Isles fall in
child surveyThe annual Kids Count survey drops Hawaii seven places to 22nd nationally in caring for children, a trend that worries the project's local director
Hawaii's ranking in the annual Kids Count report has dropped to its lowest level in 10 years. But the drop to 22nd in the nation, from 15th last year, is not necessarily an indication that children here are worse off.
Instead, the survey, which measures the well-being of children, shows other states caught up to Hawaii in the period from 1990 to 2000.
But Hawaii Kids Count Project Director Marcia Hartsock says no one should feel good about being in the middle of the pack when it comes to the welfare of the state's children.
"When the average picture in Hawaii is right around the average in the U.S., that's not something I want to settle for," Hartsock said. "In comparing with the other states, we have over the last 10 years only four indicators where we have really improved."
The Kids Count Data Book measures 10 key indicators of the well-being of children taken from federal government statistics. This year's data book uses year 2000 statistics and compares it to 1990 statistics to show how states have progressed or declined over the 10-year period.
In the 1990s, Hawaii's child and teen death rates, teen birth rates and percentage of teens who are high school dropouts declined.
The state is second lowest in the nation for the rate of teen deaths by accident, homicide and suicide, and was third lowest in the United States for the death rate of children up to age 14 and for the percent of teenagers who have dropped out of high school.
But the state saw increases in its infant mortality rate, the percentage of families with children headed by a single parent, and the percentage of children living with parents who do not have full-time, year-round employment.
The increase in single-parent families appears to follow a national trend, and Hawaii was slightly above the U.S. average in 2000 with 29 percent of children living with one parent.
About 28 percent of children in Hawaii live in families where their parents are either not working or do not work full time for the whole year compared to the national average of 24 percent. Hartsock suspects that has to do with Hawaii's tourism economy and the number of people who work part-time, rather than full time.
She is especially concerned with the increase in the infant mortality rate in Hawaii to 8.1 per 1,000 births in 2000 from 6.7 per 1000 births in 1990. Hawaii was one of two states that showed an increase.
In 2000, 142 infants died before their first birthday out of more than 17,000 births, Hartsock said.
"Hawaii's rate was the lowest (in the country) in 1996 and it seems to be creeping up," said Dr. Cheryl Prince, who keeps track of infant deaths for the state Department of Health.
But she said, so far, the increase is not statistically significant.
Prince said Hawaii has a low number of births, which affects infant mortality statistics. She points out that in Florida 1,425 infants died in 2000 -- 10 times as many as in Hawaii -- and their infant mortality rate was 7.0 per 1,000 births.
"We are not that much higher than where we were in 1990," Prince said. "It (Hawaii's lower ranking) is because the other states caught up to us. They were so much worse off before."
House Health Chairman Dennis Arakaki, also head of the Keiki Caucus, pointed to cutbacks to health and human service programs that stress preventative care, including prenatal care.
"I think we're starting to see the indicators of what happens when you start to do away with prevention and early intervention programs," said Arakaki (D, Alewa Heights-Kalihi).
The Associated Press contributed to this report.