Census indicates Nevada children face high risks

Dan Kulin and Ed Koch

Wednesday, March 24, 2004 | 9:51 a.m.

A new census report shows children in Nevada are faced with risk factors on many fronts, from living in a home other than their parents' to being more likely to live in rented housing, which experts say indicates less stability.

The information, released last week, comes from a report titled "Children and the Households They Live In: 2000." It uses data from the the 2000 census.

It found several other factors that can be considered as negative for children's welfare. The state ranked:

Local experts said that while the statistics are based on information that is now about four years old, such statistics in general are slow to change. Thus the information probably still reflects current conditions, they said.

Some local experts say the findings of this report appear troubling because they seem to support similar studies that say Nevada is high in other problem areas such as teen pregnancies, high school dropouts and youth suicides.

"It is one more study that shows that Nevada in general is not very child friendly," University of Nevada, Las Vegas clinical child psychology professor Christopher Kearney said.

"We see so many people move here and live in rental units waiting for new homes and new schools to be built. Children here have to go through so much transition."

Susan Klein-Rothschild, director of Clark County Family Services, said her top concern is that children get the care and services they need. But she questions whether these statistics reflect that children are not getting good care.

"We should not be judgmental based on just these statistics," she said. "I'm not sure a child who lives in a rented home is not getting the same adequate care as a child who lives in a purchased home.

"And who can say for sure that amid this state's transiency and tremendous growth that the best care-giver for some children is not someone other than a blood relative? We see a lot of parents who are not keeping their kids safe.

"What this study does is make us want to learn more about how these statistics affect children and their households," Klein-Rothschild said.

Kearney said he is not so concerned that Nevada leads the nation, with Maine, in children living with an adult who is not a relative because the 50 states are separated by just 1.1 percentage points.

"I'll take 2 percent anytime," he said. "Frankly I'm surprised it is just 2 percent, given that this involves all types of people and cultures, all of the children who are removed from their homes for being mistreated and all of those who are orphaned, in foster care or who run away from home."

Two percent of the 507,832 children under 18 in Nevada at the time of the census account for 10,157 children living with someone other than a relative.

Nevada would have needed to reduce that number by 5,587 children to go from worst in the United State to the best. Alabama has the nation's best percentage of kids living with a nonrelative -- 0.9 -- according to the Census report.

Other experts took note of the low rate of families that receive any kind of government aid.

UNLV social work professor William Epstein said he cautions drawing too many conclusions from the report without looking at additional statistical information, but added: "The real conclusion is that we're a wealthy state that's not doing enough."

UNLV economics professor Keith Schwer, who also is director of the university's Center for Business and Economic Research, agreed: "We're a relatively wealthy state, but we generally don't have good programs for supporting poor families. We've been fairly conservative in that."

Epstein said Nevada's ranking for households that do not receive public assistance is not a surprise.

"It goes along with the mentality of the state," he said. "We're not a very hospitable state for poor people."

Epstein also was concerned about a high number of children not living with a parent, regardless of those residing with a grandparent or other relative.

"Ten percent of kids not living with a parent (is) a big number," he said.