The Annie E. Casey Foundation released their annual KIDS COUNT Data Book this week. Oklahoma’s profile shows childhood poverty has worsened in recent years. This is worrying because of the potential negative impacts on education, behavior and health. The report details child well-being across the United States by measuring and ranking states in four specific areas: Economic Well-Being, Education, Health, and Family and Community. The numbers serve as important markers because in measuring the well-being of Oklahoma children, they provide feedback to agencies that implement programs designed to address health, education and poverty.
KIDS COUNT estimates 216,000 Oklahoma children, or 23% of our state’s child population, were living in poverty as of 2011. Around 35,136 of Oklahoma kids in poverty are located right here in Tulsa County, according to a 2010 estimate by the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy, which directs Oklahoma KIDS COUNT. Oklahoma’s 2013 rate is a slight improvement over last year’s data, but childhood poverty is now relatively the same as it was in 2005. And while Oklahoma’s overall Child Well-being rank rose to 36th overall, up from 40th last year, both the number of children living in poverty coupled with the lack of significant progress in decreasing this rate is troubling.
The Academic Pediatric Association (APA) task force on childhood poverty recently called it “the most important problem facing children in the United States today.” According to the APA, childhood poverty has been linked to (more…)
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