BY COLLEEN P. CLARK
While Camden County remains in the bottom half of New Jersey counties when it comes to child well-being, it has shown a slight improvement, according to the latest Kids Count report.
The annual report released by the nonprofit Advocates for Children of New Jersey (ACNJ) shows that Camden County rose out of the bottom five from rank 17 to 16. The five lowest rankings now belong to Cumberland, Salem, Atlantic, Cape May and Passaic counties.
The highest ranked counties include Hunterton, Morris, Bergen, Somerset, Middlesex, Monmouth and Sussex.
ACNJ compares counties on 15 measures for its annual Kids Count rankings, including child poverty, health, safety and education. Kids Count is a national and state‐by‐state statistical effort to track the state of children in the United States.
Camden County posted its best improvement with its drop in the percentage of households spending too much money on rent, going from 54 to 47 percent of households, according to the report. The county’s rankings improved significantly on this measure, moving up from 15th to 5th.
The county also moved up thanks to a slight drop in its unemployment rate from 11 percent in 2009 to 9.7 percent in 2010.
However, Camden County saw more children living in poor families, which increased from 16 to 17 percent of all Camden County children. Its ranking fell to 16th on this important measure of child well-being from 15th last year.
“The county’s positive drop in unemployment and households spending too much on rent are encouraging,” said Cecilia Zalkind, executive director of ACNJ. “Still, the county lost ground in a couple of key areas, including child poverty and the availability of child care.”
When it comes to child care, the number of licensed child care center slots available to parents declined from 659 per 1,000 children ages 0 to 4 in 2009 to 628 in 2010.
The Kids Count report also takes a look at education. In Camden County, passing rates on state tests improved slightly in 4th and 11th grades, but dropped for eighth-graders, going from 75 percent in 2008–09 to 69 percent last school year.
According to the ACNJ, the reason counties move up or down in Kids Count rankings varies from county to county. In some counties, increases in child poverty may push them further down in the rankings, while other counties show improvements in areas such as health or education.
“Looking at child trends in each county can really help identify where children and families are struggling and can assist county leaders in responding to pressing issues,” Zalkind said. “We have been encouraged by the counties’ increased efforts to use the information presented in Kids Count to improve child well‐being.”
In addition to the county profiles, which measure progress over a one‐year period, ACNJ also released “New Jersey Kids Count: The State of Our Counties,” a pocket guide that provides a five‐year comparison of various measures of child well‐being, including poverty, health, education and child protection.
“We encourage county leaders to use Kids Count data to understand the state of children in their county and to target resources to meet children’s most pressing needs,” Zalkind said. “Using data to drive decisions results in better outcomes for children and families.”
To see a complete list of county rankings and to view individual county profiles and rankings on specific indicators, go to www.acnj.org.
