David Crary of the Associated Press writes about weak, outdated and insufficient data in the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s annual Kids Count report, an effort to monitor child health and well-being across the nation. A special report about the “data deficit” accompanied the regular release of Kids Count this year.
In particular, the foundation says the government should rewrite the equation that sets the federal poverty line and make sure the 2010 Census does a better job counting children and minorities. “The Casey report also calls for expanded federal data collection on young children, teen dropouts and teen births. It said budget woes have led the National Center for Health Statistics to reduce the sample sizes for some of its national surveys on children’s well-being.”
