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California earned poor marks for several services it provides for the well-being of children, including those dealing with trauma, abuse and other mental and behavioral challenges, according to a report issued Wednesday by the advocacy organization Children Now.
The 2016 “California Children’s Report Card” also gave low marks to state services for infant and toddler care, teacher training and evaluation, obesity prevention and nutrition, and foster youth education. The state got highest marks for providing health coverage to children under the Affordable Care Act, as well as relatively high ones in other areas such as linking the high school curriculum to career pathways, introducing Common Core academic standards and Next Generation Science Standards, after-school and summer learning, and targeting state funds at children with the highest needs.
The report card, released annually for more than two decades, issued letter grades (A through F) for how the state is doing in 31 key education, health and child welfare areas that are aimed at the neediest student populations. The goal is to encourage state lawmakers and educators to increase investments in these areas.
The grades are not based on any standardized assessments, but reflect the views of the organization based on its interpretation of data and reports from a wide range of sources.
“California is a wealthy state, with more assets than most to devote to its children’s well-being,” the report said. “It’s time to put more of our resources to work for kids, by investing in quality programs to help lift them out of poverty and set them on the road to success.”
Nearly half of the state’s 9 million children come from poor or low-income families. Yet many don’t have comprehensive access to services that can lead to an improved quality of life, the report charged.
Children Now President Ted Lempert said the one of the report card’s most troubling findings shows the state continues to do little to promote healing for the more than 1 million children experiencing trauma, a category that earned a D- grade. Research has shown that children suffering from abuse, neglect and those witnessing violence at home can experience serious long-term consequences, including health problems like diabetes and mental health challenges like depression, he said.
“Trauma can impede emotional well-being, impact school performance and set kids up for a lifetime of health problems,” Lempert said in a news release. “California must do more to assess children for trauma and find them the help they need to heal.”
The highest grade Children Now awarded was an A minus for health insurance coverage of children, largely as a result of the state’s positive response to the federal Affordable Care Act, which has caused the rate of insured children to climb to 95 percent statewide.
Here is a sampling of the grades it awarded in eight of the 31 areas the report examined:
The report noted that several groups and agencies statewide have launched initiatives to target many of these issues. Also, the improved economy has allowed the state to target additional dollars to fill in some of the gaps in services noted in the report. Still, the state’s policy makers need to do much more to ensure more children students from high need backgrounds succeed, Lempert said. “State investment in these critical areas will save money in the long term,” he said.
The report also includes a “scorecard” for each of the state’s 58 counties on more than two dozen indicators of a child’s health and well-being.
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