Detroit News: Child poverty, neglect on rise in Michigan

On January 12, 2010, The Detroit News ran an article with the headline “Child poverty, neglect on rise in Michigan.”   The article summarizes some of the results of the annual Kids Count Report.  Some of the facts in the article include:

• 40% of Michigan School children are eligible for free or reduced lunches, up from 30.7% in 2000.
• In Oakland County, 11% of children are in poverty, compared with 8.6% in 2005.
• Statewide, 1 in 5 children live in poverty.
• Poverty is tied to a 16 percent increase in confirmed cases of abuse and neglect since 2000.
• Childhood deaths are down with 18.9 deaths per 100,000 children ages 1 to 14, down from 23.1 in 2000.
• The infant mortality rate is down at 7.8 deaths per 1,000 infants from 8.1 in 2000.
• The rate of births to teens fell 20 percent over the decade.

The article correctly points out that increased poverty leads to increased instances of abuse and neglect because parents can’t provide for their children’s basic needs or take out their frustrations for their economic troubles on their children.  It is interesting that in Oakland County, where poverty is on the rise, petitions seeking court jurisdiction over abused and neglected children are down.  Based on the correlation between poverty and child abuse and neglect, shouldn’t we see more petitions being filed?

Some attribute the cause of the lower filings on the fact that the new Oakland County prosecutor no longer co-petitions with DHS in child neglect matters.  Under this reasoning, the filings are down because DHS was being pressured into filing petitions by the previous prosecutor and the reduction is the result of DHS no longer filing petitions they consider unnecessary.  Another theory is that DHS has hired new staff and this staff is being retrained.  Whatever the cause, I find it hard to believe in these difficult economic times that child abuse and neglect is on the decline as the decrease in petition filings would suggest.

You can read the Detroit News Article here:  Child poverty, neglect on rise in Michigan.

Study: Michigan’s Economy hurts child well-being in Michigan

The annual Kids Count survey was released on Tuesday and it should come as no surprise that the state of Michigan’s economy is negatively impacting Michigan’s children.  Michigan ranked 27th among the states the 2009 report on child well-being. Rapidly rising poverty and unemployment were the most troubling trends in the report, but the state performed well in reducing the rates of teen deaths and high school dropouts.

The state-by-state report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation looks at 10 indicators of child well-being and ranks the states, with No. 1 the best.  Michigan’s overall rank of 27 puts it behind a majority of other states.

Michigan’s worst ranking (41) was for the percent of children living in families where no parent has full-time, year-round employment.  In Michigan in 2007, 36 percent of children lived in those families, compared with 33 percent nationally.

The state ranked No. 34 for the percent of children living in poverty (income below about $21,000 for two adults and two children in 2007). Nearly one out of every five of Michigan’s 2.4 million children lived in poverty in 2007. That rate has jumped by 36 percent since 2000.

Other highlights from Kids Count survey:

• A 4% drop in the child death rate from 22% in 2000 to 18% in 2006.
• No change in the percentage of children living in single-parent families.
• a 14% improvement among the teen death rate and a 50% improvement in the percent of teens, ages 16-19, who are dropouts.

You can view the full report here: 2009 Kids Count Survey