Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Study: Nevada children doing slightly better

A study being released this afternoon notes that Nevada's children were doing slightly better than they had in previous years, but the state's children still need more help, one of the authors of the study said.

The Nevada Kids Count Data Book 2003 was to be distributed today to state lawmakers at a luncheon in Carson City. One purpose of the annual publication from Nevada Kids Count, a nonprofit child advocacy group funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, is to inform legislators about trends that affect children.

"We're seeing some improvement but some of it also may have been luck," Nevada Kids Count executive director R. Keith Schwer said. "In some key areas, we still fall below the national average. You could produce other data where we might not look so well."

Among the key findings was a decline in the percentage of 9th through 12th graders who dropped out of school, from 6.1 percent in 1999-2000 to 5 percent in 2000-2001. Orval Nutting, an evaluating consultant to the Nevada Department of Education, said the latest dropout rate is the lowest on record since the state began keeping this statistic in 1987.

Clark County reported a 5.7 percent dropout rate in 2000-2001 but that was a decline from 6.9 percent the previous year.

"Clark County, which has about two-thirds of the enrollment, has done a tremendous job," Nutting said. "They have established all sorts of alternative education programs. Kids would be in school in June but wouldn't show up in September. Clark County has made every effort to contact those kids to get them back in school. I hope we can maintain these levels."

Still, Nevada has its work cut out in this area. Earlier this year, Education Week's Internet website ranked Nevada with the 3rd highest dropout rate for 9th through 12th graders -- 6.2 percent -- among 36 states surveyed for the 2000 school year. The national average, according to Education Week, was 4.6 percent.

Nutting said part of Nevada's disadvantage, particularly in Southern Nevada, is it has an economy that provides opportunities for teens to leave school for work.

"Our type of economy is also service-oriented and we have a lot of jobs where it is enticing for kids to leave school," Nutting said. "So our school districts have to work hard to keep kids in school."

The Kids Count data, mostly from 1999 through 2001, was the latest available in most cases. Schwer, who is also director of UNLV's Center for Business and Economic Research, said one category studied by his group, children in poverty, reflected information that was available before the 9-11 terrorist attacks that put a major dent in the state's tourist-based economy.

"Children in poverty is a category where we have done well," Schwer said. "Our economy had been doing well. Since the economy has weakened that number could get worse."

Nevada Kids Count also is reporting:

"Preliminary data from the National Center for Health Statistics reveal that the 2001 birth rate for the nation was 25.3 births per 1,000 females ages 15 to 17," the report stated. "Since 1991, the national teen birth rate has continued to decline."

"The child death rate reflects several factors including the physical health of children, the dangers to which they are exposed in their environment, and the level of supervision they receive," the report stated. "Factors contributing to a child's risk of injury may include lack of education, young maternal age, multiple siblings, dilapidated housing and unsafe play areas."

The Nevada Kids Count report quoted the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as stating that common reasons for lack of adequate prenatal care nationally were that "the mothers did not know that they were pregnant, the mothers did not have enough money or insurance to pay for their medical visits, and the mothers were not able to get an appointment."

"The percent of children in poverty ranged from a low of 4.2 in Storey County to a high of 19.6 in Lincoln County," the report stated. "Pershing and Storey counties had the highest percentage of children in female-headed households in poverty."

"Black and Hispanic youth are more likely to die from firearm homicides than are non-Hispanic whites, whereas non-Hispanic whites are more likely to die in suicides than Hispanics or blacks," the report stated. "Children and youth who reside in a core metropolitan county are more likely to die from firearm injuries than those who do not."

"Most violent behavior is learned," the report stated. "Some key risk factors for violence include peer pressure, need for attention or respect, feelings of low self-worth, feelings of isolation or rejection, early childhood neglect or abuse, and witnessing violence at home, in the community, or in the media.

"Juvenile violent crime peaks between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m., unlike adult violent crime, which peaks at 11 p.m. However, when nonschool days are considered, the pattern of juvenile crime is similar to that of adult crime. Juveniles are more likely to commit crime later in the evening on a nonschool day."

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