01:00 AM EDT on Monday, April 5, 2004

BY JENNIFER D. JORDAN
Journal Staff Writer

A report by Rhode Island Kids Count finds that despite some progress, the state's children are beset with serious problems.

Despite some gains, poor children in Rhode Island come in last or nearly last in most of a dozen key indicators of children's well-being compared with other New England states, according to a report released today.

Rhode Island Kids Count, the state's leading child policy organization, found that while there has been progress in prenatal care, parental employment, and reducing teen deaths, Rhode Island's children are still beset with serious problems.

Compared with its neighbors, the state has the highest percentage of single-parent families, the highest teen dropout rate, the highest percentage of teenage mothers and the highest percentage of mothers who never graduated from high school.

The reason for such grim statistics is clear: the state also claims the highest number of children in New England living in poverty -- more than 40,000. And half of those children live in extreme poverty, which means their households earn $9,000 a year or less.

"It's startling to see, and the reason those findings are particularly alarming is that all those indicators are really prescriptions for poverty," said Elizabeth Burke Bryant, executive director of Rhode Island Kids Count, which releases its 10th annual factbook on children's health, education and well-being this morning at the Crowne Plaza in Warwick.

"The factbook is telling us, once again, that all areas of children's health are interrelated: economic well-being, health and education."

The state also does poorly -- ranking fifth out of the six New England states -- in the number of child deaths, teen dropouts who are not employed, the percentage of low-weight babies and the infant mortality rate.

The picture is even worse for Latino, African-American, Asian and Native American children. Nearly two-thirds of Rhode Island's poor children come from minority backgrounds, and the state claims the highest percentage of Latino children living in poverty in the United States -- 47 percent.

Amid such a bleak landscape, one hopeful sign emerges: Rhode Island ranks first nationally in providing early prenatal care to pregnant women -- and claims the lowest percentage of women who receive no or late prenatal care.

That's thanks to RIte Care, the state's lauded health-insurance program for poor families, said Dr. Pablo Rodriguez. Rodriguez is associate chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Women & Infants Hospital and chairman of the Rhode Island Foundation. He praised lawmakers for their commitment to protecting the program, recognizing that it saves society money in the long run.

"When you make the right investment in the health of infants and their mothers, it makes a difference," Rodriguez said. "We're doing terrific in this area, because we invested in RIte Care and kept it out of the firestorm of politics."

But, after prenatal care, Rhode Island falls short in caring for poor children and their families, he said.

"Once the babies are born, we really do not do a good job of making sure the children are prepared for school, that they don't get lead poisoning, that their parents can get out of poverty," Rodriguez said. "We need a comprehensive approach. We can't keep putting all our eggs in the prenatal basket."

Two other areas that show some improvement are the rate of teen deaths -- Rhode Island ranks fourth in New England, with 40 teens dying per 100,000; it ranks third -- at 79 percent -- in the number of children living with at least one parent who has full-time, year-round employment.

Catherine Walsh, Rhode Island Kids Count's deputy director, credits the state's Family Independence Program with helping to move more families out of hopelessness and poverty and into work. Walsh said it's another example of leaders making decisions that mitigate the worst effects of poverty on children.

One key to lifting families out of poverty is making sure parents have access to literacy programs and job training, so they can get better jobs and help their children succeed in school, said Brenda Dann Messier, president of Dorcas Place, an adult literacy center in Providence that serves 600 families.

"The research is quite clear: Unless you have education, you cannot get a job," Messier said. A mother's education-attainment level is the greatest indicator of a child's school readiness, health and school success, according to the factbook. The higher the level of a mother's education, the less likely it is that she and her children will live in poverty.

According to a literacy study of New England, Rhode Island has the highest percentage of residents below basic literacy standards, and about 20 percent read at the lowest level.

"We need to do more to help these families," Messier said. About one-third of the families at Dorcas Place are immigrants; the rest are U.S.-born parents whom "the system failed at some point," Messier said.

"They're living in poverty, facing huge issues of unstable housing, transportation problems, erratic child-care and are either underemployed or looking for work," Messier said. "Yet despite all this, they have a fierce determination to lift themselves up."

Child advocates worry that some of the strides made in recent years -- such as reducing hardship on poor families by providing them health care and child-care subsidies -- could disappear, if Governor Carcieri's proposal to cut child-care aid for 800 struggling families passes.

"Now would be the worst moment to pull that back," Bryant said. "We've been recognized nationally for our welfare-reform program that pays attention to health care and child-care as vital supports for families trying to transition from welfare to work."

The extra help seems to be working for such families. Rhode Island is one of a handful of states that has continued to see a steady decline in the number of welfare cases since the economic slowdown of March 2000.

This year, Kids Count added statistics on two new topics: grandparents caring for their grandchildren and gun violence. In Rhode Island, more than 5,000 grandparents are financially responsible for their grandchildren, and many don't know about services and support available to them, Bryant said.

Rhode Island has the second-highest rate of handgun homicides for victims 15 to 19 in New England. Eighty-three percent of gun deaths between 1998 and 2002 were teens, ages 15 to 19, and 87 percent of gun-related hospitalizations during the same time frame were attributed to the same age group.

For more information about the 2004 Rhode Island Kids Count Factbook, visit www.rikidscount.org.