Tennessee remains 43rd in children’s well-being study
NASHVILLE (AP) — One in four young adult Tennesseans lives in poverty and prospects for many don’t look good, according to an annual study of children’s well-being that ranks the state near the bottom of the nation.
Tennessee has a higher percentage of “disconnected” young adults— those ages 18 to 24 without jobs or post-high school education— than the nation as a whole, according to the 2004 Kids Count report released Thursday by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Many have emerged from foster care or the juvenile justice system without the skills or support systems they need to succeed, said Linda O’Neal, executive director of the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth.
She said a pilot program at Vanderbilt University in Nashville is helping address that for some 80 youths by providing mentors and educational opportunities, as well as helping with business contacts, housing and health care. But that only reaches a tiny number of the estimated 90,000 young adults in Tennessee who are considered “disconnected.”
To prevent younger children from ending up in such straits, the state needs a long-term focus on early childhood programs, O’Neal said. “That would enable disadvantaged children to get off to a good start and increase their likelihood of succeeding in school, which potentially would decrease the number of dropouts, teen parents and those in trouble with the law,” she said.
The number of “disconnected” young adults grew nationally by 700,000— or 19 percent— over three years, according to the report.
“A significant number of these 3.8 million kids have neither the skills, supports, experience, education, nor confidence to successfully transition to adulthood,” wrote Douglas Nelson, president of the Annie Casey Foundation.
“A disproportionately large share of these youth come from minority and low-income families. As a group, their lack of preparation will make it more difficult to secure good jobs with a future; it is more likely that they will have difficulty advancing beyond low-wage work.”
In Tennessee, 25 percent of young adults live in poverty, compared with 20 percent nationally. Seventeen percent of young adults are considered “disconnected,” compared with 15 percent nationally.
Overall, Tennessee ranked 43rd for the second consecutive year in the Kids Count report.
One of the biggest declines in well-being measures was for children living in families without full-time, year-round employment. The state slipped from 30th to 43rd because nearly 30 percent children live in such households.
“It’s an important indicator because children in families with full-time employment are more likely to have health insurance and be in a stable situation,” she said.
The report also found that the state’s infant mortality rate worsened slightly, and the percentage of low-birthweight babies increased.
However, the state did improve its death rates for children and teens, and remains better than the nation as a whole in the number of children with health insurance and immunized 2-year-olds.
“We’re making some of the right moves, but when you’re at the bottom it’s hard to leap over other states, because they’re also trying to make improvements,” O’Neal said.
Some of those improvements can be attributed to TennCare, the state’s expanded Medicaid program for 1.3 million poor, disabled and otherwise uninsured citizens.
Gov. Phil Bredesen is overhauling the program, and O’Neal is concerned some of his proposed changes could negatively impact children who are enrolled. Bredesen says most won’t affect children, but O’Neal noted that “changes that affect parents can also impact children.”
“The devil is in the details,” she said.
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On the Net:
Kids Count: http://www.kidscount.org
Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth: http://www.state.tn.us/tccy