By Leslie Duke
Saline County children are feeling the full impact of the recession, according to the latest Kansas KIDS COUNT report. The report, released by Kansas Action for Children and the Salina Area United Way, measures county-by-county how kids are doing across 25 indicators of health, education and economic success.
According to the data, 17.6 percent of Saline County children are living in poverty and more than 54.23 percent of public schoolchildren are participating in the free or reduced school lunch program.
“Children who live in poverty face hardships that can hinder future success,” said Shannon Cotsoradis, president and CEO of Kansas Action for Children. “This issue isn’t going away, and we need to protect programs and services that help to lift families out of poverty.”
New to this year’s report are statistics about Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program enrollment. 4,353 poor children in Saline County rely on Medicaid for health care coverage and 856 rely on CHIP, which provides health care coverage for children whose families are climbing out of poverty but are not yet able to afford private insurance.
“The number of children who rely on Medicaid and CHIP for health insurance has steadily increased over the past five years, as can be expected when childhood poverty is increasing,” said Cotsoradis. “We should continue on a course that allows more children to receive health insurance through these vital programs.”
The data showed progress for Saline County in several areas:
· 2010 Census shows positive growth over 2009 estimates.
· The percentage of children under age 18 remains fairly steady at 25%.
· Median Household Income reveals a slight net increase over the five year trend despite recent decreases in 2009.
Saline County has room for improvement in some areas:
· Similar to peer county and state trends child poverty rose to its highest point in 5 years in 2009.
· The percentage of children receiving free and reduced lunches (54%) increased slightly from 2010 to 2011; this indicator is higher than peer counties or state trends.
· 2010 Census shows a notable increase of Hispanic children population and the trend was greater than previously estimated. As a result the percentage of White, Non-Hispanic children in the population is lower than previously estimated.
In August, KAC and the Annie E. Casey Foundation released the national KIDS COUNT Data Book, which showed Kansas ranked 19th in a state-by-state study on the well-being of America’s children, its lowest ranking since 2004. To find data for each county, visit www.kac.org/kidscount.