Number of State Children in Extreme Poverty Soars : Poor: A survey by a nonprofit group also finds increases in such areas as abuse and teen pregnancies.

A dramatic upswing in the number of children in California growing up in extreme poverty is documented in a report issued Thursday by a children’s advocacy group, which also found disturbing increases in the statewide rate of juvenile incarcerations, child abuse reports, foster care placements and teen-age pregnancies.

The report prepared by the nonprofit “Children Now” compares how children have fared in each of California’s 58 counties and ranks Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties in the bottom 10. Overall, the state was given a symbolic “D” for the way it has cared for its children. This grade--given now for the third year in a row--”represents a ticking time bomb and should be taken as a strong warning sign,” according to the report.

San Diego County children fared better than the state average in nine of 10 “benchmark” categories, including the high school dropout rate, infant mortality, violent crime, births to unmarried teen-agers and collection of child support payments.

But the county was in worse shape than the state average in terms of how many children are in foster care homes, ranking 39th out of the 46 counties listed. Last year, more than 6,800 children--11.2 for every 1,000 children in the county--were in some form of out-of-home residential care.

The study also found a 57% jump in the number of children living in extreme poverty in San Diego County between 1980 and 1990, placing the county alongside 39 other counties where there was at least a 50% increase.

San Diego has the second-largest number of children of the state’s 58 counties. They constitute 24% of the population, and 47% are nonwhite--a higher percentage than the adult population.

Even traditionally affluent areas were not spared bad news.

Orange and Santa Barbara counties, for example, were ranked among nine counties in the state that have made good progress in taking care of their children. But the report also pointed out that these two counties have experienced the second- and third-highest leaps, respectively, during the last three years in the percentage of children living in extreme poverty. Both counties were hit by increases of more than 25%, the report said.

“The results of more than a decade of neglect are now coming home in communities across California,” said James P. Steyer, president of Children Now. “Today’s portrait of California’s 7.8 million children is a dismaying one.”

“There is an avalanche building,” warned the group’s vice president, Wendy Lazarus, “and more and more kids are at risk of being hurt by it.”

The report tracks the well-being of children across the state by measuring 27 benchmark indicators of health, safety and welfare during the last four years and, in some cases, over the course of a decade as well. California ranked worse than the national average in 24 of these areas, including rates of unemployed youth, teen births, incarcerated juveniles, children in foster care and classroom student/teacher ratios.

The state’s performance is deteriorating in almost half of those 27 areas--including SAT scores, rates of child support collections, youth homicide, children living in poverty and children without health insurance.

About 2.1 million children and youths under age 18 have no health insurance coverage through either public or private programs--an increase of 62% over the last six years. California now ranks 42nd among 50 states in its proportion of children without health insurance.

More than 50% of the state’s 2-year-olds are not fully immunized. Twenty California counties--mainly large, highly populated areas--have higher percentages of babies born prematurely or underweight than do Iran, Egypt or Hong Kong.

Los Angeles is ranked in the bottom 10 of all counties based on its poor performance in seven of 10 key areas, including its high rate of underweight newborns and its unsafe environment. The report pointed out that children in Los Angeles live in the most violent area of the state, where the crime rate has risen 16% during the last four years.

As for teen pregnancies, the report documented that Los Angeles has the seventh-highest rate among counties statewide. The number of births to unmarried teens grew 22% from 1986 to 1989, even though the number of females aged 15 to 19 in the county declined.

The report states that the number of children has grown in nearly every county in the state during the last 10 years, with Riverside County showing the biggest increase--81%--and San Bernardino following with a 62% increase. (Only Marin and Inyo counties have fewer children now than 10 years ago.)

The percentage of children living in extreme poverty in the counties of Riverside and San Bernardino grew dramatically--77% in Riverside and 114% in San Bernardino.

The report found that California’s children, as a group, are more ethnically diverse than the overall population. In a quarter of the counties, which together make up about half the state’s children, a majority are children of color--Latino, African-American, Asian or other.

California’s new Secretary of Child Development and Education Maureen DiMarco said the report by Children Now includes “important, accurate information” that Gov. Pete Wilson has already taken steps to expand programs that will improve the health and welfare of youngsters statewide.

The report did take note of several positive trends including, for example, a reduction in the state’s infant death rate--which has dropped nearly 10% over the last four years. And the report also found that eighth-grade reading achievement scores showed “some improvement” in the vast majority of counties between 1987 and 1990.

But overall, the report concluded, “more of California’s children are in deeper trouble than ever before and no part of the state escapes the worsening trends facing children.”

The report documented that:

- The number of children living in extreme poverty has increased by at least 50% in 40 of 58 counties over the last decade.

- The proportion of teens having babies as single parents is on the rise in 90% of the counties in California. Compared to the nation’s other 49 states, California’s teen birth rate slipped from 35th place to 42nd during the last year.

- Nearly 75% of California’s children live in communities where violent crime rates are higher than the national average.

- In more than half of the state’s most populous counties, the proportion of young people who spend time locked up exceeded the national average. During the last four years, the juvenile incarceration rate has jumped 23%, indicating that “children are not getting the early help they need when they first get in trouble in their homes, schools, or in the community,” according to the report.

- Four out of five counties have increasing rates of children who are removed from their parents and placed in foster care. During the last four years, foster care placements have jumped 42% statewide. And during the same period, child abuse and neglect reports have jumped 41%.

Lazarus said that the growth in foster care placements is a reflection of the increasing “abuse, stress and drug use that causes kids to have to be removed from their homes.”

BACKGROUND

Founded four years ago, Children Now is a nonpartisan, nonprofit advocacy group that is privately funded by foundations grants, individual donations and support from the corporate and entertainment communities. Its board of directors includes prominent citizens such as California Supreme Court Justice Allen E. Broussard and Stanford University President Donald Kennedy. Policy advisers include Shirley Hufstedler, former U.S. secretary of education, and Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children’s Defense Fund. The group has a staff of 18 and offices in Sacramento, Oakland and Santa Monica. Each year, Children Now has issued a report that assesses children’s well-being based upon various indicators of their health, safety and welfare. The statistics gathered in the report were obtained from official federal, state and county sources.

L.A. County’s Children

A new study has found that children in Los Angeles County fared much worse than many of their peers in other parts of the state and nation on issues of health and welfare. The “County Rank” column compares L.A. County with other counties in the state, 1=Best, 58=Worst. Here is a look at some key indicators:

COUNTY L.A. RANK* COUNTY CALIF. U.S. EDUCATION 8th Grade Achievement Score Averages (500 possible): 57 of 58 234 257 n.a. High School Dropouts: 55 of 57 27.9% 20.8% n.a. HEALTH Infant Mortality Rate (per 1,000 live births): 27 of 38 9.2 8.6 10.0 Low Birth Weight (less than 5 lbs., 8 oz.): 31 of 38 6.3% 6.1% 6.9% SAFETY Violent Crime Rate (per 100,000 population): 54 of 54 1,620 977 663 Foster Care Rate (per 1,000 children): 34 of 46 13.1 10.1 6.4 TEEN YEARS Births to Unmarried Teens (per 1,000): 42 of 48 55.9 42.9 36.8 Juvenile Incarceration Rate (per 100,000 youths): 23 of 25 376 306 221 FAMILY LIFE Child Support Payments: 47 of 58 34% 39% 55% Children Living in Extreme Poverty: 27 of 58 18% 17% 12%

* In some categories, statistics for all counties were not available.

A Day in the Life of California’s Children EVERY DAY:

1,560 babies are born in California

3 young people will be murdered

12 babies under age 1 will die

174 babies will be born to teen mothers

179 teens will drop out of school

306 babies will be born into poverty

SOURCE: Children Now 1991

Compiled by Times researcher Michael Meyers