A  report released today by the Guttmacher Institute shows that teen pregnancy rates in the U.S. have reached their lowest level in 40 years and that the  nation’s teen birth rate declined by 35% from 1991 to 2008.  A recent NPR  article covers the report, highlighting that 7 percent of U.S. girls between ages 15 and 19 were pregnant in 2008, compared to 11 percent in 1990.

We recently updated teen birth data on kidsdata.org. These data show that California mirrors this nationwide trend with a nearly 50% decrease statewide in teen birth rates between ‘95 and ’09.

Want to see a visual display of declining teen birth rates across California counties? This interactive motion chart highlights the change. First click the bar graph tab toward the top and then press play. Hint: To follow the progression of a particular county, change the “order” pull-down from “data” to alphabetical, and select your county in the right column.

Posted by kidsdata.org

The fall 2011 issue of The Future of Children, Work and Family, focuses on the tensions many parents experience when juggling a career and family. Overall, the journal issue suggests expanding workplace and time flexibility; making work-family policies more equitable across the income scale; and increasing the role of child caretakers in the community tohelp relieve pressures on family caregivers.

See the table of contents for the Work and Family issue >>

In California, parents of children with special health care needs experience particular work-life tensions. In fact, 24% of children with special health care needs had parents who cut back or stop working to care for their child, according to a federal survey, and that percentage grows to 45% if the family has public insurance.

See more data about the impact of children with special health care needs on families>>

Among all parents, family structure contributes to parents’ feelings of having adequate time for their families, an issue related to work-life balance. According to our foundation’s 2010 Parent Survey, 18% of California children have parents who report feeling they do not have enough time with their families; that percentage is higher for children in single-parent families (25%).

Posted by Stacey Angeles

This July, two laws take effect in California requiring individual and small group health plans to provide coverage for maternity services, including prenatal care. This mandate could positively influence the overall health of children. Prenatal care greatly reduces the risk of infant mortality. Timely prenatal care also lowers the risk of premature birth and lower birthweight, both of which can leave babies at increased danger for long-term disabilities.

How is the state faring on these critical measures of infant health? As California approaches the enactment of these laws, newly posted data on kidsdata.org provide insight. See this kidsdata.org slideshow for details >>

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A new state-by-state index of child well being ranks California 30^th overall in child well being, just ahead of neighboring Oregon and one behind Missouri. In order, the northeastern states of New Jersey, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire ranked best, according to this index from the Foundation for Child Development, while New Mexico came in last.

This index, a summary score from 25 individual indicators, is based off of the Foundation for Child Development’s national Child Well-Being Index, which was developed by Kenneth Land of Duke University. In 2009, our foundation commissioned Prof. Land to create the California Index of Child and Youth Well-Being.

The Foundation for Child Development’s new State Child Well Being Index (CWI) also finds a strong correlation between state policies and children’s health, noting that states with higher tax rates “generate higher revenues and have higher CWI values than states with lower tax rates.”

Posted by Andy Krackov

The Bay Citizen published this intriguing map on the distribution of California’s wealthiest neighborhoods. Ten of the richest areas are in San Mateo County, making it the county with the largest amount of wealthy neighborhoods in California. These hyper-local data, which provide income breakdowns for census tracts across the state, are based on 5-year estimates from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. See the level of wealth where you live>>

Related Data from Kidsdata.org:

Data on children in poverty>>

Data on families’ ability to meet self-sufficiency standards>>

Posted by kidsdata.org

The Foundation for Child Development released its annual Child and Youth Well-Being Index for 2011. The index, compiled by Duke University’s Kenneth Land, provides a summary measure of how child well being has evolved over time in the U.S.

According to the 2011 index, children are struggling with social and economic instability. Some of the key findings from the report include:

• Families have lost all economic gains they’ve made since 1975, and are likely to continue losing ground.
• The percentage of children living in poverty stands to increase.
• There has been no substantial improvement in health insurance coverage for children. Seven million American children are still uninsured, and the number is growing.
• As additional funding from the Federal Stimulus Package ends, conditions may deteriorate further for children if federal and state governments don’t make investments to fill this gap.

In 2009, our foundation commissioned Prof. Land to create the California Index of Child and Youth Well-Being. See our index>>

Also see: Related data on kidsdata.org:

Family income and poverty>>

Child homelessness >>

Health care>>

Posted by kidsdata.org

As we gear up for some large-scale enhancements to kidsdata.org in 2012, we thought we should highlight some recent improvements our foundation has made to the site, based on input from our users.

Legislative Map Overlays

Last fall, we launched a mapping tool that makes it easy to overlay legislative district boundaries over other data sets. This tool allows you to select the data you want and then add legislative borders, so that you can visualize what’s happening in one or more Congressional, State Senate, and Assembly districts statewide. More info >>

See a step-by-step tutorial on how to use this legislative map overlay tool >>

One-Page Fact Sheets

One-page fact sheets now are available in an easy-to-print PDF format and provide a concise summary of data for each of our 60+ topics, 1,800 regions (every county, city, school district, and legislative district in California), and 10 demographic groups. The data summaries, designed to be one page (front and back), are populated with continually updated data, and are valuable for a variety of uses: Quick, up-to-date handouts about the status of children for meetings or advocacy work; inexpensive brochures for events and presentations; and offline reference material about children’s health in your community. More info >>

Data E-Mail Alerts

With e-mail alerts, you will know whenever data about kids in your community are updated on kidsdata.org. Only interested in children in Los Angeles? Or San Jose? Or Clovis Unified? Perhaps your work focuses on a particular topic — child abuse, or asthma, or education? Sign up to receive an e-mail alert from us as soon as data that you select are updated. More info >>

Policy Implication and Research Links

Because Kidsdata.org offers literally millions of data points, kidsdata.org added two sections to the website that put the data into context and offer options for taking action on issues. Policy Implications are summaries of evidence-based policy options for addressing issues. Research & Links provide key websites, additional research, and reports related to each topic. More Info>>

Stay tuned through this blog for news of other enhancements we’ll be adding to kidsdata.org in the coming year – and if you have any recommendations for features you’d like to see on this site, please add them as comments below.

Posted by kidsdata.org

A new report published by the Brookings Institute discusses the economic toll of the recession on kids in California and throughout the United States. The data evaluated in the report, The Recession’s Ongoing Impact on America’s Children, is gathered by measuring three state-by-state indicators: children with an unemployed parent, individuals receiving nutrition assistance benefits, and child poverty.

According to the report, an estimated 6.5 million U.S. children under the age of 18 live in families where a parent was unemployed during at least one month of 2011, and more than 1 million of these children live in California.

Additionally, 8 million more children received supplemental nutritional assistance in 2011 than four years prior, indicating that children’s overall economic well-being has declined from 2010 to 2011.

Related Data on kidsdata.org:
• See more data about child homelessness >>
• See more data about family income and poverty >>
• See more data about unemployment >>

Posted by kidsdata.org

Kidsdata.org, a program of the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health, has just posted Data Briefs on four key topics in children’s health. Each brief includes:

• Recent California/local data
• A description of the importance of the issue
• Links to related research
• A summary of high-level policy implications

These Data Briefs also include printable fact sheets on each topic.

Child Abuse/Foster Care

Data recently posted to kidsdata.org show declining rates in California of both substantiated (verified) cases of child abuse/neglect and of first entries into foster care, both of which are important measures related to child welfare.

Free and Reduced Price School Meals

In almost every California county, the percentage of public school students eligible for the free or reduced price meal program increased from 2008 to 2010. More than 3.4 million California public school students in 2010 were eligible for this program, which is a proxy measure for poverty.

Weight & Fitness

In California, the percentage of public school students meeting all six state fitness standards has improved over the last decade for 5th, 7th, and 9th graders. Despite these improvements, nearly 40 percent (38%) of 5th, 7th, and 9th graders in California were overweight or obese in 2010, and this prevalence largely held steady between 2005 and 2010.

Special Education

About one in 10 California public school students was enrolled in special education in 2010 (11%), similar to recent years. Among the state’s 680,164 students in special education, learning disabilities and speech or language impairments are the most common disabilities.

Posted by kidsdata.org

California recently released 2010 birth data, and the resulting news coverage noted a connection between the economic downturn and historically low birth rates.

Said the Sacramento Bee: “California’s birth rate tumbled last year to its lowest point since the Great Depression, new state figures show, yet another indication that the difficult economy is reshaping everyday life.”

In 2010, there were 512,000 births across California, down 10% from 2007 (see related graph of birth rates over time in California). The decline in Latino birth rates is a driving force behind this trend. Birth rates among young Latina moms (under age 25) dropped by more than 20% from 2007 to 2010, “a seismic shift that normally takes decades,” according to the Sacramento Bee.

While the article plays up the connection between the recession and lower birth rates, demographers point to other causes, too, for this drop-off: children of immigrants have fewer kids than their parents did; couples now wait longer to start families; and the population in California is growing older.

Given all of these trends, state demographers predict historically low birth rates throughout the decade. Experts point out, though, that California’s population is still growing — partly a result of immigration — even if the growth is slower than it once was.

See related coverage in the Orange County Register.

Posted by kidsdata.org