As the state grapples with its biggest financial crisis in a generation, the safety net for Rhode Island’s poor children is badly frayed, even as the number of children living in poverty increases.

The advocacy organization Rhode Island Kids Count is appealing to lawmakers to restore deep cuts that have been made in the last year that have a direct impact on child health, well-being, nutrition and safety.

Last year, Governor Carcieri proposed widespread reductions in early-childhood programs, child-care subsidies, health care and cash assistance to low-income families, most of which were approved by the General Assembly when it passed the budget.

Now the impact of some of those cuts is being felt.

“When the economy falls into hard times, it hits families across the board,” said Elizabeth Burke Bryant, executive director of Kids Count, which is scheduled to release its annual report Monday at a breakfast at the Crowne Plaza, in Warwick. “But we are very concerned about the lowest-income families and their children. Poor children are always the most vulnerable and we need to make sure programs are in place … to meet their basic needs.”

According to the group’s 2009 Annual Factbook, 17.5 percent of Rhode Island’s 231,579 children — 40,468 — live below the federal poverty threshold ($16,705 for a family of three and $21,027 for a family of four). The numbers are from U.S. Census information collected in 2007 and reflect an increase over 2006, when 15.1 percent of the state’s children were living in poverty.

Even more troubling, the report said, is that almost half of Rhode Island’s low-income children — 44 percent — live in extreme poverty, defined as living on less than half of the federal poverty threshold.

Poverty hits minorities the hardest, according to the report. In 2007, 42 percent of Hispanic children, 29 percent of Asian children and 26 percent of black children lived in poverty, compared with 12 percent of white children.

But many of the programs designed to lessen the effects of poverty are no longer available for many families, Bryant said.

For example, children under 18 with parents in a welfare-to-work program used to be able to receive cash assistance even when their parents’ benefits expired. After changes to state law last year, that benefit was eliminated.

In just the past year, cash assistance to children-only cases dropped by 1,301 cases.

It is expected that thousands more children will lose cash assistance as of July 1 due to changes in time limits, Bryant said.

Child-care subsidies that were once offered to low-income families have also declined over a five-year period, from 14,333 children in 2003 to 7,700, after eligibility requirements changed and many working families were cut off from the program. Also, because of high unemployment, fewer families are eligible for subsidies that require parents to work.

About 300 low-income children were cut off from state-financed Head Start programs because of the cuts.

Kids Count also analyzed the kind of housing low-income children live in and found that Rhode Island has the highest percentage of poor children living in older housing built before 1980 — 87 percent, compared with 74 percent of all Rhode Island children.

“Some older houses are well-maintained,” Bryant said. “But that’s not always the case.” Problems with mold, heating systems, ventilation, lead paint and rodents or roaches can all affect children’s health, she said.

The report cites a couple of bright spots:

•More families are taking advantage of the food stamp program — a 17-percent increase up to 46,205 in 2008 — instead of going without. “Many families who are eligible do not apply,” Bryant said. “There is a stigma families might feel and a lack of information about the program,” which is now called SNAP.

•The state continues to be a leader in the number of children with health insurance — 93 percent. About a third of these children are covered by the state RIte Care program and two-thirds are on private insurance through their families, Bryant said.

However in 2008, about 2,800 children of undocumented workers or legal permanent residents were taken off RIte Care. Advocates are pushing this year to have 1,300 children who are legal permanent residents reinstated, Bryant said.

To see a copy of the 2009 Rhode Island Kids Count Annual Factbook, visit: www.rikidscount.org

jjordan@projo.com