The Annie E. Casey Foundation* whose focus is on “helping vulnerable kids and families succeed” has just released its National KIDS COUNT program report. The report evaluates the status of “kids” using 10 indicators:

• Percent low birth weight babies
• Infant mortality rate
• Child death rate
• Teen death rate
• Teen birth rate
• Percent Teen high school dropouts
• Percent Teens not in school and not working
• Percent children without secure parental employment
• Percent of children in poverty
• Percent of children in single parent family

The KIDS COUNT Overall Rank  shows how states rank, based on these 10 KIDS COUNT indicators. The state that ranks highest (best) is New Hampshire, Minnesota ranks second,  Vermont third followed by Utah fourth and Massachusetts at fifth. The five states at the bottom of the ranking are Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama and New Mexico.

Read the full report here at: http://datacenter.kidscount.org/

*Information on the Foundation’s direct services agency – Casey Family Services – the programs, sites and contact numbers – located in Lowell Massachusetts can be found here.