The Partnership For Children (PFC), Kansas City, recently released the KIDS COUNT in Missouri 2011 Data Book documenting the status of children in all 114 Missouri counties and the City of St. Louis. The annual publication is a collaborative project of the PFC through a grant from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis (OSEDA) -University of Missouri, the Children’s Trust Fund (CTF), and many other public and private organizations from across the state.
The online resource provides information on measures of child well-being covering areas such as health, education, financial security, juvenile justice and child protection. The 2011 Data Book finds that during the most recent reporting period, Missouri made improvements in seven of the key KIDS COUNT indicators including a reduction in child abuse and neglect, infant mortality, child deaths, teen violent deaths, births to moms without a high school diploma, births to teens, and the high school drop out rate. Two indicators, students enrolled in free/reduced lunch and out-of-home placement treatment entries, worsened, with one indicator (the percent of low birth weight infants) remaining unchanged.
Data for the report is compiled from more than 80 federal, state, county and municipal sources by OSEDA. Primary funding for the project is provided by Annie E. Casey and the Children’s Trust Fund.
