Crisis Worsening for State’s Youth, Yearly Report Finds : Children: Teen-age pregnancy, incarceration and unemployment rise, advocacy group says. One of few pluses is decline in dropout rate.

California’s teen-agers are far more likely to become pregnant, be jailed or be killed than they were four years ago and they are less likely to have a job and to live with a parent, according to a report issued Wednesday by a children’s advocacy group.

The annual report card prepared by the nonprofit Children Now gives the state a symbolic D- and notes that California’s youths have experienced a 23% rise in teen-age birth rates, a 25% jump in youth incarceration rates and a 45% rise in juvenile homicide rates in the last four years. In the last year alone, the report found, unemployment among teen-agers rose from 15.6% to 20.1%.

For three years in a row, California merited a D in its overall policies toward children--a “strong warning signal . . . which clearly was not heeded,” said James P. Steyer, president of Children Now. “When it comes to teen-agers, the state has fallen from a D to a disgraceful U, or unsatisfactory, grade.”

In some areas, the condition of children has improved slightly. The report found that the school dropout rate between 10th and 12th grades declined from 1987-88 to 1990-91, from 22.3% to 18.2%. The improvement, however, masks rising dropout rates in some low-income communities.

Children Now is a statewide, nonprofit children’s advocacy and research group organized in 1988 as a nonpartisan proponent of children’s rights. It has offices in Santa Monica and Sacramento.

The organization’s report tracked the well-being of children across the state over the last year by measuring 27 benchmarks of health, safety and welfare.

A companion report, “Saving the Dream,” looked at the last two decades and concluded that the dream of a good life for children in this state has faded for many.

“All parents hope to provide their children with a comfortable home, a safe neighborhood and a good education. . . . Today, the realization of this dream is out of reach for millions of California children and families,” the report said.

California families, for instance, are far less able to provide homes for their children than they were two decades ago. From 1969 to 1989, the report said, the median family income rose 7%, to $40,559 a year, whereas the median house price in the state rose 123%, to $193,360.

The supply of affordable rental housing fell behind demand. In 1990, according to the Department of Housing and Community Development, 20% of the state’s rental housing units were considered overcrowded--nearly double the number in 1980.

Providing children with adequate medical care also has become more difficult for more families. During the last decade, the Children Now study found, there has been a 41% increase in the proportion of California children who do not have health insurance. Now one in four children lack health coverage.

Children are spending less time with their families than in the past.

Compared to 1960, they spend an average of 10 to 12 hours less per week with their parents, partly because of a continuing rise in the number of working women. Half of the mothers with children ages 6 to 17 worked outside the home in 1970, 65% in 1980 and 72% in 1990. A recent study also found that families are working longer hours and more days of the year.

Even when families are together, “too often” they continue to equate “family time” with “TV time,” the study said. In 1989, the average household watched about seven hours of television per day--an hour more than in 1970. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 53% of 13-year-olds watched three to five hours of television a day, compared to 39% in 1982.

What has touched children’s lives most profoundly, however, is poverty and violence.

In 45 of the state’s 58 counties, the child poverty rate increased between 1970 and 1989. By 1989, the study found, 18.2% of the state’s children--or 1.4 million--lived below the poverty line.

Similarly, more than twice as many young people were victims of homicide in California in 1990 than in 1974. By 1990, the study said, homicide was the second-leading cause of death among young people, surpassed only by traffic accidents.

The number of reported child abuse and neglect cases deemed serious enough to warrant emergency response also rose, from 50.8 per 1,000 children in 1987 to 70.2 in 1991, the study said. In extreme and continued cases of abuse or neglect, children are removed from their homes and placed in institutions or foster care. The rate at which that happened climbed from 8.8 cases per 1,000 youths to 10 per 1,000, the study found.

Despite an improvement in dropout rates, California continued to rank low in public school student-teacher ratio--49th of 50 states and the District of Columbia in 1990. While the average national spending on education was $4,952 per student, California spent only $4,645, which put it in 25th place nationwide, up from 31st place in 1989.

“This is probably the first time in history that we are leaving the next generation with a worse legacy than our parents left us. . . . There is no one single cause of these problems . . . or one person or set of policies that can be blamed,” said Wendy Lazarus, vice president for policy at Children Now.

Yet the solution, Lazarus said, is clear.

“We must put children first,” she said. “We are now paying the price in the 1990s of our neglect of children in the 1970s and 1980s. . . . Taxpayers must force lawmakers to make tough choices.”

For example, Lazarus said, the state could save $2 billion by closing “loopholes in tax regulations governing the transfer of business property, which would just about cover Gov. Wilson’s proposed cuts to the education budget next year.” And she said that by reducing or eliminating business meal deductions, the state could increase its annual revenue by $200 million to $600 million, which would help avert proposed cuts in Aid to Families With Dependent Children grants.

The Toll on Children

Since June, 1991, according to a report by Children Now, at least 300,000 California children have lost their lives or had their well-being placed in jeopardy:

4,829 infants died.

75,600 more children slipped into poverty.

702 were homicide victims.

15,869 were put in public juvenile custody facilities.

81,651 were placed in foster care.

63,603 teen-agers gave birth.

59,612 dropped out of high school.

Report Card for 1992

Here are selected categories used to measure the well-being of children in California.

COMPARED TO NATIONAL AVERAGE RANK EDUCATION: C Dropout Rates Worse 42nd SAT Scores Better 5th* Student/Teacher Ratio Worse 49th Per-Pupil Expenditures Worse 25th HEALTH: C- Infant Mortality Better 12th Late or No Prenatal Care Better 37th Inadequate Immunization Worse NA Uninsured Children Worse 42nd Use of Nutrition Program Worse NA SAFETY: Unsatisfactory Child Abuse/Neglect Worse 48th Children in Foster Care Worse NA Youth Homicides Worse NA TEEN YEARS AND BEYOND: Unsatisfactory College-Bound Students Worse NA Unemployed Youth Worse 39th Teen-Age Births Worse 39th Incarcerated Juveniles Worse 50th FAMILY LIFE: D Child Support Worse 41st Children in Poverty Worse 35th

OVERALL GRADE: D-

* Out of 23 states surveyed. The overall grade reflects some categories that are not listed here.

Source: Children Now