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SALT LAKE CITY — Unemployed and homeless.
It's how much of America is being measured these days. Trouble is, not many know the toll it is taking on children, including those in Utah neighborhoods and schools.
"I've had students who tell me they can't come to school because they don't have gas for their cars or it is broken or there's too much snow," said Midvale Elementary School teacher Leandra Stromberg. She said children from the nearby homeless shelter often join her third-grade class halfway through the year or whenever they move to the community.
"The economy has gotten worse since I started teaching," Stromberg said. "I've seen many of my students, who used to come to school in cleaner clothes, brand new outfits and backpacks, come back the next year with the same stuff. They're lacking supplies because the economy has gotten worse."
Now more than ever, Utah children are feeling the pinch of foreclosure and unemployment, long before they're even old enough to hold a job or own a home, according to an annual Kids Count report, released Wednesday by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. It estimates that 56,000 Utah children who lived in mortgaged households have been disrupted by foreclosure since 2007.
"For very young children, the impact of the stress of foreclosure and moving and potential homelessness can have repercussions for years to come," said Janis Dubno, an early childhood analyst for the local child advocacy group, Voices for Utah Children. She said the stress can lead to behavior problems and a diminished ability to do well in school, which can also lead to problems later in life.
On top of that, more than 65,000 children in Utah have at least one unemployed parent, up from 20,000 just four years ago, according to population surveys taken by the U.S. Census Bureau. That fact is hurting the overall well-being of children because of the instability it often causes within households.
Thirty-one million kids are living in poverty-stricken homes across America, according to the report. An estimated 105,000 Utah children are living in poverty, as well, in two-parent, two-child homes where incomes fall short of the federal poverty guidelines of $21,756.
"The research and data tell us that children who grow up in low-income families are less likely to successfully navigate life's challenges and achieve future success," said Patrick McCarthy, president and CEO of the Casey Foundation. Both the national Casey Foundation and local Voices for Utah Children, which advocate for children, fear that kids raised in homes that lack financial literacy will also lead a life without financial restraint, putting unnecessary demands on communities and governments in the future.
McCarthy recommends a multi-generational approach must be taken, to provide support and ensure success not only for children in America, but also parents who are struggling to make ends meet for their families. Instead of cutting services for children and families, he said education and financial support programs is where money and help is needed the most.
"We must invest in strategies that can help children reach their full potential," McCarthy said.
The state of Utah, which typically fares well in the annual report, experienced one of the largest drops in quality nationwide, landing seventh for overall well-being of children, down from fourth place last year. It is the worst ranking received by the state since 2003.
"While we used to be way ahead of the U.S., Utah is quickly becoming closer to the norm," said Terry Haven, local Kids Count director. She said the state is improving, but much more slowly than the nation as a whole.
States that fared best in the overall well-being of their children include New Hampshire, Minnesota and Massachusetts. The worst off were typically the southern states of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, which has three times as many poverty-stricken households than No. 1 New Hampshire.
Nationally, unemployment and foreclosure were also the biggest culprits of impending doom for children, as more than 7.7 million Americans are unemployed and 5.3 million have foreclosed on their homes.
Utah has followed the national trend on many of the statistics used to track the health of children, including a marked decrease in the local infant mortality rate, teen birth rate and teen death rate, as well as the percent of teens not in school. However, both the number of children living in poverty and the number of low-birth-weight babies born to Utah moms has increased locally.
The number of single-parent families is also continuing to drop in Utah, whereas it is increasing nationally.
For more information on the Kids Count data book, and complete state-by-state rankings, visit www.datacenter.kidscount.org.
Email:wleonard@ksl.com
