Arizona's KIDS COUNT Ranking Improves, But Still Below Average

In collaboration with The Annie E. Casey Foundation, Children's Action Alliance (CAA) released its annual comparison of conditions for children. This year shows, as in previous years, that many children growing up in Arizona will face tough odds. Looking across all well-being indicators tracked through the KIDS COUNT Data Book, Arizona ranked 39th in the nation this year, compared to 40th last year and 39th in 2008. Arizona has seen some progress in conditions for kids since 2000. The percentage of 16-19 year olds who have dropped out of high school has been cut in half since 2000, exceeding the national drop in the rate. The child death rate, teen birth rate, and child poverty rate have also seen improvements in Arizona since 2000. Arizona, however, continues to rank in the bottom half of the nation in all of these categories and ranks in the bottom ten for the rate of teens who are dropouts. Furthermore, the data in this book is from 2007 and 2008, so it does not yet reflect the impact the budget cuts and recession have had on the children of Arizona.