LAKE COUNTY — The results are in, and Lake County youth statistics are the topic of a survey released by Children Now.
Concern for the status of youth in the county is the focus of agencies such as the Lake Family Resource Center and Health Leadership Network, a countywide organization, which continue efforts to remedy problems like making sure every child has access to health insurance.
Health Leadership Network met with the Superintendent of Schools Thursday to discuss a recent study conducted by Children Now, a national youth advocacy and research nonprofit based in California. Superintendent Dave Geck said that the meeting involved discussion about the general wellness policy for the county.
“The Health Leadership Network Coordinator, Susan Jen, gave a presentation on the statistics regarding wellness, and talked about the grants that are available, because our goal is to focus on improving the wellness of youth in our county,” said Geck.
The study, which looked at county statistics and compared Lake County to other counties in the state, found Lake County to be in the mid- to low-scoring ranges. The research focused on 45 indicators of wellbeing, ranging from youth enrollment in schools to teen pregnancy rates to how many children are seeing a dentist each year, according to Children Now spokesperson Corey Newhouse.
According to Director of the Lake Family Resource Center Gloria Flaherty, the report card is used to quantify the need for a service in our community.
“Several years ago Lake County was far below what it is now in terms of children having health insurance coverage,” said Flaherty.
Although Lake County”s children are better insured than they were five years ago, jumping several percentage points up from 92 percent two years ago to the current 95 percent in the 2007 study, these percentages are not high enough according to Flaherty. She added that the county would benefit from further grants and programs to get preventative health care to children.
“Lake Family Resource Center, for example, was one of three agencies in California funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to provide Healthy Families insurance application assistance. As a result of this assistance, and the result of agencies such as ours, Lake County”s children are far better insured than they were,” said Flaherty. She added that while you can see the growth, the 95 percent of children with health insurance in Lake County seems “idealistic,” she said. “I would like to see their data. But even at 95 percent, that”s still missing some children. There”s no reason this county can”t try to reach 100 percent,” said Flaherty. “Getting preventive care is the goal for everybody.”
Lake County is home to 14,619 children younger than 18, according to the 2004 U.S. Census Bureau, which is fewer than 1 percent of California”s population of children.
According to spokesperson Newhouse, the Children Now study serves to answer questions as to how the 763,000 children in California without health care insurance are geographically located, providing each county with the information necessary to address the issues.
According to Children Now President Ted Lempert, even in counties with stellar report cards, there are children lacking basic developmental supports such as early education and health insurance.
“Our hope is that the local relevance of these data will engage more people in addressing children”s issues and boil up to the state-level policy changes that are needed,” Lempert said in a press release.
In terms of Children Now ranking, Lake County scores number 20 out of the state”s 58 counties in the percentage of children with health insurance, with 1 being the best and 58 being the worst. That puts the county about in the middle. For elementary school students meeting state targets in English Language Arts, the county ranks 35 out of 58; 41 out of 58 in the percentage of elementary school students meeting state targets in math and 41 out of 58 in the percentage of high school students eligible to attend one of California”s public universities. The lowest marks were received for children living in low-income households, with Lake County ranking 46 out of 58. Compared to the $19,046 per capita family income in Lake County, the statewide per capita income is $26,800. Households with at least one working parent ranked 82 percent in Lake County as compared to 90 percent statewide, children living in poverty ranked 31 percent while the statewide ranking is 19 percent. The number of households receiving food stamps is 25 percent compared to the 10 percent receiving stamps statewide.
