News from the City of Wilmington
For Immediate Release
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Contact:
John Rago
Director of Communications and Policy Development for Mayor James M. Baker
(302) 420-7928 (cell)
jrago@WilmingtonDE.gov
Terry Schooley
KIDS Count Delaware
(302) 831-1086
Terrys@udel.edu
Wilmington Mayor James M. Baker and Terry Schooley, Project Director for KIDS COUNT Delaware, today released the Wilmington KIDS COUNT Fact Book for 2007, containing the latest findings about the overall well being of children throughout the City of Wilmington. The KIDS COUNT Fact Book is a compilation of data presenting a snapshot of issues affecting the health and education of children living in the City.
This is the fifth edition of the Wilmington KIDS COUNT Fact Book (others were produced in 1999, 2001, 2003, and 2005) specifically for the City of Wilmington and its citizens, developed in partnership with KIDS COUNT Delaware, the University of Delaware, and the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The reports are intended as a resource for government and community policy makers and citizens to shape local and State action plans that will improve the status of children and their families.
According to Terry Schooley, Director of Kids Count in Delaware and State Representative for the 23rd District (Newark), "the status of our children is one of the most important indicators of the general health of the Wilmington community, and of our society in general. We must look at this data and make sure we are providing the needed support for children and their families. Much has been done, and much remains to be accomplished."
While the report indicates that disparities remain among Wilmington’s children and families in numerous categories or indicators as compared to children and families in the rest of the State, there has been improvement in some areas since the last report was produced in 2005. The rate of births to teens, especially black teens, has decreased steadily since its peak in the early 1990s. “Those numbers tell a good story,” writes Mayor Baker in the introduction of the report, “that more teenagers are recognizing that they will get a better start in their adult lives if they finish school and find jobs before they become parents.” Other areas of improvement include an increase in the percentage of mothers who are receiving prenatal care in the first trimester of their pregnancies.
However, according to the Mayor and KIDS COUNT Delaware Project Director Terry Schooley, several areas of continued concern are also noted in the report, including, the incidence of babies born in the low birth weigh and very low birth weight categories, and the infant mortality rate. “Black infants are still much more likely as white infants to die before their first birthday,” notes Schooley. “We must do more to make sure that they and their mothers get the medical care they need.”
The Mayor and Director Schooley said the latest report also found some areas of concern for Wilmington children in the area of education as reflected in the Delaware Student Testing Program. Schooley said the achievement gap between Wilmington students and the remainder of the State still exists, and the scores of Wilmington children at most grade levels have slightly decreased (the exception being 10th Grade reading and math scores). On a more hopeful note, the Head Start program served 100% of eligible Wilmington 4-year-olds in the 2005/2006. Schooley also noted that the number of Wilmington students taking Advance Placement (AP) classes has more than doubled.
A separate section of the Fact Book, entitled ‘Wilmington Children Speak,’ features the results of a survey among 8th and 11th graders living in Wilmington, conducted by the Center for Drug and Alcohol Studies reporting on drug, alcohol, and marijuana use, as well as safety and communication with parents. Extensive data on education, including results of the Delaware Student Testing Program, information about special needs students and children with limited English proficiency, round out the more than 100 page publication.
The Wilmington KIDS COUNT Fact Book for 2007 contains many of the National KIDS COUNT indicators, as well as demographic data from the 2000 Census, data on prenatal care, HIV/AIDS, food stamps, asthma, environmental hazards, and juvenile crime.
“The KIDS COUNT Fact Book is a wonderful tool for identifying areas in which we can make a positive impact on the well being of our most valuable asset—our children,” said Mayor Baker.
In an effort to improve upon the findings of the Wilmington KIDS COUNT Fact Book for 2007, Mayor Baker is in the process of forming the Wilmington Children’s Council—a group of child health advocates who will focus on the report data and develop strategies to make significant, measurable improvements by the next Fact Book in 2009.
The Wilmington KIDS COUNT Fact Book 2007 is supported through funding from the City of Wilmington, University of Delaware, and the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Interested agencies and community groups can obtain a copy of the 2007 Fact Book by calling the Mayor’s Office at 302.576.2100 or accessing the data from the Fact Book by visiting the City of Wilmington’s web site at www.WilmingtonDE.gov.
KIDS COUNT in Delaware, a project funded by The Annie E. Casey Foundation with additional funding from the State of Delaware and support from the University of Delaware, is part of a national and state-by-state effort to track the status of children in the United States. In Delaware, KIDS COUNT is a collaborative project involving public and private organizations working together to improve the lives of Delaware’s children. The project is housed at the Center for Community Research and Service within the College of Human Services, Education, and Public Policy at the University of Delaware.
Download fact book here. (PDF - requires Acrobat Reader)
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