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Iowa Kids Count Survey Shows Issues in Woodbury County

Iowa Kids Count

Iowa has received one of the top rankings for child well-being in country.

That’s according to the annual Kids Count report released this week by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Statewide, the survey shows improvement in just about every category.

Iowa was ranked third overall in the U.S.

The report shows rates in Iowa for kids who live in poverty dropped significantly since 2010 and are above national averages.

However, in Woodbury County there is an increase of children living in poverty.  It’s up more than 18% since 2000.

Noah Berger with the foundation says while Iowa has made progress, one in eight kids is still living in poverty.

“I think the important questions are: what do you do to make progress? How can you make sure that all of your young people in whatever their community they grow up in, whatever their race have the chance to succeed.  "In Iowa,  currently 64 percent of fourth graders are not proficient readers, and that's a problem because if you can't read by fourth grade, it's hard to learn a lot of other things you need to learn the rest of your school time.

The proficiency rate for fourth grade readers in 2017 for Woodbury County was 72%.

High school graduation rates for Woodbury increased more than 6%. 

And, the number of eigth graders proficient in math rose 17% with a total rate of about 74%. 

However, that means almost a quarter of students are still not up to speed in mathematics.

Cases of child abuse and neglect increased by almost 74% in that same time frame from 2000 to 2017.

The state average was 26%.   

Credit MercyOne
Manager of the MercyOne Child Advocacy Center Amy Scarmon

The MercyOne Child Advocacy Center works to help victims of child abuse and sexual assault. 

Amy Scarmon is the manager of the center.  She talked to Siouxland Public Media about the increase over the years.  

The Iowa Kids Count survery also showed the use of food assistance programs increased 2 and a half times in almost 20 years in Woodbury County.  The state average was lower.  Executive Director of the Food Bank of Siouxland Linda Scheid gave us an in-depth look at the issue of hunger facing young people in our community.

Credit Siouxland Public Media
Food Gap Information Provided by the Food Bank of Siouxland
linda_scheid_mixdown.mp3
Information about food insecurity for youngsters in Siouxland

  

Credit Sioux City Journal
Executive Director of the Food Bank of Siouxland Linda Scheid

There was one change in the positive direction in Woodbury County.  The number of teen births in Woodbury County fell by almost 40-percent from 2000 to 2017.

Click here for statistics for Woodbury County from Iowa Kids Count.

News release submitted by the Annie E. Casey Foundation:

DES MOINES, Iowa — Iowa ranks third nationally in the 2019 national KIDS COUNT® Data Book report released today by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The 30th edition of the annual child well-being report compares and ranks the 50 states on 16 child and family well-being indicators in four separate domains.

Nationally, Iowa ranks second among all states in the economic well-being domain and in the top 10 in the three other domains: seventh in education, eighth in health and eighth in family and community.

Since 2010, the state has experienced a 13 percent increase in the child and teen death rate. The percentages of children in single-parent families and of young children attending preschool have shown only minor fluctuations and are at the same level as the beginning of the decade. However, the teen birth rate has decreased 45 percent since 2010, and the percentages of children without health insurance and of high school students not graduating on time both have shown improvement during this time period, each decreasing 25 percent. 

“Iowa again ranks among the top states in the annual KIDS COUNT report, and this year’s third-place ranking is a reflection of the importance people in Iowa place on providing for children and families,” said Michael Crawford, Iowa KIDS COUNT director with the Child and Family Policy Center in Des Moines. “The teen birth rate, child health insurance rate and on-time high school graduation percentages all have improved during this decade. However, a few indicators, such as child and teen deaths, single parent families and children attending preschool, have worsened or stagnated the past few years. More than half of children ages 3 and 4 in Iowa are not attending preschool, which may become problematic when they enter grade school.”

The 2019 Data Book will be available June 17 at 12:01 a.m. EDT at www.aecf.org. Additional information is available at www.aecf.org/databook, which also contains the most recent national, state and local data on hundreds of indicators of child well-being. The KIDS COUNT Data Center allows users to create rankings, maps and graphs for use in publications and on websites and to view real-time information on mobile devices.

Iowa Kids Count also produces its own KIDS COUNT Data Book annually, providing county, substate and state data. These data are available atwww.cfpciowa.org under the Kids Count link and provide users with data and maps on 21 indicators of child well-being.

About the Annie E. Casey Foundation

The Annie E. Casey Foundation creates a brighter future for the nation’s children by developing solutions to strengthen families, build paths to economic opportunity and transform struggling communities into safer and healthier places to live, work and grow. For more information, visit www.aecf.org. KIDS COUNT® is a registered trademark of the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

About the Child and Family Policy Center

The Child and Family Policy Center is a nonprofit research and advocacy organization promoting outcome-based policies that improve child well-being. It focuses on a range of policy areas in Iowa, including child care and early education, health and well-being, and family economic success. CFPC also conducts national evaluation work focused on early-childhood system building and policy development promoting comprehensive, asset-based approaches to supporting children and families. Learn more at www.cfpciowa.org.