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.
The text below is an excerpt from the complete document. Read the full paper in PDF format.
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.)
Usage, posting and reprint of materials on the UI web site:
Most publications may be downloaded free of charge from the web site in PDF format. This information may be used and copies made for research, academic, policy or other non-commercial purposes. Proper attribution is required. Copyright of the written materials contained within the Urban Institute website is owned or controlled by the Urban Institute. Posting UI research papers on other websites is permitted subject to prior approval from the Urban Institute—contact paffairs@ui.urban.org.
If you are unable to access or print the PDF document please contact us or call the Publications Office at (202) 261-5687.
Disclaimer: 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.
