Jan. 7, 2000
"How are the children?"
That's the main question for this year's Utah Kids Count Project.
The well-being of Utah's children has improved in some areas
but worsened in others over the past year.
News Specialist Scott Light has the story.
Some of these statistics are certainly cause for concern.
Every month in Utah in 1998 these things happened:
- 254 babies were born with low-birth weight.
- 16 children died from violent causes, like homicides, suicides and accidents.
- 737 children were abused or neglected.
Again, those are monthly numbers.
The data also says some critical areas for children worsened.
- The percentage of babies receiving prenatal care in the first trimester continues to fall.
- The rate of domestic violence cases that went to court went up.
There are some improving areas though.
- Infant mortality continues to go down in Utah.
- The overall teen brith rate has declined over the last few years.
- The rate of drug related offenses involving juveniles has gone down.
We also talked to experts who say child care is a problem and will only become a bigger one.
All this data is published in the book 'Measures of Child Well-Being in Utah 2000.'
It's a project funded by a Baltimore Maryland foundation.
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