Report: Maine friendly for kids State ranks 10th in child well-being

PORTLAND – Maine was ranked 10th in the nation Tuesday as a good place to be a kid, according to a new survey of indicators designed to measure the health and well-being of children.

Seven of 10 indicators used to measure child well-being showed Maine’s children were better off in 1998 than in 1990, said the annual Kids Count survey sponsored by the private Annie E. Casey Foundation.

“We do pretty well. It’s a good place to be a kid,” said Lynn Davey, Kids Count director at the Maine Children’s Alliance. “For years we’ve always been in the top 10 if you care about ranking.”

Maine was ranked 10th last year and sixth in 1999, Davey said.

Along with steady declines in teen birth rates, Maine also saw marked improvements in the child death rate and rate of teen deaths by accident, homicide and suicide.

The teen-age birth rate, ranked third in the nation, fell from 23 percent in 1990 to 15 percent in 1998.

“This report confirms that Maine is a terrific place to raise children and that Maine children are extremely healthy relative to children in other states,” said state Health Director Dora Anne Mills.

Several indicators of well-being, such as the number of teens who are high school dropouts (7 percent), the number of teens not attending school and not working (8 percent), and the number of children living with parents who do not have full-time, year-round employment (28 percent), were unchanged from 1990 to 1998.

Maine has the ninth-lowest infant mortality rate in the nation, with approximately 6.3 deaths per 1000 live births.

And when it comes to the number of low birth-weight babies, which increased slightly from 5.1 percent in 1990 to 5.8 percent in 1998, Maine is ranked fourth in the nation.

Davey said Maine has a good record and the slight increase is a bit misleading because Maine has a relatively low birth rate compared to other states, and a few underweight babies can alter the percentage.

“We always look at the trend, so if that trend continues to be a problem we will take a closer look,” she said.

Davey said Maine’s biggest concern is the 53,000 children living in working-poor families who can’t make ends meet, and the 7 percent of Maine children living in extreme poverty, compared to 8 percent nationally. Seven percent of children in working-poor families don’t have a telephone, the survey said.

“We still need to deal with that,” Davey said. “We have a good history in Maine that when we focus on policy we see a good change.”

An example of that, Davey said, is the state’s effort to provide health insurance to uninsured children.

The number of children without health insurance was 10 percent in 1998, compared to the national average of 15 percent. Davey said that number is actually lower. A statewide survey by the Maine Children’s Alliance put the number at 6.7 percent in 1999.

“In Maine, in the last couple of years we’ve seen a pretty radical change in the number of uninsured children,” Davey said.

Mills said Maine now leads the country in insuring children. “The challenge now is finding the small percentage of children who are eligible and currently lack Cub Care or Medicare,” she said.

Overall, Mills said, the study confirms that Maine is a great place to raise children. Though she said the challenge now is maintaining that standard. “We still have work to do,” she said.