KBIA Local
(2010-02-01)
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COLUMBIA, MO
(KBIA) -
A couple of mid-Missouri counties have received high ranking from a nonprofit group that researches the welfare of children in the state. The group, Citizens for Missouri's Children, annually ranks the one hundred and fourteen counties in Missouri, and St. Louis, by ten indicators of child well-being - including infant mortality rates, instances of child abuse and neglect, and number of births to teenage mothers. Osage County was ranked number one for this year, while Boone County moved up to tenth place, from fifteenth place last year. Howard County ranked twenty-three, and Cole County ranked twenty-four. Emily Schwartze is the director of KIDS COUNT for Citizens for Missouri's Children. She says that the latest report shows improvements on six of the ten indicators for Missouri. She says she hopes the report will start conversations among elected officials about child welfare, and among the officials' constituents.
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"And we hope they start discussions with their family, with their friends, with their neighbors, their co-workers, just to take action."
Citizens for Missouri's Children has been producing its annual KIDS COUNT in Missouri Data Book since 1993. Details about this report, and reports from past years going back to 2003, are available on the group's website, at www.mokids.org, and at www.kbia.org. © Copyright 2012, KBIA