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Abstract

The 14th annual Fact Book is a comprehensive data source for indicators of child well-being in the District of Columbia. Over 50 data indicators are tracked over time. This publication provides a broad perspective on the status of children and youth in the District. We seek to inform and educate our readers about the issues affecting children and their families in the District. We encourage community residents, policy makers, professionals, and others who work with and/or on behalf of children and families to create conditions that foster the optimal health and development of our children.

The Fact Book is organized to reflect the six citywide goals for children and youth in the District of Columbia. The six citywide goals are: children are ready for school; children and youth succeed in school; children and youth are healthy and practice healthy behaviors; children and youth engage in meaningful activities; children and youth live in healthy, stable, and supportive families; and all youth make a successful transition to adulthood.

Introduction

This is the 14th edition of the KIDS COUNT Annual Fact Book for the District of Columbia. The Fact Book brings together a variety of indicators describing the wellbeing of the District’s children and their families. We update existing indicators each year and add new indicators as they become available. For instance, this year’s Fact Book presents a new positive indicator, participation in D.C.’s youth summer employment program.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation provides funding to all 50 states, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia to produce annual statelevel KIDS COUNT reports. In addition, the Foundation publishes a national-level report every year describing the wellbeing of children across the United States.

This year’s Fact Book is organized to reflect the six citywide goals for children and youth in the District of Columbia. The Children’s Budget Report and the Positive Youth Development Strategy are also structured according to the six goals so that citizens of the District can track efforts under way to support children and youth and assess the resulting impact of these efforts.

This Fact Book begins with a Report Card, which provides an easy-to-read summary of how the District compares to last year on selected indicators of child wellbeing. The Report Card shows whether each indicator changed for the better, became worse, or remained the same compared to the previous year’s report. Some new indicators were added or revised for this year’s report, however, and may not be comparable to previous years.

Of the 47 indicators in this year’s Report Card, 27 changed for the better, 10 changed for the worse, and 10 indicators did not change at all. This is an improvement compared to the 2006 Report Card where only 13 indicators improved and 15 indicators changed for the worse.

Following the Report Card is the Recommendations and Strategies section, developed by the D.C. KIDS COUNT Collaborative and based on data in the Fact Book. The recommendations are summarized in another easy-to-read table and the supporting text describes what the collaborative would like to see accomplished in support of District’s children and their families in the coming years.

The next section, Major Trends and Changes, is the executive summary of the Fact Book. It provides a quick overview of the main body of the report.

(End of excerpt. The entire paper is available in PDF format.)

The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

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