of the recession, said Shannon Cotsoradis, president and chief executive officer of Kansas Action for Children. The Kansas Kids Count report, which is being released Thursday, measures county by county how children are doing across 25 health indicators of health, education and economic success, a news release from Kansas Action for Children states. Nearly one in five Kansas children is living in poverty, and more than 47 percent of public school children are participating in the free or reduced-priced school lunch program…”

Newark’s child poverty rate spikes 32 percent in 2009-10, By Jessica Calefati, December 16, 2011, Star-Ledger: “Newark has an unemployment rate nearly twice the national average, and a report on child welfare released Thursday shows joblessnes among adults has had an outsize effect on the city’s most vulnerable residents - its children. According to the report, produced annually by the non-profit Advocates for Children of New Jersey, the poverty rate among children in Newark exploded between 2009 and 2010, increasing by 32 percent. Statewide, the figure increased eight percent. Two of every five Newark kids now live below the federal poverty line, a rate higher than it’s been in the past eight years. For a family of four, that means a median household income of less than $22,000 a year…”

• Rising child poverty rates could be a ‘taste’ of what’s ahead, By Ron Scherer, November 29, 2011, Christian Science Monitor: “In a troubling snapshot of the declining finances of Americans, considerably more school-age children are living in poverty than in the pre-recession year of 2007, the US Census Bureau reported Tuesday. Of all 3,142 counties in the US, 653 counties saw significant increases in poverty for children ages 5 to 17, according to the 2010 Census Bureau survey. Only eight counties saw a decrease. Nationally, 19.8 percent of schoolchildren qualify as poor - and one-third of all counties now have child poverty rates above that threshold. About one quarter had child poverty rates significantly lower than the national average…”
• More schoolchildren in Central Texas living in poverty, By Juan Castillo, November 29, 2011, Austin American-Statesman: “About 1 in 4 school-age children in Travis, Bastrop and Caldwell counties lived in poverty in 2010 - higher than the national average - and the poverty rate for schoolchildren has risen since the recession began in 4 of 5 counties in the Austin metro area, according to census estimates Tuesday reflecting the effects of the weakened economy…”
• Wisconsin schools see more children in poverty, By Erin Richards and Ben Poston, November 30, 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “More than four out of 10 school-aged children in Milwaukee are living in poverty, a jump of nearly 10 percentage points from 2007, according to new estimates released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau that underscore another effect of the Great Recession. The percentage of children in poverty residing in the Milwaukee Public Schools district rose to 41% in 2010 from 32.4% in pre-recession 2007, according to the bureau’s 2010 income and poverty estimates for all counties and school districts…”
• Alabama struggles with number of children living in poverty at 27.4%, By Kim Chandler, November 30, 2011, Birmingham News: “More than one in four Alabama children live in poverty — a figure that has jumped since the recession began in 2007, the U.S. Census Bureau said Tuesday. In 2010, 27.4 percent of children age 18 and under in Alabama lived in poverty. The percentage was 23.6 percent in 2007…”
• Poverty rate soars among S. Florida kids, By Donna Gehrke-White, Dana Williams and Cara Fitzpatrick, November 30, 2011, South Florida Sun-Sentinel: “The poverty rate for school-age children skyrocketed in South Florida from 2007 to 2010 with thousands of parents thrown out of work during the Great Recession. In Broward and Palm Beach counties, about one in five children ages 5 to 17 live in poverty, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday. In Miami-Dade, nearly one in four children fall below the poverty level. The huge increase in poverty among school-aged children places the three South Florida counties in the nation’s top 20 percent of counties experiencing the steepest jump in child poverty, according to the Census Bureau data…”
• Fresno County has state’s highest poverty rate, By Kurtis Alexander, November 29, 2011, Fresno Bee: “Soaring unemployment has pushed California’s poverty rate up for three straight years — but nowhere higher than in Fresno County, according to new Census data. The nearly 250,000 county residents living in poverty in 2010 gives Fresno County claim to the state’s highest poverty rate, at 26.8%. Almost 70,000 more people lived in poverty last year than in 2007 when the recession began. Statewide, 15.8% were impoverished, the census data show, up 3.4 percentage points from three years ago…”
• Poverty rates varied greatly among Oklahoma counties in 2010, By Chris Casteel, November 30, 2011, The Oklahoman: “Poverty rates jumped in some of the poorest and richest counties in Oklahoma in 2010, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures released Tuesday that show Okfuskee County had the highest rate last year, with 27 percent of its residents in poverty…”

• Ottawa lacks plan to fight child poverty, coalition says, By Laurie Monsebraaten, November 23, 2011, Toronto Star: “When it comes to helping Canada’s 639,000 children living in poverty, the more things change, the more they stay the same. That is the sobering message from Campaign 2000, a national coalition of more than 120 groups and individuals that has been lobbying for federal action on the issue for two decades. ‘Neither the promised poverty elimination or plans have materialized,’ the group says in its 20th anniversary progress report on Ottawa’s 1989 pledge to tackle the issue. The report, obtained by the Star, is being released Wednesday and calls on the government to cut poverty by at least 50 per cent by 2020. Canada’s poverty rate in 2009 was 9.5 per cent. And although the rate has inched up and down with the business cycle over the past 20 years, the report notes that the problem remains largely unchanged from 1989, when 11.9 per cent of the nation’s children were living in poverty…”
• Report: More kids living in poverty, By Frances Willick, November 23, 2011, Chronicle Herald: “It was 22 years ago this week that Canada’s leaders gathered in the House of Commons to unanimously pass a lofty, daunting goal: to eliminate poverty among Canadian children by the year 2000. A laudable goal, yes, but in hindsight, it was unattainable. The most recent statistics, released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, show that child poverty has not only lingered, but for the first time since 2003, it’s on the rise. In 2009, the most recent year for which statistics are available, nearly 10 per cent of Canadian children under the age of 18 lived in poverty. In Nova Scotia, 8.2 per cent of kids lived below the poverty line. That’s up from a nationwide low of 9.1 per cent in 2008 and a low in Nova Scotia of 7.9 per cent…”

Poverty worsening in Hub, study says, By Meghan E. Irons, November 9, 2011, Boston Globe: “Poverty has deepened in Boston’s poorest neighborhoods, widening the gap between the city’s wealthiest and neediest residents, a report being released today finds. The study points to concentrated need in Dorchester, Mattapan, and Roxbury, where 42 percent of children live in poverty, the densest cluster of childhood poverty in the state, according to the study sponsored by the Boston Foundation. In those communities, 85 percent of families are headed by a single parent, mainly mothers, and at least 20 percent of the adults have no high school diploma. Poverty there is fueled by unemployment and low educational attainment, the study found…”

City’s childhood poverty third worst in nation, By Mark Curnutte, November 3, 2011, Cincinnati Enquirer: “Patti Bellamo makes about $13,500 a year as a food service helper at Oyler School, her 14th year with Cincinnati Public Schools. Their three adult children, daughter-in-law and five grandchildren live with Bellamo and her disabled husband, Paul, a former contractor, in their house near the school. Her son Eric and his wife, Nicole, and their five children, ages 2-10, moved in a few months ago when Eric had trouble getting enough hours with a moving company to pay his Duke Energy bill. Those five Bellamo youngsters are among the estimated 48 percent of the children in Cincinnati who give it the third-highest rate of childhood poverty, behind Detroit and Cleveland. The poverty level for a family of four in 2010 was $20,050…”

Poverty touches more Sioux Falls students, By Josh Verges, October 12, 2011, Sioux Falls Argus Leader: “The state’s largest school district has added 515 students since this time last year, but the number of students from low-income families is growing even faster. When the Sioux Falls School District’s year ended in May, 46.8 percent of its elementary students were eligible for free or reduced-price meals, up from 43.7 percent the year before. Districtwide, the number of students in the program increased by about 900 in one year…”

• 400,000 children will fall into relative poverty by 2015, warns IFS, By Randeep Ramesh, October 10, 2011, The Guardian: “The government shakeup of the tax and benefits system will result in a further 400,000 children falling into relative poverty during this parliament, leaving Britain on course to miss legally binding targets to reduce child poverty by 2020, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. In a bleak assessment of changes in the government’s new social contract, the IFS said the number of children in absolute poverty in 2015 will rise by 500,000 to 3 million. Even worse, by 2020 3.3 million young people - almost one in four children - will find themselves in relative child poverty. This is 2 million short of the 2020 target to reduce child poverty to 10% or less of all children, and represents an increase of 800,000 on the figures for 2011…”
• UK seeing ‘a big rise in poverty’, October 10, 2011, BBC News: “The UK will continue to see a big rise in the number of people living in poverty, a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has warned. The study said 2.2 million children and two million working age adults were living in absolute poverty in 2009-10. It predicts that by 2012-13, this will rise by an extra 600,000 children and 800,000 adults of working age…”

• Four-in-10 disabled children ‘in poverty’, By Angela Harrison, October 6, 2011, BBC News: “Four in 10 disabled children in the UK live ‘in poverty’, according to the Children’s Society. In the population as a whole, about one-in-three children lives in poverty. The charity is calling on the government to rethink planned changes to welfare benefits in the UK, saying more than 100,000 disabled children could lose up to £27 a week. The government says the most severely disabled children will receive more money under the changes. Its Welfare Reform Bill is nearing its final stage in parliament before it becomes law. From 2013, it will bring in a single monthly payment - known as a Universal Credit - which will replace a range of benefits…”
• Four in 10 disabled young living in poverty, report says, By Randeep Ramesh, October 6, 2011, The Guardian: “Four in 10 disabled young people in England are living in poverty, amounting to a ’staggering’ 320,000 children. And the figure will rise because of government cuts to welfare payments, according to a report by The Children’s Society. The charity’s analysis looks for the first time at the additional costs of caring for a child who might be paraplegic, infirm or seriously physically incapacitated, and concludes that the official poverty rates understate the number of disabled children in penury by a total of 32,000. Counting on the basis of a disabled child living in a household with a disabled adult, the figure for those existing in poverty rose to 49%. The Children’s Society says that benefit changes in the controversial welfare reform bill, now being considered in the House of Lords, will cause the disability component of child tax-credit to drop from £54 to £27 a week…”

• Poverty affects 46 million Americans, By Marisol Bello, September 28, 2011, USA Today: “Billy Schlegel plunged from middle class into poverty in the time it took his daughter to play a soccer season. In January 2010, he was making $50,000 a year as a surveyor, meeting the mortgage payments on his three-bedroom home in the nation’s wealthiest county and paying for his children to play hockey and soccer. Then came February. Schlegel, 45, was laid off. During the next 18 months, the divorced father of three almost lost his house, had to stop paying child support and turned to the local food bank for basic necessities. ‘You’ve got to swallow your pride,’ Schlegel says. ‘Especially around here, people lose their status and they feel they don’t fit in.’ This is the face of poverty after the Great Recession. Millions of Americans such as Schlegel now find themselves among the suddenly poor…”
• Hispanic children in poverty exceed whites, study finds, By Sabrina Tavernise, September 28, 2011, New York Times: “Hispanic children living in poverty in the United States outnumber poor white children for the first time, a demographic shift that was hastened by the recession, according to a report released Wednesday by the Pew Hispanic Center. The number of Hispanic children in poverty jumped by 36 percent from 2007 to 2010, to a total of 6.1 million, compared with 5 million non-Hispanic white children who are poor, said the report, which analyzed recent data from the Census Bureau. The recession drove the rise, the report found. But demographics also contributed. The Hispanic population has grown by more than 40 percent over the past decade…”
• Hispanic kids the largest group of children living in poverty, By Carol Morello and Ted Mellnik, September 28, 2011, Washington Post: “Hispanics now make up the largest group of children living in poverty, the first time in U.S. history that poor white kids have been outnumbered by poor children of another race or ethnicity, according to a new study. In a report released Wednesday, the Pew Hispanic Center said that 6.1 million Hispanic children are poor, compared with 5 million non-Hispanic white children and 4.4 million black children. Pew said Hispanic poverty numbers have soared because of the impact of the recession on the growing number of Latinos…”

New study says Shelby County is best place in Alabama to be a kid, By Kim Chandler, September 27, 2011, Birmingham News: “Shelby County is the best place to be a child in Alabama, according to a study ranking indicators of child well-being. The 2010 Kids Count Data Book ranked Shelby No. 1 in the state in a survey weighing factors such as births to unmarried teens, children in single-parent families, child poverty and the high school graduation rate. Shelby County was followed by Blount, Lee, Limestone, Cleburne, St. Clair and Madison as top counties in the state. Dallas County, in the poverty-stricken Black Belt, ranked last in the state…”

Poverty hitting S.D. children hard, By Megan Luther, September 26, 2011, Sioux Falls Argus Leader: “South Dakota children are hit hardest by poverty - more than any other age group, according to recently released 2010 Census numbers. And the state continues to have higher poverty rates for children under 18 compared to neighboring states. More than 34,000 - or one in six children - in South Dakota have been affected by poverty, which is defined as annual income at or below $22,350 for a family of four. And that number counts only children living with related adults and excludes others such as children in foster care, which would make the number higher, according to Joy Smolnisky, director of the South Dakota Budget & Policy Project, which conducted the analysis…”

• Mobile poverty jumps almost 2 percent; poverty rises elsewhere in Alabama, September 23, 2011, Mobile Press-Register: “American Community Survey 1-year estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau show that poverty in the Mobile metropolitan area rose from 18.4 percent in 2009 to 20.2 percent in 2010 — almost a 2-percent jump. During the same period, median household income in the Mobile metro fell from $40,407 in 2009 to $39,998 in 2010…”
• Of big cities, Valley had 3rd-largest job-loss rate, By Ronald J. Hansen, September 22, 2011, Arizona Republic: “The Phoenix area from 2008 to 2010 suffered one of the worst declines among the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas in the percentage of working-age people with a job, according to newly released Census Bureau data. As of last summer, the Phoenix area also was near the bottom of the largest markets in the share of its population that held a job, at 65.6 percent. Nine metro areas had lower figures, and three others matched Phoenix’s percentage. The annual Census Bureau estimates, which also included worsening numbers for household income and poverty rate, portray a region that has fared worse than the nation as a whole in the aftermath of the Great Recession…”
• Census calls Memphis poorest in nation, By Tom Charlier, September 23, 2011, Memphis Commercial Appeal: “With nearly one in five residents stuck below the poverty line, metropolitan Memphis ranks as by far the most impoverished large metro area in the nation, new census figures show. Of the 1.3 million people in the eight-county metro area, an estimated 246,265 — 19.1 percent — lived in poverty last year, according to figures released Thursday from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey…”
• Child poverty rate in Connecticut cities hits ‘alarming’ rate, census data shows, By Angela Carter, September 22, 2011, Middletown Press: “Connecticut workers earn a median income of $40,478 in an environment where income is falling among all groups and cities are facing ‘alarming’ child poverty rates, according to the American Community Survey, released Thursday by the Census Bureau. The American Community Survey is an annual survey between decennial Census counts in geographic areas in the United States with a population of 65,000 or more…”
• Poverty pervades the suburbs, By Tami Luhby, September 23, 2011, CNNMoney.com: “Guess where most people in poverty live? Hint: It’s not in the inner cities or rural America. It’s in the idyllic suburbs. A record 15.4 million suburban residents lived below the poverty line last year, up 11.5% from the year before, according to a Brookings Institution analysis of Census data released Thursday. That’s one-third of the nation’s poor. And their ranks are swelling fast, as jobs disappear and incomes decline amid the continued weak economy. Since 2000, the number of suburban poor has skyrocketed by 53%, battered by the two recessions that wiped out many manufacturing jobs early on, and low-wage construction and retail positions more recently…”
• Census report shows Greater Cleveland families are feeling the sting of a lost decade, By Robert L. Smith, September 22, 2011, Cleveland Plain Dealer: “Some economists are referring to the last 10 years as the ‘lost decade’ and no doubt tens of thousands of Greater Clevelanders feel something critical has been missing. That something is income. A new report from the U.S. Census Bureau confirms that the region is deeply embedded in a gloomy national trend, one that has seen middle-class incomes steadily erode…”
• Census shows rise in N.Y. poverty, By Joseph Spector, September 22, 2011, Ithaca Journal: “New York’s poverty rate rose 5 percent between 2009 and 2010, while home values and median household income fell slightly, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released Thursday. The data shows how New York, as well as the nation, continues to struggle through a difficult economic period. People living in poverty in New York — which is categorized as a family of four earning less than roughly $22,000 a year — rose from 14.2 percent of households to 14.9 percent between 2009 and 2010, according to the census data…”
• More Rhode Islanders fall below poverty line, By Paul Davis, September 23, 2011, Providence Journal: “Struggling with a lingering recession and high unemployment, more Rhode Islanders fell below the poverty line last year, according to new census figures released Thursday. The poverty rate rose to 14 percent last year from 11.5 percent in 2009, according to 2010 numbers that are part of the American Community Survey. The state’s poverty rate, the highest in New England, is less than the nation’s 15.3-percent rate. After Rhode Island, Maine had the highest poverty rate in New England at 12.9 percent…”
• Census data paints bleak economic picture in Kentucky, By Valarie Honeycutt Spears, September 23, 2011, Lexington Herald-Leader: “New data from the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday painted a bleak picture of Kentucky’s economic health. Household income is down. Poverty is up. Low-paying jobs are replacing higher-paying jobs. Use of food stamps and publicly funded health care is up. Median household income fell in Kentucky in 2010 from the previous year by $778 and the share of the state’s households that earn annual incomes between $10,000 and $25,000 is increasing, according to the data…”

• Recession’s lost generation: Census finds new lows in mobility, jobs, wedlock for young adults, Associated Press, September 21, 2011, Washington Post: “Young adults are the recession’s lost generation. In record numbers, they’re struggling to find work, shunning long-distance moves to live with mom and dad, delaying marriage and raising kids out of wedlock, if they’re becoming parents at all. The unemployment rate for them is the highest since World War II and risk living in poverty more than others. Data released Thursday from the 2010 census show the wrenching impact of a recession that officially ended in mid-2009…”
• Wisconsin’s median income plummets, census figures show, By Bill Glauber, Ben Poston, Annysa Johnson and Mike Johnson, September 21, 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “To all those Wisconsin workers who feel like they’ve been economically squeezed in the first decade of the 21st century: It’s not your imagination. It’s reality. Adjusted for inflation, median household income in the state declined 14.5% between 1999 and 2010, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released Thursday. The rate of decline in Wisconsin dwarfed the national drop of 8.9% in median household income over the same period…”
• Poverty numbers spike in Milwaukee, By Bill Glauber, Ben Poston, Annysa Johnson and Mike Johnson, September 21, 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Poverty has tightened its grip on the city of Milwaukee, flared in Waukesha County and surged statewide, according to startling figures released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. Milwaukee’s poverty rate was 29.5% last year, up from 27% in 2009. In all, 171,521 people - including nearly half the city’s children - lived below the poverty line in 2010 as Milwaukee remained among America’s 10 most impoverished big cities. In Waukesha County, one of the wealthiest counties in the state, 6.3% of the population was in poverty, up from 4.8% in 2009…”
• One in five New York City residents living in poverty, By Sam Roberts, September 22, 2011, New York Times: “Poverty grew nationwide last year, but the increase was even greater in New York City, the Census Bureau will report on Thursday, suggesting that New York was being particularly hard hit by the aftermath of the recession. From 2009 to 2010, 75,000 city residents were pushed into poverty, increasing the poor population to more than 1.6 million and raising the percentage of New Yorkers living below the official federal poverty line to 20.1 percent, the highest level since 2000. The 1.4-percentage-point annual increase in the poverty rate appeared to be the largest jump in nearly two decades…”
• Poverty rate rose in Philadelphia from 2009 to 2010, By Alfred Lubrano, September 22, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer: “The poverty rate in Philadelphia jumped nearly two percentage points from 2009 to 2010, according to a federal report released Thursday, underscoring the growing plight of residents being swamped by unemployment and hard times…”
• 1 in 4 Baltimore residents living in poverty, By Steve Kilar, September 22, 2011, Baltimore Sun: “About one in four Baltimore residents is living in poverty, a one-year increase of more than 20 percent, according to estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. Although the recession officially ended in June 2009, a federal survey conducted last year shows that the downturn’s enduring effects have led poverty rates to skyrocket over a short period. The uptick is straining government and charitable resources and leaving Baltimore leaders scrambling for solutions…”
• Census: More residents sinking into poverty, By Jack Broom and Justin Mayo, September 21, 2011, Seattle Times: “Household income - in Washington state and across the country - declined in 2010, while the percentage of people living in poverty increased, as did the numbers of people without health insurance, according to data being released Thursday by the Census Bureau…”
• More in Michigan fall into poverty, By Mike Wilkinson and Serena Maria Daniels, September 22, 2011, Detroit News: “Just as the nation was declaring the recession officially over last year, the landscape in Michigan was far from rosy: The poverty rate in 2010 was its highest in at least four decades, and incomes continued to fall as the economic shift away from manufacturing continued, new census data released this morning shows. The data reveals problems that could grow worse with plans to cut aid to the poor while also slashing spending on higher education, one of the surest ways to avoid poverty…”
• Metro Detroit schools see surge in number of kids living in poverty, By Lori Higgins, September 22, 2011, Detroit Free Press: “More of the children attending schools in metro Detroit are living in poverty, a trend pronounced not just in urban areas but also in some of the tri-county’s wealthier areas. Between 2006 and 2010 — a period marked by a recession that rocked Michigan more than most states — 19 school districts in Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties saw increases of more than 100% in the number of poor children. Some of it can be tied to low-income families moving into wealthier districts as they look for better schools. But mostly, school officials say, it’s homegrown, with local parents falling into poverty after losing jobs or dealing with pay cuts…”
• Census survey data: Minn. income continued downward slide in 2010, By Elizabeth Dunbar, September 21, 2011, Minnesota Public Radio: “Minnesotans’ income took another hit in 2010, and the poverty rate edged up, according to new American Community Survey data released Thursday. Median household income fell from about $56,600 in 2009 to about $55,500 in 2010, with inflation already taken into account. Since 2007, median income has dropped by about 5 percent in Minnesota. The poverty rate increased from 11 percent to 11.6 percent from 2009 to 2010, and the uptick was even more pronounced among children: 15.2 percent in 2010 compared to 14.1 percent in 2009…”
• Poverty extends reach across St. Louis region, By Doug Moore, September 22, 2011, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “The recession officially ended two years ago, but the number of people living in poverty here and across the country continues to rise. New data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau show that an additional 19,000 people living in the region’s top six counties plus the city of St. Louis fell into poverty in 2010…”
• More than 1 in 5 Austin residents live in poverty, new census data show, By Juan Castillo, September 22, 2011, Austin American-Statesman: “More people in Austin lived in poverty, were on food stamps and saw their median family household incomes shrink in 2010, according to new census data out today depicting the growing toll of the weakened economy in Central Texas and across the state. About 18 percent of all Texans lived in poverty in 2010, more than 3 percentage points above the national average…”
• Census: City lags in education, By Jeannie Kever, September 21, 2011, Houston Chronicle: “Houston faces sharp divisions over education and opportunity, according to Census data released today. More than one in four adults - and more than 40 percent of Hispanics - don’t have a high school diploma. That’s higher than the state average, and far higher than the national average of 14.4 percent. On the other hand, more than 28 percent of Houston residents have at least a bachelor’s degree, slightly higher than the national average and almost 3 percent higher than state figures…”

• 2010 data show surge in poor young families, By Sabrina Tavernise, September 19, 2011, New York Times: “More than one in three young families with children were living in poverty last year, according to an analysis of census data by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University. At 37 percent, it was the highest level on record for the group, surpassing the previous peak of 36 percent in 1993, according to the analysis by Ishwar Khatiwada, an economist at the center. By comparison, the rate was about 25 percent in 2000. The economic distress among the country’s youngest families - defined as under the age of 30 - is in contrast to the poverty rate for elderly families, which remained low in 2010, at 5.7 percent, according to the analysis. In the 1970s, poverty was only slightly higher for younger families than for families headed by someone age 65 or over…”
• Some of the faces behind the new US poverty figures; for many it’s first brush with being poor, Associated Press, September 18, 2011, Washington Post: “At a food pantry in a Chicago suburb, a 38-year-old mother of two breaks into tears. She and her husband have been out of work for nearly two years. Their house and car are gone. So is their foothold in the middle class and, at times, their self-esteem. ‘It’s like there is no way out,’ says Kris Fallon. She is trapped like so many others, destitute in the midst of America’s abundance. Last week, the Census Bureau released new figures showing that nearly one in six Americans lives in poverty - a record 46.2 million people. The poverty rate, pegged at 15.1 percent, is the highest of any major industrialized nation, and many experts believe it could get worse before it abates. The numbers are daunting - but they also can seem abstract and numbing without names and faces. Associated Press reporters around the country went looking for the people behind the numbers. They were not hard to find…”

• National report says Minnesota is No. 2 in child health and well-being, By Richard Chin, August 17, 2011, Pioneer Press.
• Minnesota, North Dakota rank high for kids’ well-being, By Ryan Johnson, August 18, 2011, Fargo-Moorhead Forum.
• Report: 36% of Michigan kids live in jobless households, By Karen Bouffard, August 17, 2011, Detroit News.
• More kids in region live in poverty, according to Kids Count report, By Deborah Yetter, August 17, 2011, Louisville Courier-Journal.
• Children’s well-being ranked 31st in nation, By Angela Mapes Turner, August 17, 2011, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette.
• Annual report: Recession took a toll on kids, By Erin Andersen, August 17, 2011, Lincoln Journal Star.

• Survey: New Jersey is among the best states to raise and educate kids, By Megan DeMarco, August 17, 2011, Star-Ledger.
• NH still No. 1 in child well-being, but poverty up, By Kathy McCormack (AP), August 17, 2011, Boston Globe.
• Kids Count: RI children affected by unemployment, foreclosures, By Kimberley Donoghue, August 17, 2011, Providence Business News.
• Study: Economy hurting children, Kids Count Data Book shows Pennsylvania fared worse in several categories, By Andrew M. Seder, August 17, 2011, Wilkes-Barre Times Leader.
• Study: Md. child poverty among lowest in U.S.; death rates higher, By Steve Kilar, August 17, 2011, Baltimore Sun.

• Tennessee kids’ well-being up, but poverty is, too, By Adam Tamburin, August 17, 2011, The Tennessean.
• Louisiana ranks 49th nationwide in child welfare survey, By Katy Reckdahl, August 17, 2011, New Orleans Times-Picayune.
• Report: Arkansas ranks 47th in nation in well-being of children, By John Lyon, August 17, 2011, Arkansas News.
• Alabama ranks 48th for child health, well-being in Annie E. Casey Foundation 2011 Kids Count data, By Jeff Hansen, August 17, 2011, Birmingham News.
• State last in child welfare, By Ellen Ciurczak, August 17, 2011, Hattiesburg American.
• Oklahoma ranks 43rd in child well-being, By Mike Averill, August 17, 2011, Tulsa World.
• Study finds one of every four Texas children lives in poverty, By Gary Scharrer, August 17, 2011, San Antonio Express-News.

• Unemployment, foreclosures drive more Utah families into poverty, By Brooke Adams, August 17, 2011, Salt Lake Tribune.
• Kids hit hard in recent economic downturn, By Mediha Fejzagic DiMartino, August 17, 2011, Contra Costa Times.
• Arizona kids worse than most in poverty, health, foreclosure, By Mary K. Reinhart, August 17, 2011, Arizona Republic.
• Report: Wyoming children fared OK in recession, By Jackie Borchardt, August 16, 2011, Billings Gazette.
• Report: Economy taking toll on Colorado kids, By Barbara Cotter, August 16, 2011, Colorado Springs Gazette.
• Oregon third-worst for percentage of children with unemployed parents, By Richard Read, August 17, 2011, The Oregonian.
• Montana ranks worst in 5-state area for child health, By Charles S. Johnson, August 17, 2011, Billings Gazette.

• National study looks at impact of recession on children, finds poverty up in 38 states, By Cristina Silva (AP), August 17, 2011, Washington Post: “Karla Washington worries how she will afford new school uniforms for her five-year-old daughter. Washington, an undergraduate student, earns less than $11,000 a year from a part-time university job. The salary must cover food, rent, health care, child care and the occasional splurge on a Blue’s Clues item for her only child. ‘My biggest fear is not providing my daughter with everything that she needs to be a balanced child, to be independent, to be safe, to feel like she is of value,’ said Washington, 41. Washington’s economic woes are seen throughout Nevada, where the nation’s highest unemployment and foreclosure rates have combined to devastate families and empty neighborhoods and construction yards. A national study on child well-being to be published Wednesday found that child poverty increased in 38 states from 2000 to 2009. As a result, 14.7 million children, 20 percent, were poor in 2009. That represents a 2.5 million increase from 2000, when 17 percent of the nation’s youth lived in low-income homes…”
• Study: Child poverty up in 38 states in past decade, August 17, 2011, National Public Radio: “Nearly 15 million children, or 20 percent of America’s juvenile population, were living in poverty in 2009, according to a child welfare study released Wednesday. More than double that number were in households where no parent had a full-time year-round job, according to the report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which noted that the child poverty rate grew about 18 percent over the past decade. ‘This is really troubling because we had made so much progress in the 1990s in reducing the percentage of children in poverty,’ said Patrick McCarthy, the foundation’s president and CEO. ‘Essentially the recession has put us back to where we were in the early 1990s.’ In the foundation’s first examination of the impact of the recession on the nation’s children, researchers concluded that low-income children will likely suffer academically, economically and socially long after their parents have recovered. As a result, they are less likely to be gainfully employed as adults…”

Poverty, academic achievement intertwined, census figures show, By Lynn Moore, August 12, 2011, Muskegon Chronicle: “Many of those who don’t live there - who don’t walk in parents’ and students’ shoes - don’t have a problem beating up on Muskegon Heights schools, especially its high school. Just read the online comments left on stories about the high school’s struggles with academic achievement. Plenty of blame is heaped on parents, students, teachers and administrators. But would they have the same opinion if the topic was the poverty plaguing those families and schools? We’re not talking poor people, but desperately poor. Nearly half of children in the Muskegon Heights school district live in poverty. That would include, for example, a child living with a parent and sibling in a home with an income of no more than $17,285 a year. The question is raised because new data shows academic achievement and poverty are intertwined - not just for Muskegon Heights, but in communities throughout the state. The trend is undeniable when the poverty rates of school districts recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau are placed next to student test scores…”

More of county’s youth in poverty, courts, By Mealand Ragland-Hudgins, August 9, 2011, Daily News Journal: “Rutherford County children fared better than their peers across the state on the 2010 Kids Count report, although increases were seen in the areas of local children living in poverty or being referred to juvenile court. Released today, the report is an analysis of issues that can affect children’s well-being in all 95 of Tennessee’s counties. Included in the report is data on high school dropouts, children on public assistance, medical care, safety and risky behaviors. Most data in the report is based on numbers compiled in 2008 or 2009, depending on what information was available. Individual rankings by county were not provided, and data was only broken down by city for Memphis and Nashville-Davidson County…”

Poverty rates leap for Ohio children, By Rita Price, August 6, 2011, Columbus Dispatch: “The number of Ohio counties with at least a fourth of their children living in poverty doubled in just one year, with Franklin County tumbling into the group. According to a report from the Children’s Defense Fund-Ohio, 31 Ohio counties - more than a third of the state total - had child-poverty rates of 25 percent or higher in 2009. That’s a jump from 15 counties in 2008, according to U.S. census estimates compiled by the child-advocacy organization…”

County’s child poverty highest in decade, report says, By Marga K. Cooley, July 14, 2011, Santa Maria Times: “The number of children in Santa Barbara County who qualify for free and reduced-cost lunches - 54 percent - and those who live below the federal poverty level, were the highest of the decade in 2010, according to a recent report on children’s welfare. ‘The data shows what we know, that there’s great economic concern for families in our county, and that’s increasing,’ said Joy Thomas, outreach and education specialist for KIDS Network, which produced the 2010 Children’s Scorecard along with the UCSB Gevirtz Graduate School of Education and a variety of public agencies and community-based organizations. Thomas said many of the numbers are due to the general state of the economy, but some are prolonged, significant issues, such as the achievement gap in student test scores…”

Tooth decay is prevalent among poor children, By Amanda Mascarelli, July 1, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “One-fourth of the nation’s children have 80% of the nation’s tooth decay, and most of them are underprivileged. The simplicity of those numbers, from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, underscores the reality of dental care in this country but gives little hint at its ultimate effects. Oral infection is the No. 1 chronic disease in children - five times more prevalent than asthma - and experts estimate that more than 50% of children will have some tooth decay by age 5…”

• Cumberland County ranks last in children’s health issues, By Caitlin Dineen, May 23, 2011, Press of Atlantic City: “Cumberland County ranks 21st of New Jersey’s 21 counties in terms of overall child well-being, and Atlantic and Cape May counties also rank poorly, according to the New Jersey Kids Count annual rankings released Monday. The survey, which is published by Advocates for Children of New Jersey, compares counties on 15 measures including child poverty, health, safety and education. Cumberland - which ranked 20th last year - slipped to last place due to a combination of increasing childhood poverty, students having the lowest passing rates for state tests and an increased infant mortality rate…”
• Child data reveals county in last place, By Matt Zager, May 24, 2011, Vineland Daily Journal: “Cumberland County has slipped to last in the state in an annual ranking of child well-being, according to the latest Kids Count report released Monday. ‘That we’re still last is disturbing,’ said George Sartorio, Cumberland County health officer. ‘We all need to do a better job to get better outcomes.’ The data were collected as part of an ongoing effort known as Kids Count conducted by Advocates for Children of New Jersey. It compares the state’s 21 counties on 15 categories, including child poverty, health safety and education…”

• Labour’s final year in power saw child poverty at lowest level since 1980s, By Larry Elliott and Patrick Wintour, May 12, 2011, The Guardian: “Child poverty in Britain fell to its lowest level since the mid-1980s during Labour’s last year in power, according to the latest official figures. Data from the Office for National Statistics released on Thursday said that 20% of children were living in a household below the poverty line in 2009-10, down from 22% the previous year. Although the figures show Labour missed its target of halving child poverty by 2010, campaigners welcomed the improvement during the longest and deepest recession since the second world war. They warned that the downward trend in the number of children in families with an income less than 60% of the national median before housing costs were taken into account was likely to be reversed as a result of spending cuts. Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, said the return on Labour’s anti-poverty spending had been poor and that the figures showed no narrowing of the gap between rich and poor households…”
• Child poverty figures fell in UK during 2009/2010, May 12, 2011, BBC News: “In 2009-10, 20% of children (2.6m) lived in households classed as below the poverty line, a two per cent decrease on the previous year. Children’s charities offered a cautious welcome to the statistics but warned the future looked bleaker. Ministers say the figures signal a poor return on Labour’s huge investment. Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said: ‘These figures lay bare the growth of income inequality in the UK which is now the highest it has ever been…’”
• Cuts will force child poverty levels to increase again, says thinktank, By Larry Elliott, May 13, 2011, The Guardian: “Britain’s leading financial thinktank warned on Friday that 300,000 children would be pushed below the poverty line in the next three years as the government’s spending cuts reversed the improvement during Labour’s last years in power. The Institute for Fiscal Studies said that after falling to its lowest level in 25 years, child poverty was likely to rise sharply owing to George Osborne’s decision to cut the generosity of state benefits and tax credits. In its analysis of the latest official figures, the IFS said despite 200,000 fewer children living below the poverty line in the year to the 2010 general election, Labour had missed its ambitious target for halving the total by a wide margin and after 13 years went into opposition with income inequality at its widest since modern records began in 1961…”

• 1 in 4 children in US raised by a single parent, By Christine Armario (AP), April 27, 2011, Miami Herald: “One in four children in the United States is being raised by a single parent - a percentage that has been on the rise and is higher than other developed countries, according to a report released Wednesday. Of the 27 industrialized countries studied by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the U.S. had 25.8 percent of children being raised by a single parent, compared with an average of 14.9 percent across the other countries. Ireland was second (24.3 percent), followed by New Zealand (23.7 percent). Greece, Spain, Italy and Luxemborg had among the lowest percentages of children in single-parent homes. Experts point to a variety of factors to explain the high U.S. figure, including a cultural shift toward greater acceptance of single-parent child rearing. The U.S. also lacks policies to help support families, including childcare at work and national paid maternity leave, which are commonplace in other countries…”
• UK spends more on families than most OECD countries, By Karen McVeigh, April 27, 2011, The Guardian: “Britain is one of the biggest investors in families across all countries of the Organisation of Co-operation and Economic Development (OECD), according to a report looking at how governments support families. It spent 3.6% of its GDP on family benefits, compared to an OECD average of 2.2% over all benefits, in 2007. Only Denmark and France spent more, at 3.7% each. The OECD report into family life has found the UK spends more on each child than most other OECD countries, more than £138,000 from birth up to the age of 18, compared to an OECD average of £95,000. Most of it, 2.1% of GDP, spent on families was spent on cash benefits, such as child benefit and working tax credit. However, in terms of better outcomes for families, such as the ability to lift children out of poverty, gender equality and family employment, Britain lags behind countries which spend less…”
• More Irish children live in poverty than OECD average, By Joanne Hunt, April 29, 2011, Irish Times: “The Poorest in society are no longer pensioners but families with children, an OECD study has found. Doing Better for Families, the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development’s report on family wellbeing, says families with children are more likely to be poor than in previous decades, when the poorest were more likely to be pensioners. The study finds that while poverty in households with children is rising in nearly all OECD countries, 16.3 per cent of Irish children now live in poverty, well above the OECD average of 12.7 per cent…”
• One child in four in single-parent home, By Bronwyn Torrie, April 30, 2011, Dominion Post: “New Zealand has the third-highest rate of children living in single-parent homes, an OECD study says. This means nearly one in four Kiwi children are growing up in single-parent homes as more marriages break up and single women choose to enter motherhood on their own. Of 27 industrialised countries, New Zealand ranked third in the Doing Better for Families study, with 23.7 per cent of children living in a one-parent household, compared with the 14.9 per cent average across all countries. The United States ranked first with 25.9 per cent and Ireland was second with 24.3 per cent…”

• JCPS schools search for success against poverty’s stacked deck, By Chris Kenning, April 23, 2011, Louisville Courier-Journal: “It was just before 7:30 a.m., and youth-resource coordinator Lekiesha Davis was standing by Shawnee High School’s front entrance, exchanging hellos and handing out hugs to the students streaming into the hallway. But her task extended beyond the friendly morning welcome. Davis eyed each child closely for signs of exhaustion, dirty clothes or sullen, depressed glances that might signal a night of sleeplessness, domestic turmoil, or lack of food, electricity or supervision - problems that kids cart around every day in one of Louisville’s poorest neighborhoods, piling on to a lifetime of disadvantages that have already left them years behind their middle-income peers academically…”
• Solutions to high-poverty schools may lie outside the classroom, By Chris Kenning, April 23, 2011, Louisville Courier-Journal: “The solution to achieving success in America’s high-poverty schools must reach beyond the classroom, most educators say. That’s why several urban districts have turned their focus to finding their students social support -such as counseling, nutrition and after-school care -to help turn around their failing high-poverty schools. So far, however, many of those efforts have resulted in mix results - with no clear formula for lasting success, experts say…”
• Cincinnati’s Oyler Elementary finds winning formula to fight poverty, By Chris Kenning, April 23, 2011, Louisville Courier-Journal: “In the late 1990s, many of Cincinnati’s urban public schools were sliding into decline: Enrollments had shrunk, poverty had risen, achievement had fallen and voters were rejecting higher tax levies. Perhaps nowhere was that decline felt more than Oyler Elementary, tucked into Lower Price Hill, a poverty-stricken industrial neighborhood along the Ohio River built in the 1800s as factory housing by German immigrants. More than 80 percent of Oyler’s students never made it to tenth grade. It’s parents weren’t involved, and resources were scarce…”

Welfare pledge to cut child poverty by 350,000, By Hannah Richardson, April 5, 2011, BBC News: “Some 350,000 children will be lifted out of poverty as a result of a single change to the benefit system, the government has said. Replacing six benefits with the Universal Credit would help lift families out of the ‘vicious cycle of poverty and dependency’, it said. It also said it would to take 200,000 children out of the severest poverty. Charities warn benefit changes will put a huge strain on disadvantaged children. The promises comes in England’s newly published child poverty strategy…”

• Report: Budget cuts to early childhood intervention programs are taking toll on R.I.’s poor children, By Jennifer D. Jordan, April 4, 2011, Providence Journal: “Rhode Island’s lingering recession has taken its toll on thousands of the state’s most vulnerable citizens - children in low-income families. Deep cuts in recent years to child-care subsidies, welfare cash-assistance for children and state financing for early childhood education programs have tattered their safety net. The 2011 Rhode Island Kids Count Factbook, released Monday, finds there are inadequate government supports for many of the state’s 38,600 poor children, particularly during their early years. Just 5 percent of income-eligible children have access to Early Head Start, a federal parenting and early childhood education program to help teen mothers and their infants and toddlers. And only 40 percent of low-income children participate in the federal pre-kindergarten program, Head Start, due to cuts in state subsidies that slashed the number of slots…”
• Progress seen for RI kids, but advocates say much more needs to be done, By Richard Asinof, April 4, 2011, Providence Business News: “Children in Rhode Island saw improvements in health and education, and declines in safety and economic well-being in the last year, according to the 2011 Rhode Island Kids Count Factbook. The 17th annual benchmark report on children’s health and well-being, which charts 67 different aspects of children’s lives, was released Monday at a policy breakfast at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Providence Warwick in Warwick. The event was attended by more than 500 community and business leaders, including Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee, U.S. Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse and Jack Reed, U.S. Rep. James R. Langevin and Providence Mayor Angel Taveras…”

Poverty takes toll on Utah kids, By Kirsten Stewart, March 31, 2011, Salt Lake Tribune: “If the well-being of Utah’s kids is a measure of the state’s overall fitness, then the 2011 ‘Kids Count’ shows the heavy toll of the recession. For 16 years, Voices for Utah Children has collected data on kids - from infant mortality to teen birth rates - as part of research sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore. Year after year, the numbers show Utah generally does well by its kids. The past two years were no different, except for a marked increase in poverty, said Terry Haven, the project’s director in Utah. Unemployment in families has grown, as has their use of food stamps and the number of students on free or reduced-price lunches…”

Apartheid-style neglect of kids continues, By Charl Du Plessis, March 24, 2011, Sunday Times: “So says a report, a collaboration between the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) and the SA Human Rights Commission, released yesterday. It details how the country fails the most vulnerable. The report said that 64%, or 11.9million of the country’s 18.6million children, live in poverty, and four out of 10 children live in households in which none of the adults work. About 1.7million children lived in shacks, 1.4million relied on rivers or streams as their main source of water, and 1.5million had no toilet in their home. African children were 18 times more likely to grow up in poverty and 12 times more likely to experience hunger than white children. The worst-hit areas of ‘multiple deprivation’ were still former homelands, said the report, which drew on data from the Statistics SA general household survey and other surveys. Children are failed primarily by the health and education systems…”

NJ Kids Count report on children shows some progress, but more live in poverty, By Michael Symons, March 23, 2011, Asbury Park Press: “Fewer children in New Jersey are dying as infants, missing out on preschool and being arrested as juveniles, according to a report card published Wednesday that also warns that the number living in poverty, missing recommended immunizations and being repeatedly abused is rising. In all, the first New Jersey Kids Count Report Card, added this year to the annual Kids Count report by Advocates for Children of New Jersey, found conditions have improved for children in four of 15 areas examined, worsened in seven and stayed level in four. Cecilia Zalkind, the executive director of the advocacy group, said some of the areas of improvements are particularly important, including the increase in the number of children with health insurance - which was up by 44,000 between 2005 and 2009, leaving 9 percent of kids, more than half of them low-income, uninsured in 2009…”

• Food stamp use, poverty rates sharply rise among N.J. children during recession, By Megan DeMarco and Salvador Rizzo, March 23, 2011, Star-Ledger: “The Great Recession pushed thousands of New Jerseyans below the federal poverty level in 2009, causing the state’s rate to spike to the highest it’s been since at least 2002, a report released Tuesday finds. The recession also took its toll on the state’s youngest residents, according to a separate report to be released today by the nonprofit Advocates for Children of New Jersey. Close to one-third of the state’s 2 million children were living in low-income families, more youths were out of both school and work, and slightly more children were abused or neglected, the group found. In 2009, 9.4 percent of the state’s residents lived in poverty, compared with the national average of 14.3 percent. New Jersey’s rate has not risen above 8.7 percent since 2002, the first year it was calculated under the formula now used…”
• Report: 1.1 million in N.J. live on the edge of poverty, By Michael Symons, March 22, 2011, Asbury Park Press: “Nearly 800,000 state residents were living in poverty in 2009, with another 1.1 million New Jerseyans in households with incomes above the poverty line but low enough to be considered poor, according to a report released Tuesday. Though New Jersey is the nation’s second wealthiest state, nearly a quarter of its residents had household incomes in 2009 that were less than twice the poverty threshold, which advocates for the poor say is still not enough for someone to achieve self-sufficiency in a high-cost state such as New Jersey. Job losses and stagnant wages resulting from the recession that began at the end of 2007 appear to have taken a toll on the middle class, according to the annual report from Legal Services of New Jersey’s Poverty Research Institute…”
• Study finds record poverty levels for Cumberland County, Bridgeton, By Greg Adomaitis, News of Cumberland County: “Cumberland County had 7.2 percent of its residents living in severe poverty - the highest in the state. Bridgeton had 15.4 percent of its 25,349 residents living in ’severe poverty’ - second only to Camden. Meanwhile, New Jersey had the second highest median household income in the country - $64,918. A study released Tuesday found this, and many more sobering statistics, within the 165 page document. The study, ‘Poverty Benchmarks 2011. Assessing New Jersey’s Progress in Combating Poverty’, was done by Legal Services of New Jersey Poverty Research Institute…”

Child poverty rate rose, racial gap widened, in Minnesota, By Jeremy Olson, March 16, 2011, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “Minnesota’s child poverty rate leapt to 14 percent in 2009 — with minority families faring worst — despite a high rate of working parents, according to a new report by the state branch of the Children’s Defense Fund. While Minnesota had the nation’s fifth-lowest rate for white children that year, its child poverty rate for Asian- Americans was the highest in the nation and its rate for African-American children was fifth highest. The racial divide was one of several showing a widening gap between haves and have-nots in Minnesota, said Kara Arzamendia, research director of Children’s Defense Fund - Minnesota, which produces the annual state Kids Count report…”

• 41% of state students eligible for meal subsidies, By Amy Hetzner, March 11, 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “About two of every five Wisconsin school children now qualify for federally subsidized meals because of low family incomes, according to data released Thursday by the state’s education agency. The proportion of students who qualify for free and reduced-price lunch has rapidly increased over the past seven years, climbing from 29.5% in the 2003-’04 school year to 41.4% this school year. The rising number of children who meet the standard for subsidized meals reflects increasing economic hardships among Wisconsin families as well as a push among schools to have qualifying students registered for the lunch program, which often is used to calculate government grants. In a news release announcing the new figures, the Department of Public Instruction noted that 95 of the state’s 424 school districts now have at least half their students receiving subsidized lunches. Milwaukee Public Schools had the second highest percentage of students in the state qualifying for free and reduced-price lunch at 82.6% in the 2010-’11 school year. The Lac du Flambeau School District had 90.3% of its students qualify for subsidized meals…”
• Number of Green Bay students living in poverty rises, By Patti Zarling, March 10, 2011, Green Bay Press Gazette: “More than half the schoolchildren in the Green Bay School District qualify for free or reduced-price meals - an indicator of poverty - and that number is growing. Figures released Thursday by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction show 56.5 percent of Green Bay students qualify for the special meal prices this school year, up from 52.9 percent for the 2009-10 school year…”

• More Colorado kids slipping into poverty, report says, By Karen Auge, March 10, 2011, Denver Post: “In one of the first comprehensive looks at how the recession has affected families, the Colorado Children’s Campaign reports that the state’s children continued a slide into poverty that began a decade ago and accelerated as hard times hit. According to the 2011 Kids Count in Colorado! report being released today, another 31,000 children slipped into poverty in 2009, bringing the total to 17 percent of all children, up from 15 percent the year before…”
• Report: Recession sends more Colorado kids into deep poverty, By Barbara Cotter, March 10, 2011, Colorado Springs Gazette: “In a state where the number of children living in poverty has been growing faster than anywhere else in the United States, the recession was bound to make a bad situation worse. And it did. According to the ‘2011 Kids Count in Colorado’ report, released Thursday by the nonprofit Colorado Children’s Campaign, the number of Colorado children living in poverty went up by 17 percent from 2008 to 2009, with minority kids faring even worse. Median family incomes dropped by $1,800 and the number of homeless students enrolled in public schools jumped 53 percent from the 2006-07 school year. Another sobering statistic: The number of children whose families live in extreme poverty - defined as a family of four making $11,000 or less annually - climbed from 65,000 in 2008 to 95,000 in 2009…”

• Nebraska schools: More minority students, more meeting poverty standard, By Margaret Reist and Mark Andersen, March 6, 2011, Lincoln Journal Star: “Linda Baumert, who has taught first-graders in Schuyler Community Schools for 27 years, was there when the first hints of change squeezed into a desk in her classroom. The first Hispanic student in the district walked into Baumert’s room in the mid 1980s during her first few years of teaching, a harbinger of things to come. Drawn by a meatpacking plant 4½ miles west of town, the district’s Hispanic population grew slowly until about 10 years ago, when a trickle became a torrent. From 2005 to 2010, the district’s Hispanic population grew 533 percent, from 201 students to 1,272. Today, 89 percent of the K-3 elementary school is Hispanic, 68 percent of the high school. For reasons that go beyond race, 73 percent of Schuyler’s students are enrolled in the federal free and reduced-price lunch program. Free and reduced-price meal counts are the commonly accepted method for determining poverty in public schools across the country, Nebraska Department of Education spokesman Betty Vandeventer said. Schuyler is an extreme example of two long-term trends in Nebraska’s public schools: increasing diversity and a growing number of students who meet the districts’ poverty standard…”
• LPS student trends mirror those statewide, By Margaret Reist, March 6, 2011, Lincoln Journal Star: “Lincoln Public Schools mirrors two statewide student enrollment trends over the past 15 years: more minority students and more students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches. This school year, the percentage of K-12 students qualifying for the lunch program — a schools standard for measuring poverty — hit 43 percent, surpassing 40 percent for the first time, according to LPS statistics. In elementary grades, nearly 46 percent of students today meet the poverty standard. Those percentages are even higher when students attending LPS’s federally funded preschools are included. Last year, according to the Nebraska Department of Education, 42 percent of all LPS students from pre-K to 12th grade met the poverty standard…”

30 percent of Ohio kids overweight, study shows, By Catherine Candisky, March 3, 2011, Columbus Dispatch: “Despite increased efforts to combat childhood obesity, the percentage of overweight children in Ohio remains at more than 30, virtually unchanged in the past five years, a state health department study released yesterday found. State officials said the findings mirror national data for all states. The causes are no surprise: lack of exercise, poor diet, poverty, lack of access to healthy foods. The study included some alarming statistics. For example, 40 percent of third-grade students drink more than two sugar-sweetened drinks a day, and youngsters who watch three or more hours of television a day were more likely to be overweight and obese than those who spend less time on the couch. Still, officials say the good news is that childhood obesity has not gotten worse…”

• One billion people forgotten in fight against poverty, By Annie Kelly, February 25, 2011, The Guardian: “This year Unicef’s annual flagship State of the World’s Children report, released on Friday, focuses exclusively on adolescents. A recognition, says Unicef, of the increasingly urgent need to invest in the world’s 1.2 billion 10-19 year olds, an invisible generation who are nevertheless pivotal in global efforts to reach the UN millenium development goals targets by 2015. The report argues that adolescents are often marginalised in development budgets and programming, and that if this is not corrected then investment in global poverty, health, education and employment goals will be compromised. Many of the world’s teenagers were babies or young children when the MDGs were established in 2000. Since then, many of them will have been the direct beneficiaries of the significant global gains in child survival, primary education, access to safe water and sanitation…”
• Indian teen girls most ill-fed: UN, By Chetan Chauhan, February 25, 2011, Hindustan Times: “Indian adolescents girls are worse than even those in world’s poorest region — Sub-Saharan Africa - in terms of nutrition and empowerment whereas a majority of boys are at high risk because of their sexual activity, a new United Nations report on adolescents on Friday said. The report, ‘Adolescence an Age of Opportunity’, released three days before the union budget had found that 63 per cent of the Indian boys in the age group of 15-19 were engaged in high-risk sex with non-marital, non-cohabitating partner as compared to just one percent girls in the same age group. Still it was lowest in the developing world with the highest being in South Africa with 95 % boys and 99 % girls reporting high risk sex. The report found sexual activity among Asian children below the age of 15, including India, to be lowest in the world…”

• Group says early education investment saves money, By Zachary Colman (AP), February 17, 2011, Chicago Tribune: “With more Illinois children falling into poverty, investing in early childhood education today could save the state millions of dollars in the future, an advocacy group said Thursday. Voices for Illinois Children acknowledged the state has a huge budget deficit and is cutting many programs. But the group’s president, former state lawmaker Kathy Ryg, said services for children in fourth grade and below should be spared from budget cuts if the state wants to prevent a drain on social services when the children are older…”
• Organization reports disparities in children’s reading skills, By Kathy Millen, February 18, 2011, Naperville Sun: “If the measure of reading skills at the beginning of fourth grade is a predictor of future success, then many Illinois children may be looking at a lifetime of struggles. By the time they’re leaving third grade, children typically make the transition from learning to read to reading to learn. But in recent years, reading scores at these grade levels have barely improved in Illinois. Wide disparities among student groups remain, especially among the 45 percent of public school students who come from low-income families. That was the conclusion of a report from Voices for Illinois Children, a group focusing on improving the lives of children throughout the state…”
• Report shows Knox County students perform better than state averages, By Tom Loewy, February 18, 2011, Galesburg Register-Mail: “An annual report focused on the well-being of Illinois’ children released more data Thursday that showed an increasing number of kids in Knox County live in households struggling to make ends meet. But the Voices for Illinois Children’s ‘2011 Illinois Kids Count’ data reports did show that despite economic and social challenges, Knox County’s third-graders performed above the state averages on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test during the 2009-2010 school year. According to ‘2011 Illinois Kids Count,’ 81.8 percent of third-graders in Knox County meet or exceed the state standard in reading. Only 73.7 percent of their counterparts in the state meet or exceed the state standard in reading…”

Suburban schools see growing levels of financial stress among families, By Sheena Dooley, January 18, 2011, Des Moines Register: “The number of low-income families living in Des Moines suburbs is on the rise, a trend that is pushing educators to find ways to ensure school-age youngsters keep pace academically. Iowa had more than 180,700 children and teens who qualified for free or reduced-price meals in 2009-10, up nearly 32,000 from 2004-05. Among those seeing the largest increases were suburban Des Moines districts. In 2009-10, for instance, 14 percent of Johnston’s students qualified for free or reduced-price meals. That percentage has more than doubled since the 2004-05 school year. Over the past five years, hundreds of suburbanites in Iowa and the nation have fallen out of the middle class. The result has been increased levels of poverty and demands for social services in communities where low-income residents have typically been in the shadows…”

Majority of Palestinian youth living in poverty, January 13, 2011, The Daily Star: “Around 70 percent of Palestinian refugee children and adolescents in Lebanon live in poverty, according to a report released Wednesday. A further 9 percent of young people aged between 6 and 19 live in ‘extreme poverty’ on less than $2 a day, unable to meet basic daily food requirements, the Socio-Economic Survey of Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon said. Conducted by researchers from the American University of Beirut in coordination with United Nations Relief and Work Agency, the report is thought to be the first comprehensive evaluation of the living conditions of the country’s registered Palestinian refugees…”

Spending cuts ‘will see rise in absolute child poverty’, By Randeep Ramesh, December 16, 2010, The Guardian: “The government’s radical programme to slash spending will see the first rise in absolute child poverty for 15 years, with almost 200,000 children pushed into penury, according to an analysis by the Institute of Fiscal Studies. Tax changes introduced by the coalition government will, the leading independent fiscal thinktank finds, increase absolute poverty by 200,000 children and 200,000 working-age adults in 2012-13. Cuts to housing benefit alone will force a further 100,000 children into poverty. In the next three years the IFS says average incomes are forecast to stagnate and this, coupled with deep cuts in welfare, will see a rise in relative poverty for children and working-age adults of 800,000 and a rise in absolute poverty for the same group of 900,000. The institute directly challenges the government’s claim that the impact of the budget would have no effect on child poverty…”