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SOUTH SALT LAKE — For Charlene Lui, Granite School District's director of education equity, Utah's shifting demographics present challenges and opportunities for one of the largest and most diverse school districts statewide.
A report released Tuesday by Voices for Utah Children shows that the Utah child population is growing and becoming more diverse.
Utah's child population is more diverse than the adult population, according to the report. One in 4 Utah children was a child of color in 2015, the report says. By 2050, trends indicate that more than half of Utah children will be children of color.
That is already the case in many elementary schools in the Granite School District. In a handful of those schools, white children make up less than 25 percent of the student body, the district's demographic data show.
"One of our goals is that all students increase their achievement. To do that, we look at everything through an equity lens. What is it all of our students need?" Lui said.
The needs of individual learners can be as diverse as the children themselves, according to Lui. Among English language learners are refugees and children who may have been born in the United States but their immigrant parents have limited English mastery.
Lui said the school district trains teachers on the latest research-based English as a Second Language instructional techniques to reach increasingly diverse learners.
"We also provide, at very minimal costs, opportunities for teachers to get their ESL endorsements," Lui said.
Some refugee children have had very little formal education or schooling that was disrupted by war, trauma or other circumstances that resulted in them becoming displaced from their home countries, she said.
The district's Tumaini Welcome & Transition Center helps these students successfully transition into their home schools. Before entering school, participants undergo an intensive two-week program that focuses on academic and social skills in English.
Several Granite District schools operate as community centers that provide computer classes, adult English as a Second Language instruction, financial literacy classes, parenting help and other wrap-around services the help stabilize and build healthy families.
School districts along the Wasatch Front frequently share best practices to help one another refine their instruction and programs to improve the academic performance of students and cultural competence of teachers and staff.
"I like the idea, too, that we're all in this together, not just Granite School District," Lui said.
The new Voices for Utah Children report, "Measures of Child Well-Being in Utah," also noted that about half of Utah children of white or Asian race tested as proficient in language arts, math and science during the 2015-16 school year.
However, only about 1 in 4 Utah children of other races tested as proficient, the report said.
Terry Haven, deputy director of Voices for Utah Children, said the nonprofit organization publishes regular reports to inform policymakers' decisions in funding and creating opportunities so all children can reach their potential.
"Some children in our state are hampered by poverty, poor health, and by starting school already behind their peers,” Haven said.
While most at-risk children in Utah are white, "children of color are overrepresented in terms of percentages,” she said.
For example, 56,000 non-Hispanic white children lived in poverty in Utah in 2014, which represents 8 percent of white children statewide. Meanwhile, 31 percent of Hispanic children lived in poverty, about 47,000 children. While fewer in number than their white counterparts, Hispanic children in Utah were disproportionately represented in the data, indicating high risk for poverty, she said.
The report also noted increases in rates of injury deaths and youth suicides.
Utah Department of Health data released last week says suicide is the leading cause of death among youths ages 10-17.
The Voices for Utah Children report also noted increases in injury deaths, between 2013 and 2014 for youths age 0 to 19, increasing from 12.2 per 100,000 Utah children to 15.4 per 100,000.
Meanwhile, teen births declined from 8.6 births per 1,000 Utah females ages 15-17 in 2009-13 to 7.9 in 2010-14.
“We need to make sure all Utah children have the opportunities that we would want for our own children," Haven said.
"No child’s dreams should be limited by inequalities in our state.”
