State of America's Children 2008® Report
CDF's State of America's Children 2008 report is a compilation of the most recent and reliable national and state-by-state data on poverty, health, child welfare, youth at risk, early childhood development, education, nutrition and housing.
Special Event!
Webcast with CDF President Marian Wright Edelman
On May 12, 2009, CDF President Marian Wright Edelman hosted a live webcast during which she discussed the unprecedented opportunity we have right now to make critical changes to our broken health care system.
CDF's goal is to provide affordable, comprehensive health coverage to everyone this year – especially children. View an archived version of this webcast and learn how you can step up and take action at this crucial time for our nation.
Priorities for America's Children
Priorities for elected officials to ensure the future of every child
We are committed to reclaiming our country, our core values and spiritual foundation for our children and families. Too many children live in poverty and suffer from preventable illness, neglect, abuse, inadequate education and violence. These problems are solvable if we each do our part. Right now, our nation has the ability to:
- End child poverty;
- Guarantee every child and pregnant woman comprehensive health and mental health coverage and services;
- Protect every child from abuse and neglect and connect them to caring permanent families;
- Provide high quality early childhood care and development programs for all children;
- Ensure every child can read at grade level by fourth grade and guarantee quality education through high school graduation; and
- Stop the criminalization of children at increasingly younger ages and invest in prevention and early intervention.
Priority: End Child Poverty.
Why It Matters: Poor children lag behind their peers in many ways beyond income; they are less healthy, trail in emotional and intellectual development, and do not perform as well in school. The challenges that poor children face accumulate and interact, casting long shadows throughout their lives. Every year that we keep children in poverty costs our nation half a trillion dollars in lost productivity, poorer health and increased crime.
What Must Be Done: We must end poverty through investments in high quality education for every child, livable wages for families, income supplements like the Earned Income and Child Tax Credits, job training and job creation, and work supports like child care and health coverage.
Priority: Ensure Every Child and Pregnant Woman Access to Affordable, Seamless, Comprehensive Health and Mental Health Coverage and Services.
Why It Matters: People who are uninsured live sicker and die sooner. The United States is the wealthiest nation in the world, yet children's health status in our country as measured by selected indicators is among the worst in the industrialized world.
What Must Be Done: We must ensure every child and pregnant woman has access to affordable, seamless, comprehensive health and mental health coverage and services.
Priority: Provide High Quality Early Childhood Development Programs for All.
Why It Matters: Studies reveal that those enrolled in high quality early childhood education programs are subsequently more likely to complete higher levels of education, have higher earnings, be in better health and be in stable relationships, and are less likely to commit a crime or be incarcerated.
What Must Be Done: We must make early childhood development programs accessible to every child by ensuring such programs are affordable, available and of high quality.
Priority: Ensure Every Child Can Read at Grade Level by Fourth Grade and Guarantee Quality Education through High School Graduation.
Why It Matters: Attainment of a high school diploma is the single most effective preventive strategy against adult poverty. Yet the U.S. has the sixth lowest high school graduation rate among the 30 industrialized market economies.
What Must Be Done: To help each child reach his/her full potential and succeed in work and life, we need to ensure our schools have adequate resources to provide high quality education to every child.
Priority: Protect Children from Abuse and Neglect and Connect Them to Caring Permanent Families.
Why It Matters: The annual total direct and indirect costs of child maltreatment are estimated to be nearly $104 billion. Children left with no permanent family connections or a connection with a caring adult have no one to whom they can turn for social, emotional or financial support and face numerous barriers as they struggle to become self-sufficient adults.
What Must Be Done: We must expand prevention and specialized treatment services for children and their parents, connect children to caring permanent families, improve the quality of the child welfare workforce and increase accountability for results for children.
Priority: Stop the Criminalization of Children at Increasingly Younger Ages and Invest in Prevention and Early Intervention.
Why It Matters: States spend about three times as much money per prisoner as per public school pupil. Unless we focus our efforts on early intervention and prevention, rather than punishment, we are robbing thousands of youth each year of their futures and our country of vital human resources.
What Must Be Done: We must reduce detention and incarceration by increasing investment in prevention and early intervention strategies, such as access to quality early childhood development and education services and to the health and mental health care children need for healthy development.
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