Group study claims:

Poverty rate hits

local children hard
By Scott Nicholson
nicholson@wataugademocrat.com

Action for Children North Carolina’s recent report “Child Poverty in North Carolina: A Preventable Epidemic,” indicted poverty as the cause of a number of related social ills, affecting health and social development.

Juveniles are also suffering because of the economy, as Watauga’s poverty-rate increase is not just a number, but a real force in the operations of public-service agencies.

“We’re definitely seeing those effects,” said Jennifer Kearse, director of the Watauga County Children’s Council. “We get phone calls to help with bills, gas, and taking children to the hospital when they’re sick.

We’ve had increased requests for heating bills.”

Kearse said the difficulties faced by the poor make equitable access to child care and early childhood education all the more critical. “When children are born, so much is happening in their brains, and they’re developing motor skills,” Kearse said. “So many more children are living in poverty because they have younger parents, just entering the workforce. It’s that much more important that those kids are in stimulating environments so they can be successful and make those connections in their brains.”

Watauga County’s poverty rate rose from 14 percent in 2000 to 21.8 percent in 2005, while estimated median household income dropped from $33,848 to $32,688 over the same period. U.S. Census data shows the poverty rate for those under age 18 rose from 14.6 percent to 16.4 percent. The state poverty rate is 14.9 percent.

In the 1990s, the rate of child poverty in North Carolina was lower than that of the country as a whole.

Today, however, the percentage of children living in poverty in North Carolina has surpassed the U.S. rate. One out of every five N.C. children lives in poverty. Effects include lack of health insurance, poor health and dental care, inadequate educational opportunities and lack of community resources, but recent research cited in the report suggests the negative effects poverty has on the actual development of young brains.

The report found that high stress levels have been proven toxic to the developing brain and can impact children even beyond their teenage years. Household stress from meeting basic survival needs can stifle a developing mind and lead to learning disabilities and stunted social or emotional development.

Watauga County’s relatively high childhood-obesity rate, which is above the state average, could also be linked to poverty “It’s cheaper to buy a Coke than it is to buy a (bottled) water,” Kearse said. “Then we have dental problems and we have obesity problems.”

The Children’s Council receives United Way funding to provide some emergency help for families and children, but Kearse said that funding ran out for the fiscal year in December.

The council focuses solely on helping families with children and have had to turn away people without children.

“I see the economic situation we’re in right now makes it difficult to make ends meet, get healthy foods for kids and provide child care,” she said. “Transportation is always an issue.”

The 2007 “report card” for children showed 10 percent of the county’s children were without health insurance in 2005. Seventeen percent are overweight and fewer than half of children in poverty are eligible for assistance for dental services.

Kearse said the dental issue really jumped out in the latest report because so many dentists don’t accept Medicaid billing. “For families that need help paying for dental, there are just not that many options,” she said.

“Child Poverty in North Carolina: A Preventable Epidemic” made several policy recommendations: support families with decent wages, affordable, high-quality child care and housing, and access to tax credits and health insurance; strengthen communities through increased access to traditional banking services, improved public and adult education, environmental clean-up efforts and strategic economic development investments to attract socially responsible businesses; and invest in children’s futures through increased opportunities for asset creation.

Action for Children’s report is available online at ncchild.org.