This "Overview" is an excerpt of the full report which can be seen here

 

CDF's State of America's Children 2011 paints a devastating portrait of childhood across the country.

With unemployment, housing foreclosures and hunger still at historically high levels, children's well-being is in

great jeopardy. Children today are our poorest age group. Child poverty increased by almost 10 percent

between 2008 and 2009, which was the largest single year increase since data were first collected. As the country

struggles to climb out of the recession, our children are falling further behind.

 

Looking at data1 across children's needs in child poverty, family structure, family income, child health,

child nutrition, early childhood development, education, child abuse and neglect, juvenile justice and gun

violence shows millions of children from birth through the teen years at risk of getting caught in the Cradle

to Prison Pipeline crisis at the intersection of race and poverty that threatens the futures of poor children

of color across our nation. Black children are facing the worse crisis since slavery, and in many areas,

Hispanic and American Indian children are not far behind.

 

Particularly striking is the fact that children of color in America who now constitute almost 45 percent of all

children will be the majority of children in 2019 – just eight years from now. We will be counting on them as the

economic drivers of the future, who will be raising their own families, assisting their parents and

investing in the economy and in Social Security to keep us all thriving. Yet nearly 80 percent or more of Black

and Hispanic public school students cannot read or do math at grade level in fourth, eighth and 12th grades,

sentencing them to social and economic death in this globalizing competitive economy. We must level the

playing field and invest in education now so all children can achieve to ensure a solid economic future

for all of us and for our nation.

 

Children of Color Desperately Need Help

 

State of America's Children 2011 tells us that children of color are behind on virtually every measure of child

well-being. They face multiple risks that put them in grave danger of entering the pipeline to prison rather

than the pipeline to college, productive employment and successful futures. Children of color are at increased

risk of:

 

Being born at low birth weight and with late or no prenatal care

 

Babies of Black mothers are almost twice as likely as babies of White mothers to be born at low birthweight.

 

Black babies are more than twice as likely to die before their first birthday as White babies.

 

Black and Hispanic babies are more than twice as likely as White babies to be born to mothers who

received late or no prenatal care in almost half the states.

 

Living in poverty and extreme poverty

 

More than one in three Black, one in three Hispanic and one in 10 White children live in poverty ($22,050

for a family of four).

 

For children under age five, 41.9 percent of Black, 35 percent of Hispanic and almost 15 percent of White

children are poor.

 

More than one in six Black and one in seven Hispanic children live in extreme poverty-at half the poverty

level or below. One in 20 White children lives in extreme poverty.

 

Lacking family stability

 

Fewer than 40 percent of Black children live with two parents.

 

Almost one in two Black children and more than one in four Hispanic children live with their mother only,

compared with fewer than one in five White children.

 

Black children are more than twice as likely as White children and almost twice as likely as Hispanic children

to live with neither parent.

 

Black children are more than seven times as likely and Hispanic children more than two and a half times as

likely as White children to have a parent in prison.

 

Greater health risks

 

Black and American Indian babies are more than twice as likely to be born to teen mothers as White babies.

 

Black and Hispanic children are almost three times as likely to be in poor or only fair health as White

children and are more likely to have an unmet medical need due to cost than White children.

 

More than one in three children in low-income families is overweight or obese. Black teens are 26 percent and

Hispanic teens 32 percent more likely than White teens to be overweight or obese.

 

Lacking a quality education

 

Nearly 80 percent or more of Black and Hispanic public school students in the fourth, eighth and 12th grades

are unable to read or do math at grade level compared to 50 percent or more of White children.

 

Black students are more than three times as likely as White or Asian/Pacific Islander students and more than

twice as likely as Hispanic students to be suspended from school.

 

Thirty-five percent of Black and 29 percent of Hispanic high school students attend the more than 1,600

"dropout factories" across the country where 60 percent or fewer of the students in any given ninth grade class

will graduate in four years with a regular diploma.

 

The averaged graduation rate for Black and Hispanic students is just over 60 percent, in contrast with 81

percent for White and 91 percent for Asian/Pacific Islander students. The 20-plus percentage point spread

in graduation rates between Black and White students exists in 13 states.

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