Hawai'i ranks 15th-best for keiki

By Scott Ishikawa
Advertiser Staff Writer

A national report to be released today ranks Hawai'i 15th among all 50 states for the well-being of children, but finds the Islands lagging in categories including infant mortality and children with parents lacking full-time jobs.

The "2002 Kids Count Data Book," released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, looks at the health and economic status of American children based on 1999 data. The report rates states on how well they are serving children based on 10 indicators ranging from infant mortality to teen pregnancy and single-parent families.

Hawai'i's 15th overall ranking for this year's report is up one spot from last year, but still down from four years ago when the state ranked eighth in the nation. The top three states nationally in this year's children study are Minnesota, New Hampshire and Utah. The bottom three are Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

"We've been in the top 15, 16 the past three years, but there's always room for improvement," said Marcia Hartsock, Hawai'i project director for Kids Count.

While the decade saw an overall improvement in the lives of American children nationally, the number of children living on the threshold of poverty in working families surpassed 10 million in 2000 after increasing throughout the 1990s.

In 1990, that figure was 7.6 million children nationwide or 12.2 percent of all American children at the time, said William O'Hare, national coordinator of the project for the foundation.

Ten years later, the number of children living in these families had increased to more than 10.2 million, or 14.7 percent of young Americans. (Hawai'i in 1999 had 38,000 children, or about 13 percent of children in the state, living in low-income working families.)

While an improved national economy and changes to welfare laws moved more people into jobs — contributing to the increase in the number of children in low-income working families — those earning incomes near the poverty level of less than about $26,000 for a family of four did not fare too well.

"We've got people no longer dependent on the government, but certainly not out of poverty," O'Hare said. "We haven't moved a lot of those people into jobs they can support a family with."

At the same time, Hartsock believes Hawai'i did not keep up with the rest of the nation's recovering economy during that same period. She pointed to Hawai'i placing 39th among all states with the highest percentage of children that had parents with no full-time, year-round employment.

"We actually got worse in that ranking at a time when the economy on the Mainland was recovering," said Hartsock, a faculty member at the University of Hawai'i's Center on the Family. "In 1990, we were much better than the national average in that ranking. And poverty is one of the greatest risk factors leading to drug use, violence and teen pregnancy."

Hartsock said the state's ranking for the infant mortality rate (deaths per 1,000 live births) plummeted from 15th in last year's report to 27th.

"That figure was shocking, I think it had to do more with other states improving rather than us getting much worse," she said. "We also didn't too well in the percentage of low-birthweight babies (infants born less than 5 1/2 pounds)," but neither did the rest of the nation.

While Hawai'i ranked 29th nationally in the teen birth rate, Hartsock said the state actually made improvements, with a 19 percent decline in the number of teenagers having children since 1990.

Hartsock said Hawai'i may have dropped from its top 10 ranking during the late 1990s to the top 20 because the study makers changed a few of the categories.

"The study used to collect juvenile crime arrest rates, in which Hawai'i had very good, low statistics," Hartsock said. "They replaced that category with ... children having parents with no full-time employment, which we now rank 39th."

Hartsock said the 2002 study is based on 1999 data because it takes so long to compile the statistics.

"I've only recently gotten the 2000 data from the various departments for next year's report." she said. "As for the effects of Sept. 11 on us, it's going to be awhile before we get those figures, but it's safe to say Hawai'i probably suffered more than the rest of the nation in the 2001 data."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Reach Scott Ishikawa at sishikawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.