State Scores a ‘D’ on Status of Children : Youth: They are less likely to be immunized or go to college than the national average, but more likely to be murdered or drop out, a report says.

California’s 7.7 million children are less likely to be immunized or go to college compared to their counterparts nationally, and are more likely to be murdered, drop out of high school or become teen-age parents, according to Children Now, a statewide advocacy group that issues annual report cards on the status of the state’s children.

This year, as last year, the state scored a D, and Children Now officials warned Wednesday that current trends will lower that grade to F by the year 2000, at considerable cost to taxpayers.

Without new policy and funding emphasis on the health, safety and educational needs of children, Californians’ expenditures for prisons, juvenile delinquency and the parole system will rise fivefold to $10 billion by 2000, Children Now projects.

The cost of supporting children in foster care will grow in this decade from $700 million to nearly $6 billion. Employers will have to spend far more than the $21 billion it now costs them to train workers. And a full 33% of the children in the state will be living in poverty, compared to 21% today, according to Children Now.

James Steyer, president of Children Now, said the prospects amount to no less than “a Third World reality in this richest of countries in this richest of states.”

He called for coordinated action by community and political leaders and offered Children Now’s own blueprint for change.

The proposal emphasizes early preventive health and social services for children so that illness or unstable family conditions can be remedied before a child’s school performance is affected. It also advocates consolidating existing family services in schools and community centers so that poor parents have better access to them. Yet another recommendation is to link welfare to work incentives to help break the cycle of poverty.

The welfare proposal would increase the availability of subsidized child care for poor children from 25% to 90% by the year 2000. It would also guarantee health benefits so parents of young children could go to work without fear of losing this benefit. California spends $3 billion annually on welfare, but the program’s structure deters parents from seeking even partial employment for fear of jeopardizing their subsidies, said Wendy Lazarus, Children Now’s vice president for policy and author of the report.

This is the 2-year-old organization’s second report. The grade of D, which translates into “severely deficient,” is based on 27 statistical indicators of the status of children, including infant mortality, immunization, crime and school drop-out rates. Also considered are the number of children living in poverty, teen employment, school test scores, and drug and alcohol use by teen-agers.

Overall, California’s performance was worse than a year ago in nearly half of the areas measured.

The percentage of children without adequate immunization against infectious disease was 52.3% in 1989, up from 47.9% in 1988. Evidence of the consequences include the current measles outbreak, the largest in more than 10 years, Lazarus noted.

Child abuse and neglect reports have increased, while the collection rate on child support payments has declined. The state also has a higher percentage of its children in juvenile facilities or foster care. Children Now researchers found that California removes children from their homes at more than 1 1/2 times the national average. Delinquent juveniles are incarcerated at more than twice the rate nationally, according to 1987 data, the latest comparable figures.

Compared to the nation, California did worse in 78% of the areas measured, with higher rates of childhood poverty, child murders, higher ratios of students to teachers and a lower percentage of children covered by health insurance. The number of students per teacher in California is 22.7--the highest among the states--compared to a national average of 17.4 in 1989.

But there also were improvements over a year ago.

Unemployment rates among teen-agers declined to 13.9% by the end of 1989 from 15.7% in 1988. That brought California’s national rank on youth unemployment from 33rd worst among the states in 1988 to 22nd in 1989. Nationally, 15.3% of teen-agers were unemployed in 1989.

The use of drugs and alcohol by high school students also declined from 19.5% in the 1987-88 school year to 16.1% in the 1989-90 school year. Children Now relied upon a survey of 11th-graders undertaken every two years by the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. The percentages reflect the number of students who reported using beer, marijuana or cocaine at least once a week.

Another improvement was the enrollment of 83,000 more needy women and children in the federally funded supplementary food program known as WIC or Women, Infants, Children.