The Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) has released a new report, The State of America’s Children 2011, which finds that in the past year children have fallen further behind in many of the leading indicators as the country slowly climbs out of the recession. The report provides a comprehensive compilation and analysis of the most recent and reliable national and state-by-state data on: population, poverty, family structure, family income, health, nutrition, early childhood development, education, child welfare, juvenile justice, and gun violence. It also serves as a wake-up call to our political leaders and to our country’s citizenry encouraging our nation to prioritize children for the good of our country and its future.
The report argues that the well-being of our nation’s children is in jeopardy as we face widespread unemployment, homelessness, and substantial budget cuts at the local, state, and federal levels. Data included in the report reveals alarming numbers of at-risk children, for example:
- Children are the poorest age group in America with 15.5 million children (one in every five children) living in poverty.
- More than 60 percent of fourth, eighth, and 12th grade public school students are reading or doing math below grade level.
- Every 32 seconds another child is born into poverty.
- Children of color, now 44 percent of America’s children, are at increased risk of being uninsured, in poor health, or killed by guns.
In addition to the downloadable document, The State of American’s Children 2011 is also available as an interactive online report.
