The 2007 Kids Count report for Alabama, issued Tuesday by Voices for Alabama’s Children, showed St. Clair County sliding back four places to 12th among the state’s 67 counties, from eighth place last year, and Talladega County moving up one spot from 49th to 48th.In spite of the movement in opposite directions, however, the trend toward Talladega County ranking in the bottom half of the state’s counties and St. Clair ranking closer to the top continues this year.
The 2006 report was the first time Talladega County had been ranked outside the state’s bottom 17 counties.
Although Talladega County’s continued improvement and St. Clair’s continued high ranking may be reason for optimism, the national Kids Count report, issued last month, paints a more dismal picture of the state overall. In 2006, Alabama was ranked 43rd among the 50 states, its best showing ever. In 2007, however, Alabama was back at number 48.
Rankings are based on infant mortality rate, low weight births, child health index, births to unmarried teens, first grade retention rate, event dropout rate, projected dropout rate, special education enrollment rate, child death rate, children with indications of abuse or neglect, juvenile substance abuse arrest rate, juvenile substance abuse court referral rate, juvenile violent crime arrest rate, preventable teen death rate, vulnerable families, children receiving temporary assistance to needy families (TANF), children in poverty and single-parent families with children.
Statewide, Alabama showed significant improvements in infant mortality rate, births to unmarried teens, first-grade retention rate, event dropout rate, projected dropout rate, child death rate, preventable teen death rate, vulnerable families and children receiving TANF. The statewide percent of low weight births was up, however, from 9 percent in 1995 to 10.7 percent in 2005.
In St. Clair County, the number of low weight births was also on the rise, from 5.8 percent to 10 percent, but the numbers were otherwise fairly strong. St. Clair was ranked among the top 10 counties in the state for child death rate, vulnerable families, children in poverty and single parent families with children, and in the top 15 for child health index and births to unmarried teens.
St. Clair’s most marked improvement was event dropout rate, down from 6.4 percent in 1996 to 3.1 percent in 2006; and projected dropout rate, down from 23.1 percent to 12.9 percent over the same period.
Talladega County also showed an increase in low weight births, up from 9.7 percent to 12 percent, and earning it 62nd place among the state’s 67 counties. Talladega County fared even more poorly on event and projected dropout rates, although these numbers represented an overall improvement over the period.
The event dropout rate dropped from 6.2 percent to 5.5 percent, and the projected dropout rate fell from 22.3 percent to 20.8 percent, but Talladega County is still ranked 65th on both these indicators.
The report noted improvements to Talladega County child health index, preventable teen death rate and children receiving TANF, however.
Talladega County was ranked in the bottom 10 counties in the state for low weight births, event and projected dropout rates, juvenile violent crime court referrals and vulnerable families. The county was in the bottom 15 for infant mortality rate and births to unmarried teens.
Talladega County’s best ranking was for juvenile violent crime and substance abuse arrest rate, where it was ranked 21st and 22nd in the state, respectively.
Nancy Buckner, child welfare administrator for the St. Clair County Department of Human Resources and assistant director of Talladega County DHR, said she had not seen the report yet, but did not seem surprised by the results.
While she said she was pleased that St. Clair County was still ranked fairly highly in the state relative to the other counties, “in the grand scheme of things, you have to look at the state as a whole. The big picture is still the state, and we have to continue to do everything we can to make sure our children are being served. I’m proud of the number 12 ranking, although I hope that doesn’t make us too complacent, but I’m disappointed with the state as a whole. I know Alabama is more progressive than that.”
Buckner added the Talladega County numbers were “depressing. I would hope that in the near future we could regroup and do some progressive, innovative things to bring Talladega into the upper end of the state rankings. After all, the children are the future of any community. If they don’t do well, we will never be able to go forward and prosper.”
According to Buckner, one of St. Clair’s major advantages is “tremendous leadership from the judiciary regarding children and children’s issues, especially disadvantaged children and children in trouble. They’re really on the forefront, and because of that other leaders from around the county have created a huge team that works together to solve these problems. I believe there are a lot of resources in Talladega County that all need to pull together as a team on children’s issues.”
