2009 Kids Count Reports
New data resources available from SC Kids Count and the Casey Foundation include:
1) SC Kids Count has responded to the Casey essay in the 2009 Data Book entitled Counting What Counts: Taking Results Seriously for Vulnerable Children and Families. The SC Kids Count Essay presents the rates of unsuccessful school performance in grades 3 and 5 linked to high risk factors that should be targeted for intervention during early childhood. This unique data shows that there are three groups of highest risk children during early childhood who deserve priority attention for the Judge Cooper remedy. These groups are: a) disabled, primarily with specific language impairments; b) emotionally-behaviorally disordered; and c) language literacy deficit children from families with low education and limited family literacy practices. Under the Judge Cooper ruling in the Abbeville case currently under review by the SC Supreme Court, young children in these three highest risk groups require priority attention. They should be identified and served as early as possible during ages 0-3 and in 4K preschool as their constitutional remedy assuring their "opportunity for a minimally adequate education."
2) South Carolina Kids Count compiles data to show how not only the state of South Carolina but also its 46 counties compare with the US average and the other 49 states:
- Whereas the 2009 Kids Count Data Book reports SC problem rates averaging 20% above the US, individual indicators vary from 13% above the US average for idle teens up to 26% and 29% higher than the US average respectively for births to teen moms and for dropouts.
- Comparing the county problem rates with the US average, the range is very large. Pickens and Lexington are 7% and 3% below the US average while McCormick and Allendale are 94% and 114% above the US average. Seventeen counties are 50% or more above the US average.
- SC Kids Count provides a table for each county showing the problem rate for each indicator, the percentage above or below the US average, and the number of children or their parents whose problems must be prevented in order for the county to reach the US average.
3) The Casey Foundation has created a new website location for state data indicators: the Kids Count Data Center. All 50 states are entering state indicator data on the site. The data for South Carolina can be found at http://datacenter.kidscount.org/sc. SC Kids Count will be adding data for more indicators at this site in the future.