Webinar Details
Date: Thursday, March 5
Time: 11:00-11:30 AM PST

Kidsdata.org recently compiled data on Safeguards for Youth to highlight important protective factors and supportive services for California children. Learn about the Safeguards for Youth framework and where to easily access these data. Also, hear from a specialist at the Child Abuse Prevention Center about adopting a prevention mind-set and using trauma-informed practices to address adversity among children. Speakers will be available for questions immediately after the 30-minute briefing.

Speakers

Lori Turk-Bicakci, PhD
Director, Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health

Lori Turk-Bicakci is director of the Kidsdata program. Dr. Turk-Bicakci ensures that data and information on kidsdata.org are high-quality, relevant, and user-friendly, and she works with researchers and advocates across California to address key children’s health issues. Before joining the Foundation, Dr. Turk-Bicakci was a senior researcher at American Institutes for Research. She has extensive experience with data collection, analysis, and reporting for education, social services, and other research projects that support children’s long-term health and development. Prior to her work in research, Dr. Turk-Bicakci was a middle school social studies teacher.

Troy Nichols
Senior Training and Consulting Specialist, The Child Abuse Prevention Center

Troy Nichols provides consulting, coaching, and training for programs, organizations, networks, and systems that provide services to children youth, families and communities. He has expertise and provides consulting support and training in the areas of community impact, strengthening families, youth engagement, trauma informed approaches, cultural proficiency/equity & inclusion and supporting father involvement. Over his 28-year career he has worked in various areas of the field including, foster care, adoption independent living, mentoring and policy creation/implementation. Troy currently is the Senior Training and Consulting Specialist for Strategies 2.0 which is a contract held by the Child Abuse Prevention Center of Sacramento funded by the California Office of Child Abuse Prevention. He is also an adjunct professor at California State University, Sacramento in the Family and Consumer Sciences department.

Posted by kidsdata.org

California Infants Whose Mothers Received Prenatal Care in the First Trimester: 2016

Preventive health care is important to safeguarding our youth, from routine medical and dental visits to receiving care in a medical home. For expectant mothers, prenatal care is one of the first steps to protecting her child’s long-term health and well-being. During early prenatal care visits, health professionals can identify and resolve medical problems, refer women to services for non-medical issues, and provide general health education. Mothers who receive prenatal care in the first trimester increase their baby’s chances of a healthy birth and infancy.

In California, 84% of infants were born in 2016 to mothers who had received prenatal care during the first trimester. However, in some parts of California, far smaller proportions of mothers are receiving prenatal care. Just under half of babies in Modoc County and under two-thirds of babies in seven additional counties were born to mothers who received early prenatal care.

First trimester prenatal care differs by race/ethnicity. In 2016, 70% of babies born to American Indian/Alaskan Native mothers and 79% of babies born to African American/Black mothers received early prenatal care. These rates are lower than for babies born to mothers who were Hispanic/Latina, Asian/Pacific Islander or white.

Preventive Health Care Data

These data are a part of Safeguards for Youth, a compilation of the latest data on protective factors and supportive services that promote California children’s health and well-being. Learn more at kidsdata.org/Safeguards.

Insurance

• Health Insurance Coverage
• Medicaid (Medi-Cal) or CHIP Coverage, by City, School District and County
• Medicaid (Medi-Cal) and CHIP Yearly Enrollment (California & U.S. Only)
• Medi-Cal Average Monthly Enrollment

Medical Home

• Receipt of Care Within a Medical Home

Perinatal Infant Care

• Infants Whose Mothers Received Prenatal Care in the First Trimester
• In-Hospital Breastfeeding of Newborns

Wellness Practices

• Length of Time Since Last Routine Health Check-Up
• Length of Time Since Last Dental Visit
• Kindergartners with All Required Immunizations
• Kindergartners with Immunization Exemptions
• Healthy Food Choices Provided at School
• Physical Education and Activity Opportunities at School
• Substance Abuse Prevention Is an Important Goal at School
• Substance Use Prevention Education Is Provided at School

Related Resource

The Strong Start Index helps policymakers and service providers understand the conditions into which babies are born all across California. It is comprised of twelve indicators including timely prenatal care and healthy weight at birth. The latest iteration includes 2017 data as well as breakdowns by race/ethnicity and city and federal legislative districts. In addition, users can gain an improved understanding of differences based on significance testing. This resource is provided by the Children’s Data Network (CDN) and the First 5 Association of California.

Recently Released Data

We recently released data about Child Care and Child Abuse. See links to the latest here.

Posted by kidsdata.org

Net Undercount Risk for Young Children (Ages 0-4)
by Census Tract San Francisco

The census informs much of the data we share with you. A well-known challenge is that children are hard to count, some more than others. Guest author, Beth Jarosz from the Population Reference Bureau (PRB), discusses the importance of the census for children and the challenge of counting children accurately. She also shares a useful resource that predicts the hardest to count areas in California. Let’s all help ensure an accurate count on April 1, 2020.

Importance of Counting All Children in the 2020 Census

Every ten years, the United States counts the population of the nation, states, counties, and neighborhoods. This decennial census is so important that the U.S. Constitution requires it. Decennial census data are the foundation for political representation and redistricting but also have a wide variety of other important uses that impact children.

Funding allocation: Census data are used to allocate billions of dollars of federal funds each year. Much of that funding directly benefits children through programs such as Head Start, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and the National School Lunch Program, which reimburses schools for free and reduced-price meals provided to eligible children.

Planning, policy, and programmatic decisions: Decennial census data also influence local policy and planning decision-making. For example, by tracking the number of children in a community, officials can anticipate the need for new classrooms or schools.

Calculating rates: Census data serve as the foundation for the population data (decennial census counts, intercensal estimates, and projections) that we use to calculate rates, such as the teen birth rate, child/youth death rates by age, and child/youth death rates by race/ethnicity.

Benchmarking surveys: The census is crucial for surveys – American Community Survey, California Health Interview Survey, National Survey of Children’s Health, and others – because the population data gathered in the census forms the framework for collecting and weighting the data in those surveys.

Counting the Entire Population Accurately is a Challenge

While the goal of the 2020 Census is to count every person once, only once, and in the right place, counting more than 300 million people across nearly 3.8 million square miles is a considerable challenge. Despite the best efforts and careful planning of Census Bureau staff, the direct, physical enumeration of the U.S. population is imperfect. Some people may get counted more than once. For example, children in shared custody living arrangements may be counted more than once, and youth away at college may be counted at both their college and parental home. Some people may not get counted at all—people who lack a permanent address or who move frequently are at higher risk of being missed in the census.

Young children are most at risk of being missed. In 2010, the Census Bureau estimated that their total overcount was fairly small (about 36,000 people, or 0.1 percent of the population), but over/under-counts varied by age, race/ethnicity, and other characteristics. Both the 2000 and 2010 Censuses tended to undercount young children, renters, and some racial/ethnic groups, and to overcount older people, non-Hispanic white people, and homeowners.

Where Might Children be Missed in the Census?

PRB evaluated the characteristics of counties where children were undercounted in previous censuses. These characteristics include a higher-than-average:

• Percent of children living in female-headed households.
• Percent of households that are linguistically isolated.
• Percent of young children living with grandparent householders.
• Percent of young children living in immigrant families.

New Resource for Addressing Census Undercount

PRB, using data provided by the Census Bureau, developed a new measure of undercount risk by neighborhood (referred to as census tracts) around the country and then categorized these communities based on the risk of undercount for young children.

To help communities identify these high risk areas and provide guidance for outreach and services that may help ensure a complete count, PRB has made these data available through an online and interactive Hard to Count 2020 Map application. This was developed by the CUNY Mapping Service at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center.

An example is shown above. In San Francisco County, we can identify in which tracts counting young children ages 0 to 4 will be particularly difficult.

Additional Resources

You can learn more about the factors associated with undercount and about nationwide efforts to count all kids. You can also find out how to get involved directly in California’s Complete Count efforts.

Posted by kidsdata.org

Register for the webinar below.

Safeguards for Youth is a compilation of the latest data on promoting California children’s health and well-being. The data describe protective factors and supportive services, both of which are critical to building a solid foundation for life and addressing the effects of childhood adversity. Protective factors highlight the importance of preventive health care, a strong start in education, and a nurturing school community. Supportive services address adverse experiences such as health challenges, abuse, and family poverty. These data stress the urgency for advocacy and policy change to safeguard California’s future generations.
Explore these safeguards, identify disparities in your community, and take action. Most data are available by county, city, school district, or legislative district. Many indicators are also available by demographic groups. These data come from fifteen reputable sources including the California Department of Education, California Department of Health Care Services, National Survey of Children’s Health, and California Healthy Kids Survey.

Key findings about California children:

Protective Factors

• Preventive Health Care: Less than half of children, 43%, received coordinated, ongoing, and comprehensive care within a medical home in 2016-2017.
• Strong Start in Education: About 3% of licensed child care centers offered evening, weekend, or overnight care in 2017.
• Nurturing School Community: About 38% of 7th graders and 27% of 9th graders reported having a high degree of caring relationships with adults at school in 2015-2017.

Supportive Services

• Support for Health Challenges: Among children ages 0-17 who were hospitalized in 2017, the largest proportion of discharges, 14%, were for mental health issues.
• Services to Address Abuse: Over 59,000 children ages 0-20 were in foster care in 2018.
• Programs for Families in Poverty: The child poverty rate would have been 14% higher in 2014-2016 without social safety net programs.

See the complete list of Safeguards for Youth indicators »

Related Webinar

Coming Up!

Join us on March 5 to learn more about the data. We will discuss the importance of adopting a prevention mind-set and using trauma-informed practices to avert and address adversity among children. Learn more and register.

Posted by kidsdata.org

Kidsdata is starting off the new year with optimism and determination. Our commitment to elevating children’s health and well-being across all California policies, programs, and services is unwavering. We recently updated 124 indicators across six topics that can inform advocacy efforts, needs assessments, grant proposals, and more. A summary of the latest data is available below. See the full list of recently released data here.

Emotional and Behavioral Health

• Children’s Emotional Health includes hospitalizations for mental health issues and depression-related feelings.
• Youth Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drug Use includes usage by gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, parent education level, and school connectedness level.
• Youth Suicide and Self-Inflicted Injury includes suicide ideation and suicides.

Family Economics

• Family Income and Poverty includes the supplemental poverty measure, self-sufficiency standard, and CalWORKs participation.

Physical Health

• Asthma includes asthma diagnoses and hospitalizations.
• Health Care includes usual source of health care, delay in care, emergency room visits, insurance coverage, school health care centers, and care within a medical home.

We continually update data throughout the year. Sign up for data alerts to be informed as soon as the topics, regions, or demographic groups that interest you most become available.

Posted by kidsdata.org

Children Living in Food Insecure Households: 2011-2017

Food insecurity – a lack of consistent, dependable access to enough food for healthy living – is a major public health problem in California and across the country. Although the percentage of food-insecure children has been on the decline since 2011, California rates consistently exceed those for the U.S. overall. Almost one in five California children live in households with limited or uncertain access to adequate food. Children that are food-insecure are more likely to experience health problems, including developmental, cognitive, behavioral, and mental health issues.
Data related to food assistance programs show that some race/ethnicity groups are disproportionately affected by food insecurity. The CalFresh (Food Stamps) supplemental nutrition program served almost 4 million children and adults in 1.9 million households in July 2018. From 2008 through 2018, non-white households accounted for almost three-quarters of participants statewide.

Inconsistent access to food is deeply rooted in poverty. Strengthening safety net programs so that low-income children, expectant mothers, and families receive adequate nutrition helps ensure the health and well-being of all Californians.

See how children in your legislative district are faring »

Additional Resources

Public school meals are a critical part of the school day, supporting children’s academic achievement and health. Visit the Food Research & Action Center website to learn how federal programs like the School Breakfast Program, National School Lunch Program, and Community Eligibility Program help address food security.

New Initiative to Address Toxic Stress from Childhood Trauma

The California Surgeon General and Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) launched the ACEs Aware initiative, a first-of-its-kind statewide effort for health care providers to screen patients for Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Through this initiative, Medi-Cal providers can receive training, clinical protocols, additional resources, and payment for screening children and adults for ACEs. There is also a two-hour online curriculum for a wide range of health care professionals that provides continuing medical education (CME) and maintenance of certification (MOC) credits.

Recently Released Data

We recently released data about Food Security and Nutrition. See links to the latest here.

Posted by kidsdata.org

California Students Who Were Cyberbullied Four or More Times in the Previous Year by Levels of School Connectedness: 2015-2017

Grades 7, 9, 11 and Non-Traditional Programs

One in five California 7th, 9th, and 11th graders were cyberbullied in the previous year, from 2015-2017. Students with low levels of school connectedness were more likely to be victimized online than their more connected peers. There were 12% of California students with low levels of school connectedness who were cyberbullied four or more times, compared to about 3% of those with high levels of school connectedness in grades 7, 9, 11, and non-traditional programs. Ensuring students feel safe and connected to their schools can diminish the prevalence of cyberbullying.

Cyberbullying is not as easily detectable as in-person bullying and is a growing concern among teachers and families as more children and youth communicate online and via social media. Cyberbullying can often be an extension of in-person bullying at school, worsening the social and emotional stress on children. According to a study from the U.S. Department of Justice, experiencing a mix of online and in-person harassment had the highest negative emotional impact on children compared to in-person only and online-only incidents.

See more data on how the prevalence of cyberbullying varies by gender, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation.

Additional Resources

California has enacted laws to address cyberbullying, and state and federal policies provide guidance on effective school discipline strategies. These policies encourage schools to teach students social and behavioral skills and to create positive, supportive school environments to promote school connectedness. StopBullying.gov is a federally funded online resource with a wealth of information on cyberbullying and harassment policies, prevention strategies, and helpful tips on how to address cyberbullying incidents.

Recently Released Data

We recently released data about Pupil Support Services and Bullying and Harassment at School. See links to the latest here.

Posted by kidsdata.org

Children Ages 2-11 Who Received Dental Care Less Than Six Months Ago: 2015-2016

Oral health is essential for healthy development and affects overall health. However, not all California children are receiving dental care at recommended intervals. Overall, 78% of children ages 2-11 received dental care within six months in 2015-2016. Timely dental care varied greatly across California, ranging from 61% in Imperial County to 90% in Marin County.

California ranks among the worst in the nation on measures of children’s oral health and access to dental care, with the highest rates of dental disease and greatest barriers to care consistently experienced by the most vulnerable children. By receiving routine dental care every six months and addressing dental problems early, children avoid potentially damaging effects of poor dental health such as physical pain, speech issues, sleep deprivation, school absences, and problems with self-confidence.

Learn more about oral health »

Additional Resources

The California Department of Public Health in collaboration with the Department of Health Care Services, developed the California Oral Health Plan 2018–2028. The plan provides a roadmap for improvements in oral health and identifies five key goals for achieving oral health equity for all Californians.

Recently Released Data

We recently released data about Foster Care. See links to the latest here.

Posted by kidsdata.org

Percentage of Infants Born Preterm Based on Obstetric Estimates (OE) of Gestation: 2016

Recently updated topics on infant health in California show positive findings in establishing a strong start for babies, but inequities persist. A few findings include:

Low Birthweight and Preterm Births: Based on obstetric estimates, 8.6% of infants were born preterm (before 37 weeks of gestation) in 2016, exceeding the U.S. average of 9.8% and the Healthy People 2020 target of 9.4%. Obstetric estimates of preterm births is a new indicator on Kidsdata.org.

Teen Births: The teen birth rate has declined from 63 per 1,000 births to 16 per 1,000 births between 1995 to 2016. Reducing teen births decreases instances of infants born with low birthweight and preterm births.

Prenatal Care: Mothers receiving prenatal care in the first trimester in 2016 varied by race/ethnicity, with 88% of infants of white mothers as compared to 70% of infants of American Indian/Alaskan Native mothers receiving prenatal care.

Breastfeeding: Exclusive breastfeeding of newborns while in the hospital in 2018 also varied by race/ethnicity, with 81% of white mothers as compared to 62% of African American/Black mothers exclusively breastfeeding.

Additional Resources

October is Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) Awareness Month. Find toolkits and resources offered by the California Department of Public Health SIDS Program.

Recently Released Data

We recently released data about Low Birthweight and Preterm Births, Teen Births, and Breastfeeding. See links to the latest here.

Posted by kidsdata.org

Ninth Grade Students’ Perception of School Safety in California and in Princeton Joint Unified School District: 2015-2017

All California students deserve to feel comfortable and secure at school. Perceptions of school safety are essential for learning, building friendships, and supporting emotional and physical health. However, the California average differs substantially from the best performing school district in school safety, among districts with data. The statewide average of 9th grade students who felt very safe at school during the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 school years was 16%, far below the average in Princeton Joint Unified School District (Glenn County) where 53% of 9th grade students felt very safe. This gap between the California average and the best performing district suggests that we can do more to create nurturing school environments for all students.

Data on student behaviors, such as fighting or carrying a weapon, help further inform disparities in school safety. During the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 school years, 11% of 9th graders were in physical fights, 2% carried a gun, and 6% carried a weapon other than a gun at school, though percentages varied by school district. By looking at student perceptions of school safety and behaviors that play a role in being safe, we can make informed decisions on policies and programs that support each child’s well-being.

Learn more about school safety »

Quick Tip: Find Data by School District

Elevate local issues such as school safety with school district-level data. Find your school district’s safety data on the Data by Region tab. Click into your county, select your school district, then choose the “Child and Youth Safety” radial button to customize a table into a compelling figure that expresses your concern in children’s well-being.

Recently Released Data

We recently released data about School Safety. See links to the latest here.

Upcoming Webinar

Integrating ACEs Science in Pediatrics: Early Adopters Share Lessons from the Field
Thursday, October 17 at 8 am PST, hosted by 4CA and ACEs Connection

In 2017, California became the first state in the country to pass a law supporting universal screening for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in the 5.3 million children in the state’s Medicaid program. Drs. Deirdre Bernard-Pearl, R.J. Gillespie and Ariane Marie-Mitchel will discuss how to transform an entire clinic or medical residency program for screening families for ACEs and offering them support. Learn more and Register.

Posted by kidsdata.org