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…”

New faces of homelessness, series homepage, November, 2010, Racine Journal Times: “Racine has a large homeless student population. This series examines what those students face and how they cope…”

• Poverty among children rises in Bergen, Passaic, By Carol Lawrence, December 10, 2010, The Record: “Poverty increased significantly for children in Bergen and Passaic counties over the last two years, according to figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau. The poverty rate for Passaic County children ages 5 to 17 in families jumped to nearly 24 percent from 17.5 percent in 2007, and in Bergen County, the rate rose to more than 7 percent from 5.6 percent in 2007. Nationally, the rate rose in 295 counties and dropped in 19 counties over the two-year span, but there was no significant change in the majority of counties, according to figures released in the 2009 Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates…”
• Ziebach County still poorest in America, By Mary Garrigan, December 10, 2010, Rapid City Journal: “Ziebach County on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation in northwest South Dakota retained its infamous title as the poorest county in America in 2009, according to a new Census Bureau report released this week. Poverty rates for counties and school districts throughout the United States were part of the Census Bureau’s Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates. In Ziebach County, 62 percent of its 2,552 residents live in poverty. The rate of children younger than 18 in the county was even higher — 76.7 percent. In the Midwest region, the seven poorest counties are in South Dakota, and two others — Bennett and Dewey counties — also made the list of the 30 Midwest counties with the highest poverty rates…”
• Somerset County schoolchildren face state’s highest poverty levels, By Michaelle Bond, December 9, 2010, Delmarva Daily Times: “More than one in four school-aged children in Somerset County and Baltimore City school districts live in poverty, the highest rates in the state, according to recently released census data. In these two school districts, plus those in Dorchester and Allegany counties, the percentage of students in poverty exceeds the country’s 17.9 percent average, according to 2009 census data released Wednesday…”
• As expected, Utah poverty rates rose from 2007 to 2009, By Julia Lyon, December 9, 2010, Salt Lake Tribune: “Following a nationwide trend, Utah saw poverty spike from 9.8 percent in 2007 to 11.7 percent in 2009, according to new data released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau. One of the largest increases came in Washington County, where the rate jumped from 8.9 percent in 2007 to 14.2 percent in 2009. Ruben Garcia, director of the Dixie Care and Share Food Pantry in St. George, wasn’t surprised to hear the numbers. ‘A lot of our donors from previous years are now clients,’ he said. ‘There’s a lot of working poor in Washington County.’ The state’s most populous county, Salt Lake County, saw its poverty rate rise from 9 percent in 2007 to 10.7 percent two years later. The numbers were worse in Utah County, where poverty grew from 11.4 to 14.2 percent…”

• Child poverty ‘rises’ among working households, December 6, 2010, BBC News: “Child poverty within working households is rising and now accounts for 58% of all UK cases, a report has found. A Joseph Rowntree Foundation report says there are 2.1 million impoverished youngsters in homes where parents are in work - up slightly on last year. Co-author Tom MacInnes said it showed work alone was not the answer to lifting people above the bread line. The Department for Work and Pensions said it was reforming the welfare system to ensure work always paid. Overall, the number of children living in poverty fell to 3.7 million, the report called Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion found…”
• Record levels of poverty among families with wages, By Jonathan Owen, December 5, 2010, The Independent: “A record number of children in the UK are living in poverty despite the fact that one or both of their parents work, according to a new report to be published tomorrow. The figure of 2.1 million is the highest on record - up 400,000 in the past five years, undermining the oft-repeated claim that people simply have to work their way out of poverty. The new figure accounts for more than half of the 3.7 million children living in poverty in Britain today, according to researchers from the New Policy Institute (NPI) who produced the report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF). It is perhaps the most damning element of an analysis of the past decade, showing how initial progress in some areas has halted or been reversed…”
• Most children living in poverty are not from workless households, report finds, By Karen McVeigh, December 6, 2010, The Guardian: “The number of children of working parents who are living in poverty in the UK has risen to an unprecedented 2.1 million, a report has found. A report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that while the number of impoverished children dropped overall to 3.7 million, the majority are now from homes where a parent or carer is working, accounting for 58% of the total. The number who live in workless households fell to 1.6 million - the lowest figure since 1984 - according to the Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion report…”

Rich countries let poorest children fall behind, By Laurie Monsebraaten, December 2, 2010, Toronto Star: “Canadian children suffer greater income inequality than most developed nations, says a new UNICEF report being released Friday. The report, which for the first time ranks 24 countries in the Organization for Economic and Co-operative Development (OECD) in terms of equality in children’s health, education and material well-being, shows children in many rich nations are being left behind. ‘Falling behind is a critical issue not only for millions of individual children today, but for the economic and social future of their nations tomorrow,’ the report argues. The report, entitled, ‘The Children Left Behind,’ looked at inequality in child well-being by measuring the gap between the average child and the most disadvantaged children in three aspects of their lives - material well-being, educational achievement and physical health…”

• Few bright spots in new Kids Count report, By Ruth Campbell, November 30, 2010, Fort Scott Tribune: “Although Bourbon County surpasses its peers and the state in percentage of mothers who get prenatal care and has a lower percentage of low birth-weight babies than the rest of Kansas, its infant mortality rate rate is among the worst in the state, according to data from a Kids County report released Tuesday. Kansas Kids Count is produced by Kansas Action for Children and funded in part by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Kansas Action for Children is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to shaping policy that improves the lives of Kansas children and families. Data collection and analysis were provided by the Kansas Health Institute, according to the report…”
• Economic recession taking a toll on Kansas children, reports indicate, By Scott Rothschild, November 30, 2010, Lawrence Journal-World: “Many Kansas children aren’t faring well, according to two reports released Tuesday. In its annual survey, Kansas Action for Children said the troubled economic times are having an impact on youngsters. ‘As more working families struggle to make ends meet, more children are relying on free and reduced school lunches and more children are growing up without health coverage,’ said Shannon Cotsoradis, president of KAC. The new Kansas KIDS COUNT data showed that 45 percent of Kansas school children receive free or reduced lunch, 40 percent of children are growing up in low-income households, and 10 percent of Kansas children are uninsured…”
• Kids Count releases data, By Angela Deines, November 30, 2010, Topeka Capital-Journal: “When it comes to mothers getting adequate prenatal care, children getting properly immunized and the number of violent teen deaths, Shawnee County fares well compared to statewide numbers in the latest Kansas Kids Count data. ‘The good news is your immunizations are up,’ said Shannon Cotsoradis, executive director of Kansas Action for Children. ‘But the economic indicators aren’t as good.’ The report, a joint effort by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Kansas Action for Children, shows higher poverty rates for Shawnee County children than the statewide rate and one out of two children qualify for free or reduced-price lunch…”
• Study: More Kansas kids in poverty, By Matthew Clark, December 1, 2010, Pittsburg Morning Sun: “More Kansas children are living in poverty and those who already are have seen their conditions worsen. That is the result of the KIDS COUNT study, which was released on Tuesday by the Kansas Action for Children (KAC) and The Annie E. Casey Foundation. The study concluded that approximately 45 percent of Kansas school children are participating in free and reduced lunches and 40 percent are growing up in low-income (23.08 percent) or poverty-stricken (17.33 percent) households. In addition, one in 10 Kansas children are currently not covered by health insurance…”

• 1 in 10 Canadian children living in poverty: Report, By Amy Minsky, November 24, 2010, Montreal Gazette: “One in 10 Canadian children is living in poverty, according to a report on the status of child and family poverty released Wednesday. With Parliament’s self-imposed deadline long past, it still has far to go on the promise it made 21 years ago to eradicate child poverty by 2000. The most recent numbers show there is a 9.1 per cent rate of child poverty in Canada, down slightly from 11.9 per cent in 1989, the year Parliament unanimously resolved to end child poverty, it says in Campaign 2000’s report card, which cites data from 2008..”
• One in seven B.C. children living in poverty, Canadian Press, November 24, 2010, Globe and Mail: “An anti-poverty group says one in seven children in B.C. is living in poverty and the recession will likely make things worse. In releasing its annual report Wednesday, the BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition said while the child poverty rate dropped in 2008, the recession was also starting, and it’s almost certain to produce higher poverty figures for 2009 and 2010…”

Poverty rising in suburban schools, By Rita Price, November 17, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “Suburban school districts more known for their affluence are seeing double- and triple-digit increases in the percentage of students considered to be economically disadvantaged. A report to be released this week by KidsOhio, a Columbus-based education nonprofit organization, found that nearly half of the disadvantaged students in Franklin County now are enrolled in a suburban school district. The report documented the change over five years, from the 2004-05 school year to last school year. Although Columbus schools have the highest rate of disadvantaged kids, that district’s increase was more modest…”

• Report shows fourth-grade students in N.J. public, charter schools have same passing rates, By Rohan Mascarenhas, November 10, 2010, Star-Ledger: “Some public schools in Newark are among the best in the city, performing as well as charters in certain areas, according to the annual Kids Count survey to be released today. Comparing test scores and demographic data, the report found public schools had the same passing rates on average as charters at the fourth grade level, thanks to a decade of significant academic gains. The data appears to contradict the prevailing assumption about the consistent high quality of charter schools and their reputation as a panacea. It also belies the rhetoric from politicians and educators that Newark schools are uniformly bad…”
• Newark rents rise, incomes are stagnant, and more kids on food stamps, report shows, By Rohan Mascarenhas, November 11, 2010, Star-Ledger: “A study released today painted a grim picture of social and economic struggles in the state’s largest city. Rents in Newark have spiked, and more city kids are on food stamps, while income levels are remaining stagnant, according to the annual Kids Count survey published by the Advocates for Children in New Jersey. The report found that median rents rose 22 percent between 2005 and 2009. At the same time, the average income for Newarkers increased only one percent. Compiling statistics on welfare and demographic data, the survey offers a snapshot of the recession’s impact in Newark, where the unemployment rate hovers around 15 percent. Over the past five years, the number of Newark children on food stamps has jumped sharply, rising 33 percent, the report said…”

• Increasing poverty among students challenges educators, By Adam Wise, November 6, 2010, Wisconsin Rapids Tribune: “In the past 10 years, the poverty rate has nearly doubled in some local school districts. The financial struggles of thousands of families in Wood and Adams counties is increasing the stress on school officials, as they try to address achievement gaps between impoverished students and the general student population. Locally, district poverty levels — measured by the number of students receiving free or reduced-price lunches — increased in five local school districts, including a more than 80 percent increase in the Wisconsin Rapids and Nekoosa districts from the 2000-01 school year to 2009-10…”
• As family homelessness rises in Washtenaw County, educational project works to help kids stay in school, By Kyle Feldscher, November 7, 2010, AnnArbor.com: “For two years, Amina Brewer did her best to act like every other student at Ann Arbor’s Pioneer High School. The energetic 17-year-old pulled strong grades, had plenty of friends and seemed as carefree as her classmates. But she was hiding a secret from her friends. When the bell rang at the end of the day, the reality of Amina’s life would snap into focus. Her family was homeless…”

• Hunger in Philadelphia: The safety net is torn, By Alfred Lubrano, November 5, 2010, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Myra Young fits a nebulizer mask over her son Todd’s face to beat back his chronic asthma. Inhaling vaporized medicine that keeps him breathing, the 4-year-old with large eyes leafs through a children’s Bible to pass the time. Young, 41, is an unemployed nursing assistant who lost her job in 2007 caring for Todd during his two-month hospitalization. She watches nervously as the whirring machine eats electricity. The power to Young’s two-bedroom rental in Kensington will be cut in two weeks because the bill has climbed to $770. She lives in the poorest place in Pennsylvania - the First Congressional District. According to a national poll, the district is the second-hungriest in America. Young, who is separated, is not without help. She receives monthly welfare payments of $205, along with $362 in food stamps, and $674 in Supplemental Security Income for Todd’s illness - part of the safety net meant to aid the poor. Young’s husband, a hotel kitchen worker, chips in as well. But all that help still keeps mother and son stuck at the poverty level - not nearly enough to pay the $625 rent, and feed Young’s hungry child and his voracious breathing machine. Because Young hasn’t worked since Todd’s hospitalization, it’s harder for her to get jobs; employers are wary of her two years away from nursing…”
• Inquirer Editorial: We are what we eat, Editorial, November 5, 2010, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Hunger isn’t confined to a single zip code. But there are few places where its impact is more evident than within this city’s First Congressional District, rated the second-hungriest in America. Inquirer reporter Alfred Lubrano recently detailed how that hunger, rooted in poverty, can paradoxically lead to obesity. Many among the poor are overweight not from eating too much, but because they eat the wrong foods…”

• Recession’s reverberations keep pummeling the young, By Don Lee, October 24, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “As the nation struggles with the aftermath of the Great Recession, few groups have suffered greater setbacks or face greater long-term damage than young Americans - damage that could shadow their entire working lives. Unemployment for 20- to 24-year-olds hit a record high of more than 17% earlier this year. Even for young adults with college degrees, the jobless rate has averaged 9.3% this year, double the figure for older graduates, according to the Labor Department. Adding to the impact, surveys by the Pew Research Center indicate, a greater share of workers in their 20s lost hours or were cut down to part-time status than any other age group. And their incomes have fallen more sharply, even as they are far more likely than others to say they are working harder than ever…”
• Recession in midstate hitting children hardest, By Diana Fishlock, October 24, 2010, Patriot-News: “Dauphin County is seeing its youngest children get hit hardest by the recession. Among Dauphin County families with children all under 5 years old, more than 20 percent were living in poverty in 2009. That’s up from about 15 percent just two years before, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. Families with children under 18 saw poverty increase during the same time. Nearly half of the county’s single mothers with children under 5 lived in poverty. Those on the front lines of providing social services say they see more younger children exhibiting signs of anxiety and parents worrying about providing enough food. In surrounding counties, families with children generally saw poverty decrease from 2007 to 2009, according to census estimates…”

• Poverty in Israel decreased by as much as 29%, think tank reports, By Moti Bassok, October 17, 2010, Haaretz Daily Newspaper: “Israel’s poor became significantly better off by all measures during the last decade’s economic growth, the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies said in a report it released yesterday. ‘In every measure related to quality of life - purchasing power of necessities, real income, ownership of durable goods and life expectancy - Israel’s poor have become significantly better off,’ stated the report, written by Yarden Gazit. In terms of real income, poverty decreased by 18.8% between 2004 and 2008, and in terms of purchasing power, poverty decreased by 29%, the report stated…”
• Over half of capital’s kids live in poverty, report finds, By Melanie Lidman, October 18, 2010, Jerusalem Post: “More than half the children in the Jerusalem district live below the poverty line, according to an extensive report on the capital’s population released Sunday by the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies. Jerusalem’s poverty rate is much higher than other Israeli cities. In Tel Aviv, 23 percent of children and 14% of families live below the poverty line, and 20% of families and 34% of children in Israel as a whole live in poverty, the report found. Sunday was the UN’s International Day to Eradicate Poverty, making the dire statistics about Jerusalem even more poignant. The authors of the Jerusalem study pointed to the large haredi and Arab populations in the city as the main reasons for the high level of poverty…”
• ‘Poverty drops 18.8% in just four years’, By Ruth Eglash, October 18, 2010, Jerusalem Post: “The country’s poor are significantly better off than they were a decade ago, with the number of people living in absolute poverty falling by 18.8 percent in just four years, according to a report published by the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies on Sunday. Released to coincide with the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty and one day before various Knesset committees discuss the poor, the report calls into question the annual figures published by the National Insurance Institute (NII), which show that poverty rates are continually rising, and suggests that the situation is not as grim as depicted. Authored by economist Yarden Gazit and based on consumer trends data from the Central Bureau of Statistics, the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies report is the first to measure absolute poverty as opposed to relative poverty in the country. It shows that Israelis, even those with the lowest salaries, are able to pay for their basic needs and even allow themselves luxuries and savings…”

• Child poverty: study shows fifth of UK youngsters severely affected, By Jessica Shepherd, October 15, 2010, The Guardian: “A fifth of seven-year-olds in the UK live in ’severe poverty’ with both parents together earning less than half the average national income, a major report reveals. The government-sponsored Millennium Cohort Study has tracked 14,000 children born at the start of the century to build a picture of how family circumstances determine a young person’s education, health and happiness in Britain. The latest findings are from two years ago, when the children were seven years old…”
• One in three children in Wales live below poverty line, October 15, 2010, BBC News: “Researchers found one in three Welsh seven-year-olds live in a family with less than 60% of the UK’s average household income. But most youngsters are thought to be in excellent health with many friends. The assembly government said tackling child poverty is a ‘top priority’. The research was carried out by the Institute of Education at the University of London and involved a survey of 14,000 children born between 2000 and 2002 from across the UK…”

• ‘Kids Count’ report shows progress for Oklahoma children, By Michael Overall, October 13, 2010, Tulsa World: “Statistically, children in Oklahoma seem to be healthier and better off now than they were in the mid-1990s, according to the annual ‘Kids Count’ report released Tuesday. But the researchers themselves are quick to mention that old saying: Statistics don’t tell the whole story. ‘Especially in this case,’ said Linda Terrell, executive director of the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy, which presented the report at the University of Central Oklahoma. From birth weights and infant mortality to juvenile crime and drop-out rates, the report compares a dozen different categories of statistics to measure the well-being of children in the state. In most categories, Oklahoma has seen positive long-term trends. ‘But,’ Terrell raises a finger in the air to emphasize this point, ‘the data come from 2008,’ the most recent year with available information…”
• Parents in prison cause problems for Oklahoma children, By John Estus, October 12, 2010, The Oklahoman: “An Oklahoma mother is sent to prison. Her child is left motherless, develops emotional problems and flunks out of school. The child has a baby of her own before turning to drugs, a life of crime or both. Then that mother is sent to prison, leaving another child with a parent behind bars. This bleak cycle likely happens at a higher rate in Oklahoma than any other state, a new report shows. Oklahoma incarcerates more women per capita than any other state, and their children are five times more likely to end up in prison than their peers, according to the annual Kids Count Factbook from the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy. Lawmakers are taking notice of the issue as they grapple with an underfunded, overcrowded state prison system. The report states more than half of the nearly 26,000 people in state prisons are parents whose imprisonment means their children face a higher risk of going to prison themselves than their peers. Policymakers want to stop that domino effect, particularly when it comes to locking up mothers who committed nonviolent crimes…”

• Many Lansing babies ‘at high risk’, By Louise Knott Ahern, October 13, 2010, Lansing State Journal: “More than 60 percent of all births in Lansing are paid for by Medicaid, and babies here are nearly twice as likely as the statewide average to be born to a mom without a high school diploma, according to a report released Tuesday. It’s an indication, say some social service advocates, that the effect of rising poverty, falling incomes and cuts to programs for poor moms is finally reaching the most vulnerable among us: babies…”
• Report calls city ‘high risk’ for health of moms, infants, By Tarryl Jackson, October 12, 2010, Jackson Citizen Patriot: “The number of babies born pre-term and to unwed mothers and black teens in Jackson jumped during the past decade, according to a statewide report released today. The Right Start in Michigan report, produced by the Michigan League for Human Services, measured maternal and infant health from 2000 to 2008 for 69 Michigan communities. It declared Jackson one of 13 that are ‘high risk.’ Of 934 births to mothers who lived in Jackson in 2008, Medicaid paid for 64 percent. Medicaid typically covers the cost of prenatal care and delivery for pregnant women without health insurance and in households with income below 185 percent of the federal poverty level…”

A portrait of hunger, By Alfred Lubrano, October 10, 2010, Philadelphia Inquirer: “There’s not enough food in Imani Sullivan’s life. At home, Sullivan, 31, often doesn’t set a fork for herself at the table so that her sons, ages 3 and 10, can eat. Naturally diminutive, Sullivan looks frail these days. She has dropped 15 pounds since losing her part-time janitor job during the summer. Each family meal feels like an obligation she cannot meet, a daily burden multiplied by three. ‘It makes me feel like less of a mom not to have food,’ she says in her mother’s North Philadelphia apartment, suddenly overcome by the hardship. Tears form in her eyes. ‘Every day, I walk into a brick wall. No bricks fall - there’s no dust, no crumbling. Just the wall. It never moves.’ The hunger in Sullivan’s house is distressingly commonplace throughout the area of Philadelphia where she lives: Pennsylvania’s First Congressional District. At a time when more people in America are suffering from hunger, the First Congressional District is one of the hungriest, second only to the Bronx, N.Y., according to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, an ongoing national poll done in conjunction with the Food Research and Action Center in Washington. Meanwhile, U.S. Census data released in late September show that the district, with a poverty rate of nearly 29 percent in 2009, is among the 10 poorest in the United States, and poorer than any other district in Pennsylvania…”

Unwed moms far more likely to face poverty, By Rita Price, October 4, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “Among the nation’s social problems, few are as vexing as the rocky relationship between parenthood and matrimony. Marriage reduces the likelihood that families will live in poverty. Yet the poor are the least likely to wed when they’re expecting a baby. ‘There’s a lot of evidence of a real class divide in how families are formed,’ said Anastasia Snyder, an Ohio State University professor who studies family structure. ‘We have two different trajectories, and it’s worrisome,’ she said. ‘The rich are getting richer in terms of family behavior, too.’ Data released by the U.S. Census Bureau last week show both high rates of poverty and out-of-wedlock births. Although researchers note that causes and effects aren’t simple to connect - especially during a recession - there’s little doubt that growing numbers of so-called fragile families make life harder on children…”

• Saying no to ‘I do,’ with the economy in mind, By Erik Eckholm, September 28, 2010, New York Times: “The United States crossed an important marital threshold in 2009, with the number of young adults who have never married surpassing, for the first time in more than a century, the number who were married. A long-term decline in marriage accelerated during the severe recession, according to new data from the Census Bureau, with more couples postponing marriage and often choosing to cohabit without tying the knot…”
• D.C., suburbs show disturbing increases in childhood poverty, By Carol Morello and Dan Keating, September 29, 2010, Washington Post: “Three out of 10 children in the nation’s capital were living in poverty last year, with the number of poor African American children rising at a breathtaking rate, according to census statistics released Tuesday. Among black children in the city, childhood poverty shot up to 43 percent, from 36 percent in 2008 and 31 percent in 2007. That was a much sharper increase than the two percentage-point jump, to 36 percent, among poor black children nationwide last year…”
• Census figures in region show poor getting poorer, By Alfred Lubrano and Dylan Purcell, September 29, 2010, Philadelphia Inquirer: “The poor got poorer and the well-off didn’t get any better in the Philadelphia region in 2009, according to U.S. census figures released Tuesday. Philadelphia retained its unwanted position as the poorest among the country’s 10 largest cities, with a poverty rate of 25 percent. Making a bad situation worse, the number of children in poverty under age 18 in the city fell to one in three…”
• Census says recession woes less severe here, By Gary Rotstein, September 29, 2010, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “The economic downturn has not spared the Pittsburgh region, but household data released by the U.S. Census Bureau Tuesday offered additional evidence that the hardships have been less severe than for the nation as a whole. The poverty rate within the seven-county metropolitan area worsened from 12.2 percent in 2008 to 12.3 percent in 2009, according to the American Community Survey, compared with a more drastic change from 13.3 percent to 14.3 percent for the U.S. overall. Pennsylvania had a poverty rate of 12.5 percent last year, compared with 12.3 percent in 2008…”
• Mass. buoyed in recession, data indicate, By Maria Sacchetti, September 29, 2010, Boston Globe: “Massachusetts appeared to weather the recession better than other states last year, according to census figures released yesterday, with stable poverty rates and stagnant annual income. But analysts disagree about whether the figures reflect a strong economy or instead mask more serious troubles statewide…”
• Census shows recession hit broad swath of R.I., By Paul Edward Parker and Paul Davis, September 29, 2010, Providence Journal: “New U.S. Census data show that the deep recession hit Rhode Islanders from all walks of life hard in 2009, as unemployment reached a record high 12.7 percent during the biggest economic slowdown since the Great Depression. More Rhode Island families lived in poverty. More grandparents provided inexpensive childcare for their grandchildren. More workers joined carpools to save money on the daily commute. No groups escaped. Even couples planning families put off the births of their children until better times…”
• In hard times, more Middle TN families share a roof, By Chris Echegaray, September 29, 2010, The Tennessean: “The recession refilled a Brentwood couple’s empty nest - a common effect according to newly released census data. Linda and Carlos Reyes’ two adult children came back home last year because of the poor economy. Their son was moving between his parents’ Brentwood home and Alabama, where his wife had just lost her job as a teacher. The daughter, to save money on gas, often would stay with her parents, and still does…”
• Census snapshot shows bleak picture for many Oklahomans amid recession, By Paul Monies, September 29, 2010, The Oklahoman: “More children had health insurance coverage last year even as the number of adults without coverage remained flat in Oklahoma, according to Census Bureau estimates released Tuesday. Meanwhile, poverty rates increased, and median household income declined last year as Oklahoma continued to feel the effects of a recession that began in late 2007. The share of households on food stamps in the state rose to 12.1 percent last year, up from 10.9 percent in 2008…”
• Number of poor in Tulsa, Oklahoma rises, By Curtis Killman, September 29, 2010, Tulsa World: “The percentage of people living in poverty increased in the state and Tulsa from 2008 to 2009, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures released Tuesday. Nearly one in five Tulsans reported incomes in 2009 below the poverty level. The estimated 19.5 percent of Tulsans with poverty-level incomes in 2009 reversed a two-year decline in the number of poor in the city, according to Census Bureau statistics…”
• Poverty on rise in Lincoln; researchers say survey may be misleading, By Mark Andersen, September 28, 2010, Lincoln Journal Star: “The number of Lincoln households earning less than $10,000 last year increased 52 percent from 2008, according to census survey data released Tuesday. That jump may mark a dramatic increase in Lincoln poverty, but then again, other dramatic swings in the survey suggest its findings should be regarded with caution…”
• In tough economic times, Coloradans go back to school, census stats show, By David Olinger, September 29, 2010, Denver Post: “In hard times, college enrollment programs can experience great times - particularly those that teach specific job skills. While Colorado residents suffered wage cuts and job losses during a national recession, the number of them paying to go to college grew, according to census survey data released Tuesday. In Denver, enrollment in college and graduate schools jumped by nearly 10,000 students in one year, to about 47,000 citywide, the 2009 American Community Survey estimated. Leading the boom was Community College of Denver, a job-oriented school whose student population nearly doubled in two years…”
• Sacramento area incomes drop 6%, to lowest level in a decade, By Phillip Reese, September 29, 2010, Sacramento Bee: “State worker furloughs, an anemic construction industry and widespread layoffs last year pushed Sacramento-area household incomes to their lowest level in at least a decade, census figures released Tuesday show. The region’s median household income - the figure in the middle of a ranked list of household incomes - was $57,361 during 2009, down 6 percent from 2008, after adjusting for inflation. That’s a bigger fall than the statewide drop of 3 percent…”
• New data offers proof: The recession hurts, By Jeannie Kever, September 28, 2010, Houston Chronicle: “Stop us if you’ve heard this before: Household income is down. Poverty levels are up. People who still have jobs are working fewer hours. Census data released Tuesday confirmed what most Americans already knew. ‘It is very clear how extensive the economic difficulties are,’ said Steve Murdock, the former state demographer who now is on the faculty at Rice University. ‘Health insurance. Job hours worked. Poverty rates. Income. Those are all in the wrong direction in terms of what we’d like to see for America.’ The trends held true at all levels in the 2009 American Community Survey data, which offers a snapshot of the nation’s economic and demographic status. The first results from the 2010 Census will be released later this year…”
• More people living in poverty in Austin, survey finds, By Juan Castillo, September 28, 2010, Austin-American Statesman: “Nearly 1 out of every 5 Austinites lived in poverty in 2009, an increase from the previous year, the U.S. Census Bureau said Tuesday. Among the most striking increases in poverty rates were among Austin’s children. According to figures from the bureau’s American Community Survey, 27 percent of related children under 18 and 31.5 percent of related children under 5 lived in poverty in 2009 - 5 percent and 6 percent increases, respectively, from 2008…”
• 1 in 5 Tampa Bay area kids live in poverty, census says, By Kevin Wiatrowski, September 29, 2010, Tampa Tribune: “The latest government estimates, released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau, show the number of people living in poverty has been growing steadily since 2006 in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Polk counties. Children have been hit the hardest in the Bay area, where about one in five people younger than 18 live in poverty, according to census estimates. Seniors, on the other had, remain insulated from the region’s growing poverty. In the Tampa Bay area, fewer than 10 percent have fallen into poverty, while fewer than 1 percent, on average, lack health insurance, Census figures show…”
• Census snapshot of South Florida: Poverty up, wealth down, By Douglas Hanks, September 29, 2010, Miami Herald: “Housing values crashed. Renting became more popular. Much of the population slipped a rung down the wealth ladder. And Miami seems to be booming. A deluge of Census data released Tuesday crystalized some of the trends under way as South Florida reckons with a wrenching economic downturn, a tepid recovery and a transformed real estate market. One side effect: Thousands of cheap urban condos built during the boom are now attracting renters and bargain hunters. The city of Miami, the center of the nation’s condo building binge, saw its population surge 25 percent this year to about 433,000, according to the numbers…”

• Census shows rising poverty, falling incomes in Madison, Dane County, By Steven Verburg, September 28, 2010, Wisconsin State Journal: “Household income in Dane County and Madison dropped more than twice as much as it did nationally in 2009, and the proportion of rich and poor increased while middle-income households dwindled, according to Census Bureau data released Tuesday. The data also showed rising levels of poverty, including among children, in the city and county. Experts said the numbers demonstrate the broad impact of the recent recession - described as the country’s worst since World War II but which officially ended in June 2009…”
• Milwaukee now fourth poorest city in nation, By Bill Glauber and Ben Poston, September 28, 2010, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Milwaukee emerged as America’s fourth-most impoverished big city in 2009, as the Great Recession rippled across the city and state, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures released Tuesday. Milwaukee’s poverty rate reached 27%, up from 23.4% in the previous year. Only Detroit (36.4%), Cleveland (35%) and Buffalo (28.8%) had higher poverty rates among cities with populations greater than 250,000. Milwaukee was ranked 11th in 2008. An estimated 158,245 Milwaukeeans lived in poverty last year. For a family of four with two adults and two children, the poverty threshold was an annual income of $21,954. What’s more, nearly 4 in 10 children in Milwaukee were considered poor, meaning an estimated 62,432 children lived in poverty last year, up from 49,952 in 2008…”
• Poverty rises slightly in Chicago area, By Dahleen Glanton and Lisa Black, September 29, 2010, Chicago Tribune: “Poverty inched higher in the Chicago area in the midst of the recession, pulling city and suburban families that once were considered middle class into the ranks of the poor, according to data released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. Like the rest of the country, the Chicago area experienced heavy job losses, home foreclosures and lower median household incomes from 2006 to 2009, which forced some people out of their comfortable lifestyles into homeless shelters, food banks and unemployment lines…”
• Census reveals ‘new poor’ in many Twin Cities suburbs, By Jeremy Olson, September 28, 2010, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “Poverty and joblessness rose sharply in many Twin Cities suburbs last year, according to U.S. census estimates released Tuesday, along with a rise in what advocates call the “new poor” — families whose financial stability has crumbled in the economic recession. In Anoka County, for example, the unemployment rate shot up to 6.8 percent in 2009 from 3.3 percent in 2008. Child poverty in Dakota County more than doubled, to 8.2 percent in 2009, while the rate of uninsured residents increased in Washington County from 5 percent in 2008 to 6.7 percent in 2009…”
• Census survey data: Minnesotans’ incomes took a hit in 2009, By Elizabeth Dunbar, September 28, 2010, Minnesota Public Radio: “Minnesotans’ incomes took a hit and more residents were living in poverty in 2009 as the economic recession continued, according to data released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The estimated median household income in Minnesota fell to $55,616 compared to $57,288 in 2008, according to the American Community Survey data, which is calculated from surveys conducted with 2 percent of the U.S. population…”
• Michigan sees sharpest income plunge in nation, By Mike Wilkinson, September 29, 2010, Detroit News: “For most families in Michigan, the long-running recession has meant a simple, unrelenting truth: living with less. And census data released on Tuesday shows how much less — the state’s median household income fell by more than $12,000 over the last decade — the equivalent of trimming $1,000 from a family’s monthly budget. The drop was stunning in both its size and its singularity: No other state came close to losing the estimated 21.3 percent of its median income between 2000 and 2009, and no state endured the 6.5 percent drop seen from 2008 to 2009…”
• Poverty rate jumps locally, By Bill Bush and Rita Price, September 29, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “About half of all pay in Franklin County last year ended up in households with incomes north of $95,000, while those that made less than $20,000 got just over 3percent of the payout, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released yesterday. The comparison, based on cutting the county into fifths by income and looking at the households in the top and bottom 20 percent, comes amid troubling news about poverty and household incomes. The economic downturn pushed tens of thousands of additional Franklin County residents below the poverty line last year. The percentage of county residents living in poverty shot to 18.2 percent in 2009, from 15 percent the year before…”
• Census shows Cleveland is the second-poorest city in the United States, By Robert L. Smith, September 29, 2010, Cleveland Plain Dealer: “Hard times came to every corner of Northeast Ohio during a historic recession, as unemployment and its consequences rippled across the city and suburbs. The hammer of despair landed hardest in Cleveland, where one out of every three people lived in poverty at the end of 2009, making Cleveland the second-poorest big city in America — thank you, Detroit — according to estimates released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The region weathered the Great Recession better than some other metro areas, but poverty rose in every outlying county except Medina, and many felt the pangs of hunger and fear for the first time…”

• State youth show gains in well-being, By Markeshia Ricks, September 28, 2010, Montgomery Advertiser: “Alabama’s children are show­ing improvements in their safe­ty, health and education, but the annual report on their well-be­ing shows there is still a huge amount of work to be done. The 2010 Alabama Kids Count Data Book, which VOICES for Alabama’s Children released to­day, examines data on issues that impact child well-being such as safety, poverty, teen birth rate and preventable teen death — and most of this data did not reflect well on the Mont­gomery area…”
• Survey: Child well-being improves for state, county, By Dana Beyerle, September 27, 2010, Gadsden Times: “Some but not all of the child well-being indicators for Alabama and Etowah County are better than they have been in recent years, the latest Kids Count survey released by Voices for Alabama Children shows. ‘We are making progress in child well-being,’ Linda Tilly, executive director of Voices for Alabama’s Children, said Monday. ‘We’d like to see more, but sometimes economic realities prevent it.’ The 2010 Alabama Kids Count survey, online at www.alavoices.org, provides state and county data that measure child well-being over time. They include school participation and family health issues…”

• Poverty rise stirs debate over aid programs, By Corey Dade, September 16, 2010, National Public Radio: “The recession drove the number of poor Americans in 2009 to its highest total in half a century, yet several measures indicate the impact could well have been worse. While the Census Bureau’s report Thursday on the economic conditions of U.S. households found that 3.8 million more people lived in poverty last year than in 2008, the agency and advocates for the poor say millions of others were sustained with the help of government programs. Advocates cite federal stimulus initiatives aimed at low-income earners and the extension of unemployment benefits, which alone are credited with helping keep 3.3 million people out of poverty…”
• Poverty rate hits 15-year high, U.S. figures show, By Alfred Lubrano, September 17, 2010, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Driven by the relentless recession, the U.S. poverty rate soared to 14.3 percent in 2009, its highest level in 15 years, new government figures show. The rate was up from 13.2 percent in 2008, according to a report the Census Bureau released Thursday. Locally the picture was less dire, with poverty rising slightly to 11.1 percent in Pennsylvania and to 9.3 percent in New Jersey…”
• ‘The new poor’: Poverty reaches historic levels, By Tony Pugh, September 16, 2010, Miami Herald: “The withering recession pushed the number of Americans who are living in poverty to a 51-year high in 2009 and left a record 50.7 million people without health insurance, the Census Bureau said Thursday. The 43.6 million Americans who were poor last year — up from 39.8 million the year before — were the most since poverty estimates were first published in 1959. The national poverty rate of 14.3 percent, up from 13.2 percent in 2008, was the highest since 1994. The bureau also found that median income — the amount at which half of U.S. households earn more or less — had fallen 4.2 percent by 2009 since the recession began in 2007…”
• 1 in 7 in U.S. lives below poverty line, By Don Lee and Alana Semuels, September 17, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “The recession and longer-term economic troubles have pushed the nation’s poverty rate to levels not seen in more than a decade, wiping out gains in the long-running War on Poverty and adding more financial strain to the lives of millions of Americans. New Census Bureau data, released Thursday, also showed that the face of the poor has changed. Those falling below the poverty line today are more likely to be full-time workers who cannot earn enough to meet their needs or middle-class workers driven into the ranks of the poor by lost jobs or shrinking incomes. The higher poverty level - 14.3%, or an increase of nearly 4 million people last year - means higher costs for government programs such as food stamps and unemployment compensation and potentially heavier tax burdens for the country as a whole…”
• The new poor and the almost-poor: Will poverty rate climb more?, By Patrik Jonsson, September 16, 2010, Christian Science Monitor: “Call them the newly poor. They are the 4.8 million people in America who last year joined the ranks of people living in poverty - defined as having less than $22,000 in annual income for a family of four. They are people, probably, much like Reginald O’Neal and his family. Mr. O’Neal and several family members were at the Dekalb County welfare department here on Thursday, trying to get help to turn the electricity back on at their house. ‘If you were to see our house, you’d think we were middle class,’ says the 20-something Atlantan. ‘But that would be missing the point: Lately, we’re poor…’”
• US adds 3.8 million more to ranks of the poor as poverty rate jumps, By Ron Scherer, September 16, 2010, Christian Science Monitor: “The deepest recession in modern times has sharply increased the ranks of the poor during the past year, with 1 in 7 people in America officially counted as living in poverty. The news from a US Census Bureau report released Thursday underscores how deeply the Great Recession has affected the nation’s standard of living. The key findings of report, which compared income, poverty rate, and health-care insurance coverage in 2009 with 2008 numbers, include the following…”
• Despite recession, seniors see income gains, By Dennis Cauchon and Richard Wolf, September 17, 2010, USA Today: “Senior citizens are enjoying some of the biggest income gains in decades at a time when every other age group is losing ground in the recession, the Census Bureau reported Thursday. The 31 million households headed by people 65 and older saw their median income rise by a healthy 5.8% in 2009 after inflation and 7.1% since the recession began in December 2007. Every other age group has suffered income losses of at least 4% during the recession, the data show…”
• Not quite poor, but struggling: Do seniors need their own poverty index?, By Matt O’Brien, September 16, 2010, Contra Costa Times: “The proportion of America’s seniors living in poverty dropped last year to just under 9 percent, a hopeful statistic in an otherwise dismal report on poverty released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. Local senior advocates, however, say the numbers mask some of the financial struggles older residents face living in the Bay Area, where the cost of living is high…”
• Poverty rise reflects toll of recession, By Bill Bush and Rita Price, September 17, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “They didn’t earn much, but for most of their marriage, the Bowens had enough. ‘We could afford to go out and eat once in a while, do the stuff that families do,’ Carolyn Bowen said. ‘Now, we can’t even go for ice cream.’ The math no longer works: Ron Bowen lost a job that paid $20 an hour and, after eight months of unemployment, finally found another - cleaning offices for $9.50 an hour. The Bowens and their children have joined 43.6million other Americans - about one in seven - who live in an uncertain place where groceries are bought with government-issued benefit cards and bills might not be paid. A U.S. Census Bureau report released yesterday put the nation’s official poverty rate at 14.3 percent last year, up from 13.2 percent in 2008. It hasn’t been higher since 1994, but is still 8.1 percentage points lower than in 1959, the first year for which estimates are available…”
• A descent into poverty for millions, By Warren Wolfe and Jeremy Olson, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “Ramsey County human services planner Jim Anderson didn’t need Thursday’s census report to know that poverty has climbed sharply since the economy collapsed in 2008. Last month he turned away 59 adults with 126 children seeking emergency shelter for families. In a report that confirmed what experts like Anderson have sensed, the U.S. Census Bureau said Thursday that the nation’s poverty rate shot to 14.3 percent last year, the highest in 16 years, and that one in five American children were living below the poverty line. Household incomes also stagnated, and the number of people without health insurance reached an all-time high of 51 million. The report suggested that in Minnesota, too, poverty is on the rise…”
• Poverty in Hawaii highest since ‘97, By Mary Vorsino, September 17, 2010, Honolulu Star-Advertiser: “Thousands more Hawaii residents fell into poverty last year, driving up the rate here to its highest level since 1997, Census Bureau figures released yesterday show. The poverty rate in Hawaii rose to 12.5 percent in 2009 — with more than 156,000 people living below the poverty line — the third consecutive year the state saw growing numbers of impoverished people. In 2007, 7.5 percent of the state’s population was below the poverty line. In 2008, the number rose to 9.9 percent — or 125,000 people…”
• Michigan’s poverty rate hits 14%, highest level in 16 years, By Mike Wilkinson and Catherine Jun, September 17, 2010, Detroit News: “Michigan’s poverty rate last year reached a 16-year high as the full effects of the recession continued to sweep across the country, according to a report issued Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The state’s poverty rate in 2009 rose to 14 percent, up from 13 percent in 2008. That’s 1.4 million people in poverty. In 2000, the rate was 9.9 percent. Data further showed the Midwest — plagued by job losses in manufacturing — was hit the hardest in median income, falling to its lowest point since 1994. But the region didn’t suffer alone. Nationally, the number of poor climbed to the highest level since the 1960s, leaving one in seven Americans in poverty, the report said…”
• Poverty at a 51-year high in the U.S., By Renée C. Lee, September 17, 2010, Houston Chronicle: “More than 43 million Americans lived in poverty last year, the largest number in 51 years, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The figure pushes the national poverty rate to 14.3 percent, up from 13.2 percent in 2008, statistics released Thursday show. In Texas, there were about 4.3 million people living in poverty in 2009, increasing the state’s poverty rate to 17.3 percent, up from 15.9 percent the prior year. County numbers won’t be available until later this month, but local social service agencies say they expect them to reflect what’s happening at the national and state level…”
• Texas seeks answers to rising poverty rate, By Robert T. Garrett and Kim Horner, September 17, 2010, Dallas Morning News: “The government announced Thursday that nearly 4.3 million Texans lived in poverty last year, a whopping 11 percent increase. Larry James and Jill Cumnock absorbed the news many months ago. They run charities that feed and tend a swelling group of poor North Texans, and they say demand has gone up by at least 25 percent, and in some cases has doubled, since the economy took a dive in 2008. ‘The need is going up, that’s for sure,’ said James, president and chief executive of Central Dallas Ministries. He said his nonprofit is on track to feed, house and assist as many as 48,000 people this year - up from 43,000 last year and 34,000 two years ago…”
• One-time working men now the ‘fresh face of poverty’, By Rick Montgomery, September 16, 2010, Kansas City Star: “The nation’s poverty rate rose sharply last year and the ranks of the uninsured swelled by 10 percent, according to new government figures. Just further evidence, in cold numbers, of how the second year of the Great Recession sent working men such as Matt Stephens spiraling. He and hundreds of others lined up this week for free lunches at the Wilhelmina Gill Multi-Service Center in Kansas City, Kan. Stephens, 45, spent a year in college after high school, then attended trade school, drove a truck for pay and also worked in his family’s insulation business…”

• Child poverty fight threatened by west’s cost cuts, says Unicef, By Larry Elliott, September 7, 2010, The Guardian: “The United Nations warned today that the patchy global struggle to lift children out of poverty was being threatened by budget cuts in the west, soaring food prices and climate change. In a report prepared for a New York summit this month to measure progress in meeting the 2015 millennium development goals, Unicef said the pressures on aid budgets would have knock-on effects in the world’s poorest countries. ‘Fiscal constraints in industrialised economies will likely have reverberations for developing nations, particularly those dependent on external assistance,’ the report noted. ‘Fiscal retrenchment may undermine social progress, particularly if the global recovery is uneven and halting.’ It added: ‘The austerity measures currently being introduced in some European Union countries call for sharp cuts in spending, and it is not fully clear how these reductions will affect child-related expenditures, either at home or abroad…”
• UNICEF refocuses on poorest of poor children, By Anita Snow (AP), September 6, 2010, Washington Post: “The U.N. children’s agency says it has failed to reach millions of the world’s neediest boys and girls in slums and remote countryside and is shifting to a strategy of getting critical health care services to the poorest of the poor. UNICEF’s new approach would likely concentrate more on such initiatives as training rural health workers and building schools in remote areas, and less on building big modern hospitals and universities in cities, said Charlie MacCormack of the non-governmental Save the Children, which UNICEF consulted. It would cost less but also demand more planning and effort, he said…”

Kentucky kids’ status worsens, report says, By Deborah Yetter, August 31, 2010, Louisville Courier-Journal: “The nation’s economic problems continue to make life harder for Kentucky’s youngest residents, according to a new report by Kentucky Youth Advocates. ‘That should ring an alarm bell for everyone,’ said Terry Brooks, executive director of the non-profit research and advocacy group. ‘It calls for some action.’ The 2010 annual ‘Kentucky Kids Count’ report - released Tuesday - noted that unemployment in Kentucky reached 10.5 percent last year, the state’s highest rate since 1983. Almost one-third of the state’s families in which a parent is employed are considered low-income, or ‘working poor’ and nearly one-fourth of Kentucky children - 23 percent - were living in poverty in 2008, the report found.Kentucky Kids Count is a more detailed follow-up to the national ‘Kids Count’ produced by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which ranks all states on basic measures of child well-being. Kentucky ranked 40th and Indiana 33rd in this year’s report, released in late July…”

Growing up poor can affect brain development, By Mark Roth, August 1, 2010, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “A classic public service ad showed a man holding an egg and saying, ‘This is your brain,’ and then dropping its contents into a sizzling frying pan and saying, ‘This is your brain on drugs.’ Today, it may be time to come up with an image for an even more damaging social time bomb: ‘This is your brain on poverty.’ Studies emerging from around the nation are showing that growing up in a low-income household can have a direct impact on the organization and function of the brain. Living in a poor home has been linked to people having trouble forming memories, difficulty focusing attention, hypersensitivity to stress, problems with delaying gratification and even being stifled in overall intelligence. In the midst of these gloomy reports, however, is a silver lining: It appears that if parents can provide warm, consistent nurturing, they can counteract many of the effects of too little money, too little food and too little safety — the ingredients that often make up an impoverished childhood. But doing that is a challenge…”

• More children living in poverty in Kentucky, Indiana, annual survey shows, By Deborah Yetter, July 26, 2010, Louisville Courier-Journal: “The number of children living in poverty has increased in Kentucky and Indiana, following a national trend of high unemployment and growing poverty in families, according to the latest ‘Kid Count,’ an annual state-by-state survey of child well-being by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The numbers are alarming because of the adverse effect poverty has on children’s health and achievement, said Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, which contributed to the annual report…”
• Well-being of kids falters, By Robert King, July 27, 2010, Indianapolis Star: “There’s little doubt among experts that the Great Recession has been a blow to children, with their parents losing jobs, their families losing health insurance and cash-strapped governments cutting programs that serve children. But the latest statistical assessment of the well-being of children — the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2010 Kids Count report — shows Hoosier kids were struggling before the recession took hold…”
• More Ohio kids living with single parents, By Catherine Candisky, July 27, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “Nearly three of every four black children in Ohio live with only one parent, usually their mother - a rate almost three times higher than that of white youngsters. In all, 34 percent of Ohio children, or 870,000 youngsters, reside in single-parent households. That’s a 10 percent increase from a decade ago; only 10 states, all in the South, are worse, according to a report released today…”
• Michigan kids’ well-being slips, U.S. report reveals, By Catherine Jun, July 27, 2010, Detroit News: “Job insecurity and infant mortality rates in Michigan hover above the national average, pushing Michigan’s ranking in child well-being to its lowest level in more than a decade, according to the national Kids Count report released today. The report, which ranked Michigan 21st-worst for child well-being in the nation, showed that 31 percent of children in 2008 lived in families where no parent had full-time, year-round employment, compared with the national rate of 27 percent…”
• Wisconsin 10th for child well-being, study shows, By Tia Ghose, July 27, 2010, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Wisconsin ranks 10th in the nation for child well-being, according to a study by the Annie E. Casey Foundation released Tuesday. The study, called Kids Count, combined data from the 2008 American Community Survey and several federal and local health statistics. Wisconsin has consistently placed between 10th and 14th for the last decade. The state stood out in its performance on education. Wisconsin ranked fourth in the percentage of teens who attend school or have graduated, and fifth in the percentage of teens who were either working or in school…”
• Child welfare improving in Missouri, holds steady in Illinois, By Nancy Cambria, July 28, 2010, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “Missouri children gained slight ground in a national study ranking the quality of life of kids in all 50 states. The Annie E. Casey Foundation released on Tuesday its 2010 Kids Count, an annual analysis of child welfare statistics around the nation. Missouri ranked 31st among all states, an improvement from last year’s 33rd spot. Illinois ranked 24th, the same as last year…”
• Minnesota still No. 2 in kids’ health but…, By Jeremy Olson, July 25, 2010, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “For the sixth time in nine years, Minnesota was the second-healthiest state for children when evaluating rates of deaths, teen pregnancies, high school dropouts and child poverty, a new national ranking indicates. Still, the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s annual Kids Count report, released Monday, was hardly celebrated by child advocates in the state, who fear Minnesota’s poverty rate — higher than a decade ago — could undermine its success…”
• More children living in poverty in N.D. and Minnesota, By Ryan Johnson, July 28, 2010, Grand Forks Herald: “The number of children living in poverty rose in both Minnesota and North Dakota in recent years, according to a new report released this week. The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 21st annual Kids Count report tracks 10 categories of children’s health from 2000 to 2008, ranking states based on how well they did in those factors. New Hampshire took the No. 1 spot in the country, and Minnesota closely followed to get ranked No. 2 for the second consecutive year. North Dakota’s ranking slipped to No. 12 overall, down from No. 7 in 2009’s report…”
• Utah No. 4 in national child well-being report, By Jasen Lee, July 27, 2010, Deseret News: “Being a child in Utah is better than being a child in almost every other state in the country, a new report shows. According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s annual Kids Count Data Book, a national and state-by-state report that includes key measures and statistical trends on the condition of America’s children and families, Utah ranked fourth overall this year - a drop from third in last year’s data book. However, the Beehive State saw improvements in several major indicators studied in the report…”
• Texas has 3rd-highest teen birthrate among states, study says, By Jan Jarvis, July 26, 2010, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: ” Texas has the third-highest teen birthrate in the nation, according to an annual study that ranked the state in the overall well-being of children. Sixty-four of 1,000 births were to teenage mothers, far higher than the national rate of 43 births per 1,000, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2010 Kids Count Data Book. The rate puts Texas 48th among the 50 states in teen births, better than only New Mexico and Mississippi. But it is an improvement over last year, when the state was the worst in the country…”
• Report: Well-being of state’s kids improves, but poverty rates soar, By Barbara Cotter, July 27, 2010, Colorado Springs Gazette: “Colorado has improved its standing as a place where children can thrive, according to a national study released Tuesday, but researchers note that data used to evaluate the 50 states on the well-being of their kids predate the economic downturn that began in 2008. According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a Baltimore-based organization focused on public policy that affects children and families, Colorado’s ranking improved from 22nd in the 2009 report to 20 in the 2010 report. The rankings are based on 10 key indicators that measure how each state’s children are faring…”
• N.J. ranks high in Kids Count survey for children’s health, education, By Susan K. Livio, July 27, 2010, Star-Ledger: “New Jersey is an expensive place to live, but with its competitive public school system and access to health programs for working poor families, it’s also a good place to raise and educate children, according to the latest Kids Count nationwide survey of child health, wealth and well-being. According to the annual survey, scheduled for release today, New Jersey ranks seventh overall in terms of child health, an improvement from the last year’s study when the state placed ninth…”
• Georgia still failing its kids, says report, By Craig Schneider, July 27, 2010, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Georgia once again stands among the 10 worst states for the care of its children, and some worry that the state has become complacent about its poor performance in such areas as infant mortality, child deaths and low birth-weight babies. The state lags behind the national average on every one of the 10 measures in the 2010 Kids Count data book, a compilation of state and federal information that will be released today…”
• Child health report uses pre-recession data, By Emily Bregel, July 27, 2010, Chattanooga Times Free Press: “Child advocates in Tennessee and Georgia say a recent ranking of states based on child well-being may be painting a too-rosy picture. The ranking is based on data collected before the economic recession unleashed a wave of unemployment and budget cuts, the advocates say…”
• Alabama still ranks low in Kids Count data, By Jeff Hansen, July 27, 2010, Birmingham News: “Alabama and much of the Southeast continue to lag the rest of the United States in measures of child well-being, according to today’s release of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2010 Kids Count data book. Alabama ranks 47th this year, according to 10 measures of childhood health, poverty, education and family issues. Alabama’s place near the bottom is no surprise: In the last nine rankings, the state has been 48th six times, 47th twice and 43rd once…”
• Md. remains middle of the pack in child well-being, By Brent Jones, July 27, 2010, Baltimore Sun: “As the state continues to struggle with a high infant mortality rate that undercuts its relative wealth, Maryland’s overall rank in child well-being remained in the middle of the pack nationally, according to an annual report released by the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation. The 2010 Kids Count Databook released Tuesday placed Maryland 25th in overall child well-being, the same ranking as a year ago. Although Maryland has the second-lowest percentage of children living in poverty (10 percent), the state placed 42nd in infant mortality rate, a statistical discrepancy that puzzled the report’s authors…”

Report: Child-poverty rate increases 50 percent in Colorado, By Colleen O’Connor, July 26, 2010, Denver Post: “The rate of Colorado children living in poverty increased 50 percent between 2000 and 2008, compared with a 6 percent increase nationwide, according to 2010 Kids Count Data Book, an annual report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation that tracks how states have progressed - or regressed - over time in protecting the well-being of children. ‘What struck us most about this report is the percent of children living in poverty in Colorado has risen so dramatically, compared to the nation,’ said Lisa Piscopo, KidsCount director for the Colorado Children’s Campaign. Piscopo attributed the dramatic increase in child poverty to ‘a rise in cost of living without a comparable rise in wages, the number of dropouts, changing demographics and an inability on Colorado’s part to recover from the recession of 2001.’ In 2008, about 179,409 Colorado children, or about 15 percent, lived in poverty, up from 104,214, or 10 percent, in 2000. That rate compares with 18 percent nationally, up from 17 percent in 2000…”

• Fewer hungry children getting free summer meals, By Mary Clare Jalonick (AP), June 29, 2010, Washington Post: “Hungry children looking for a free meal this summer may not be able to find one. States and cities have cut funding for summer meal programs as need has skyrocketed, according to a new report from an anti-hunger group that tracked the program in 2009. Budget woes that have left many families hungry are also affecting local governments that find themselves without the needed dollars to feed children while they are out of school. ‘Low-income children across the country clearly bore the brunt of budget cuts,’ said Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, which compiled the report released Tuesday. Summer nutrition programs aim to feed children who get most of their nutrition - or sometimes their only real meal of the day - at school. The food research group measures the effectiveness of those summer programs by comparing the number of low-income children receiving meals during the summer with those receiving free and reduced-price school meals during the school year…”
• Study: Fewer low-income kids getting summer school meals, June 29, 2010, CNN.com: “Many summer food programs have been slashed during the recession leaving low-income children with fewer options, a report by the Food Research and Action Center said Tuesday. The budget cuts reduced participation in summer school food programs across the nation over the past years, the anti-hunger group said. This drop in participation comes at a time when more and more families need these food programs, the Center said…”

Poverty trumps education gains, By Jane Roberts, July 1, 2010, Memphis Commercial Appeal: “Tennessee has made the most gains of any state in high school graduation rates, jumping 13 percentage points between 2002 and 2007. The state also is making measurable gains against other key education benchmarks. State ACT scores have increased from 19.9 in 1999 to 20.6 in 2009. Standards for school principals make the state a regional leader, and new high school graduates in Tennessee are enrolling in college at a higher rate than their U.S. peers. But the increasing number of children growing up in poverty threatens improvements, according to a Challenge to Lead report released Wednesday by the Southern Regional Education Board. In 2009, 55 percent of Tennessee youngsters came from homes where family incomes made them eligible for free school lunches (up to $40,793 for a family of four), a 14 percent increase in 10 years…”

Report: Over 115 million widows live in poverty, By Edith M. Lederer (AP), June 23, 2010, Washington Post: “At least 245 million women around the world have been widowed and more than 115 million of them live in devastating poverty, according to a new study launched Tuesday night by Cherie Blair, wife of the former British prime minister. The most dire consequences are faced by 2 million Afghan widows and at least 740,000 Iraqi widows who lost their husbands as a result of the ongoing conflicts; by widows and their children evicted from their family homes in sub-Saharan Africa; by elderly widows caring for grandchildren orphaned by the HIV/AIDS crisis, and by child widows aged 7 to 17 in developing countries, the report said…”

• More children held in grip of poverty, By Bill Ruthhart and Will Higgins, June 22, 2010, Indianapolis Star: “At its inaugural summer Breakfast Club program a year ago, the Lord’s Pantry served seven hungry people. Earlier this month, the program’s summer kickoff meal drew three times as many, 17 of them children. The increase in demand for food at the Breakfast Club reflects the increase in poverty nationally, especially children in poverty. Nationally, 22 percent of American children will be living in poverty this year, according to a new study. And a local expert says that rate likely is similar in Indiana. ‘There are lots of kids in this neighborhood, and a lot of them need some help,’ said Julie Molloy, who runs the pantry that serves Stringtown families on the Near Westside. The analysis by the nonprofit Foundation for Child Development found that two years after the recession began to ravage the U.S. economy, children are living on the edge at a rate not equaled in two decades…”
• Report says one in 10 Terrebonne children lives in extreme poverty, By Naomi King, June 18, 2010, Houma Courier: “Children in Lafourche Parish are more likely to live in extreme poverty than in Terrebonne, according to a report released this week by the Southern Education Foundation. The report says 14.3 percent of children lived in extreme poverty in Lafourche Parish in 2008, while 9.9 percent of children in Terrebonne lived in extreme poverty that same year. That’s about one in seven kids in Lafourche and one in 10 children in Terrebonne. Louisiana’s extreme poverty rate will only grow, local and regional child-care officials say, because of lingering effects of the national recession and the ongoing oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, which has prevented fishermen from harvesting and led the federal government to ban new deepwater drilling…”

Children in poverty worsens, By John Lyons, June 11, 2010, Fort Smith Times Record: “More Arkansas children are living in poverty now than a generation ago, according to a report released Thursday. Based on 2008 data, 24.9 percent of Arkansas children live in poverty, compared to 22.6 percent 31 years ago, Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families reports in ‘Child Poverty in Arkansas 2010: A Deepening Problem.’ The report draws on U.S. Census data and uses the federal poverty level. In 2008, a family of four earning less than $21,000 a year was considered to be living in poverty. In 1979, a family of four earning less than $7,412 was considered poor. The report notes that Arkansas’ child poverty rate is higher than the national rate of 18.2 percent…”

More than 1 in 5 kids live in poverty, By Liz Szabo, June 8, 2010, USA Today: “The rate of children living in poverty this year will climb to nearly 22%, the highest rate in two decades, according to an analysis by the non-profit Foundation for Child Development. Nearly 17% of children were living in poverty in 2006, before the recession began. The foundation’s Child and Youth Well-Being Index tracks 28 key statistics about children, such as health insurance coverage, parents’ employment, infant mortality and preschool enrollment. The report projects that the percentage of children living in families with an ‘insecure’ source of food has risen from about 17% in 2007 to nearly 18% in 2010, an increase of 750,000 children. Up to 500,000 children may be homeless this year, living either in shelters or places not meant for habitation…”

• Atlantic and Cumberland counties rank last in Kids Count ‘well-being’ survey, By Juliet Fletcher, June 7, 2010, Press of Atlantic City: “Children growing up in Atlantic County face greater challenges to their health and welfare than in any other county statewide, a new analysis says. The Association for Children of New Jersey, or ACNJ, which publishes an annual Kids Count study evaluating 16 factors that affect children’s well-being, ranks counties every three years to reflect children’s relative advantages and disadvantages in health, safety, education and economic circumstances. This year, Atlantic County dropped to last place in the ranking, as the study’s authors warned that the worst effects of the economic recession were not yet reflected in its data and predicted a further slide in the next report. Cumberland County placed next to last…”
• Study finds economy directly influences N.J. children’s well-being, By Meredith Galante, June 7, 2010, Star-Ledger: “A study released today on New Jersey children’s well-being illustrates how the economy is compromising New Jersey families’ abilities to provide and care for their children. The 2010 Kids Count report, released by the Association for Children of New Jersey, saw the most drastic changes in the 16 indicators it monitors in unemployment rates, children living below the poverty line and housing costs…”

Quarter of children in Scotland in ‘persistent’ poverty, By Reevel Alderson, April 29, 2010, BBC News: “The Scottish government has been urged to change the way it tackles the problem of child poverty. A series of studies it has published reveals poverty may be more serious for many families than had been previously believed. Researchers with Growing Up in Scotland, who tracked the experiences of 8,000 families, said a quarter of children were ‘persistently poor’. They said government measures to deal with the problem needed to be targeted. Eradicating child poverty is a commitment of both the Westminster and Holyrood governments…”

Aid programs cut as child poverty rises, By Larry Cow, April 18, 2010, Citizen of Laconia: “Helping children out of poverty isn’t just a feel-good measure, it’s an investment, according to Dean Crocker, the president of the Maine Children’s Alliance. The need for investment - from government and private sources - is growing. According to the 2010 Maine Kids Count Report, compiled by the Maine Children’s Alliance and the Annie E. Casey Foundation, child poverty in the state continues to rise. Combating child poverty is ‘a critical investment in the economy,’ Crocker said. ‘We just need everyone to understand that.’ According to the report, which tracked trends in 2008, the number of pre-school aged children living in households below the poverty threshold was at 21.8 percent in 2008, up from 19.4 percent the previous year. Meanwhile, the national rate for children under 5 living in poverty is at 21.2 percent. The federal poverty level for a two-parent family of four was $21,834 for 2008; families earning less are identified as living in poverty. The report also found that 38 percent of children in the state live in a low-income household, defined as a family that makes less than twice the federal poverty threshold. In New Hampshire, 9 percent of children were identified as living in poverty according to that state’s 2009 Kids Count, the latest available. New Granite State data is due to be published later this year…”

R.I. Kids Count says absenteeism is a key problem, By Lisqa Borg, April 12, 2010, Providence Journal: “In Rhode Island, almost one in four children in the early grades missed 12 or more days of school - and in Providence, one in five children missed 18 or more days of school. In its latest annual report, Rhode Island Kids Count, a child advocacy group, looked at the obstacles that prevent a child from learning at the beginning of his or her academic career and at the end. The organization this year looked at five new measures of a child’s well-being, from school enrollments to youth violence. Rhode Island Kids Count is to release its latest fact book Monday at 8 a.m. at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Warwick. Kids Count zeroed in on chronic absenteeism, defined as missing at least 18 days of school, because studies have shown that success in the early grades sets a child up for success or failure later on. Children who miss a lot of school in kindergarten show lower levels of achievement in math, reading and general knowledge by the time they reach first grade…”

• Child poverty skyrockets in Colorado, By Allison Sherry, April 13, 2010, Denver Post: “Colorado has the fastest-growing child-poverty rate in the nation - a distinction attributed to a burgeoning number of poor in Denver’s suburbs and a widening gap between Latino and non-Latino income. While the state ranked 22nd nationally, Colorado’s child-poverty rate has climbed 72 percent since 2000, according to KIDS COUNT in Colorado, an annual report by the Colorado Children’s Campaign. Much of that increase is among the state’s growing Latino population, according to the data. The state’s non-Latinos are actually higher income than the national average, but Latinos in Colorado are among the poorest in the nation. In other words, Colorado’s large income gap between Latinos and non-Latinos is creating what advocates say is a ‘tale of two Colorados…’”
• Report: Colorado has fastest-growing child poverty rate in U.S., By Barbara Cotter, April 13, 2010, Colorado Springs Gazette: “The number of children living in poverty has been growing faster in Colorado than anywhere else in the nation, and the gap between the haves and have-nots is widening, according to a report released today by the nonprofit Colorado Children’s Campaign. The report, 2010 Kids Count in Colorado, says the number of children living at or below the federal poverty level of about $22,000 for a family of four rose 72 percent between 2000 and 2008. Paradoxically, Colorado ranked in the middle of the pack — No. 22 — in overall child well-being, which takes health, education and other social and economic factors into consideration. The reason, the report says, is the growing disparity between children who are doing well and those who aren’t…”

City will stop paying the poor for good behavior, By Julie Bosman, March 30, 2010, New York Times: “An unusual and much-heralded program that gave poor families cash to encourage good behavior and self-sufficiency has so far had only modest effects on their lives and economic situation, according to an analysis the Bloomberg administration released on Tuesday. The three-year-old pilot project, the first of its kind in the country, gave parents payments for things like going to the dentist ($100) or holding down a full-time job ($150 per month). Children were rewarded for attending school regularly ($25 to $50 per month) or passing a high school Regents exam ($600). When the mayor announced the program, he said it would begin with private money and, if it worked, could be transformed into an ambitious permanent government program…”