Scorecard rates children’s well-being in Merced County

A new report that uses stars to rate a county’s ability to meet children’s needs gives Merced County two stars out of a possible five in the category of health and 21/2 stars in education.

The Children’s Well-Being Scorecard, released Wednesday by the Children Now organization, provides a look into the well-being of children in the state’s 58 counties. The county-level data is organized in three different categories: health, education, and child welfare and economic well-being. Merced County received three stars in the last category.

The star rating quickly communicates how each county is doing compared to other counties, said Jessica Mindnich, director of research at Children Now, during a webinar Tuesday.

According to the report’s education data for Merced County, 33percent of children ages 3 and 4 attend preschool and 41percent of third-graders read at grade level.

The information was also divided by race and ethnicity, revealing that 36percent of Latino students read at grade level, while 59percent of white students, 35 percent of black students and 50percent of Asian students are reading at grade level.

The data also show that 56percent of high school students in the county are ready for college-level math courses, and 84percent of 12th-graders graduate on time.

The figures provided in the health category show that 56percent of newborns in Merced County are exclusively breast-fed while in the hospital, a small rise from the 50percent calculated in 2012, but still well below the 63percent state average. Eighty-two percent of children in the county have visited a dentist in the last year, and 37 percent of asthmatic children have been given an asthma management plan.

The Scorecard’s indicators also show that 52percent of children in Merced are in a healthy weight zone, and 69percent are not at risk of depression.

The child welfare and economic well-being section of the report shows that among children placed in the welfare system, 89percent find stability. This compares to 85percent in neighboring Stanislaus and Fresno counties.

Also, 70percent of children in Merced County are not living in communities of concentrated poverty – 16percent below the state average.

According to Mindnich, no county scored five stars, meaning even counties that are doing well are still not performing at the top. “Regardless of where you live, there is always work to be done to improve the well-being of children,” she said.

First released in 2008, the Children’s Well-Being Scorecard comes out every two years. The idea, according to Mindnich, is to provide the 58 counties with a tool to help communities better understand which areas need improvement.

“Too many California children lack access to high-quality early learning experiences, great schools, timely and integrated health care services, healthy foods and safe places to play,” Ted Lempert, president of Children Now, said in a news release. “The Scorecard provides local leaders and stakeholders with a holistic view of children’s well-being to identify the most pressing needs of children living in their community.”

This story was originally published October 28, 2014 at 5:01 PM with the headline "Scorecard rates children’s well-being in Merced County."