Health Care

Oklahoma ranks 38th in report on children’s well-being

TULSA (AP) – The well-being of children and young adults has improved in Oklahoma, but the state still falls behind the national average in many areas, a new report shows.

The Kids Count Data Book ranks Oklahoma 38th in its state-by-state report released Thursday.

“It shows that most kids are doing fine, but what are we doing about that 25 percent or so who are not?” said Anne Roberts, executive director of the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy.

Improvement came in areas such as infant mortality, high school dropout rate, teenage birth rate and the percentage of children living in poverty, the report showed.

But Oklahoma regressed between 1996 and 2001 in the child death rate and the percent of single-parent families with children, according to the report.

Also, the state trailed the national average in several key categories, including percent of children in poverty, teen birth rate, teen death rate and infant mortality, the report said.

For example, 15 percent of Oklahoma children didn’t have health insurance in 2001, compared with 12 percent nationally, the report states.

And about 70 percent of the state’s 2-year-olds received immunizations in 2002, compared with 79 percent across the country.

Roberts said the emphasis state officials have put on prenatal care for mothers has resulted in more healthy babies being born.

“But we’re still not with it when kids get older,” she said.

Among 18- to 24-year-olds, one in six – or 15 percent nationally – is not working, not enrolled in school and has no degree beyond high school. About 13 percent of Oklahomans in that age bracket do not have jobs, attend school or have more than a high school education.

Poverty among Oklahomans ages 18 to 24 is 22 percent, compared with the national average of 20 percent.

“All of us think that little children need us the most, and, somehow, when they get older they need us less,” Roberts said. “Kids are telling us that is not true at all.”

Parents should stay involved with their children as they get older, Roberts said.

Reports of the county-by-county and rural outlook on the well-being of children are due later this year.

“While the child poverty rate has dropped, it has increased in the rural areas,” Roberts said. “We’re very concerned that we don’t just look at these numbers and say ‘We’re doing better.’ We need to look at what is happening in these individual counties.”

The national ranking is based on 10 indicators. Most of the information was collected in 2001. The report covering health of children, economic conditions and education includes data from 2001 to 2003.

Oklahoma’s infant mortality rate improved to 7.3 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2001 from 8.5 in 1996. Percent of high school dropouts fell to 9 percent from 10 percent, teen births per 1,000 girls aged 15-17 dropped to 31 from 37 and percent of children living in poverty fell to 20 from 26, according to the report.