Thirty-two percent of the District of Columbia’s children live in poverty, nearly twice the national average.
Forty-three youths died from violence in 2004.
Washington has the seventh-highest level of overweight high school students.
Those are some of the some of the findings of a report released by the Children’s Advocacy Roundtable, a coalition of 40 organizations.
The statistics paint a bleak picture of the city’s children, but offer a guide on how to reverse the problems that have plagued the District’s children for decades, said Susie Cambria, of D.C. Kids, the group that oversaw the project.
“Life is fairly bad for many kids,” Cambria said. “That isn’t new, but this gives us a kick in the pants.”
Victor Reinoso, deputy mayor for education, said the District likely will make use of the roundtable’s data so that it can track the well-being of the city’s children.
The roundtable commissioned the report last year after seeing the shift in the political landscape and determined that the abysmal statistics had to be presented to the city’s new leadership.
The report admitted that the data was limited and concluded that the city must do a better job of collecting information in order to determine sufficient budget allocations and public policies.
Among the report’s findings:
» Forty-one percent of children arrested in the city tested positive for drugs. Results ranged from 17 percent for 12-year-olds to 69 percent for 17-year-olds.
» There were 2,340 children in foster care in 2006. The average length of stay in foster care was 45 months.
» Eighty-five percent of those in the child welfare system have parents with substance abuse problems.
» One out of two children are at risk of hunger.
» Only 22 percent of children had received a dental screening.
» In 2000, the system served 51 percent of the families who applied for shelter; by 2005 the service plummeted to 19 percent.
