Wednesday, Dec. 9, 1998 | 11:09 a.m.
Children's well-being in Nevada is well below average, a statewide survey reported Tuesday.
"Nevada Kids Count Data Book: State Profiles of Child Well-Being" has ranked the state 34th among the rest of the country in social, economic, physical and the educational well-being of children.
Here are some of the findings:
--The state has the highest high school dropout rate in the nation. In Clark County, the dropout rate for grades 10-12 in 1995 was 15.2 percent. It dropped to 13.9 percent in 1996 but rose again to 15.3 percent in 1997.
--Nevada ranked 42nd for the number of teen births. In Clark County, births per 1,000 youths age 15-17 came in at 853 in 1995. That rose to 871 in 1996 and 985 in 1997.
--Juvenile violent crimes increased by 49 percent from 1995 to 1997 in Nevada. The arrest rate per 100,000 youths age 10-17 in Clark County stood at 478 in 1995. That dropped slightly to 466 in 1996, and then rose again to 519 in 1997.
--On the positive side, the infant mortality rate in Nevada's 17 counties was down 33 percent from 1985 to 1995, giving the state a ranking of fourth in the nation.
Nevada Kids Count is a national survey funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Its mission is to track the status of children in America and advocate changes in public policy. Nevada began participating in 1996, the last state to do such a survey. The survey said the statewide child population, ages 19 and under, was 510,263 in 1997.
"If we are going to have policy-making decisions and allocate resources, accurate data like this is necessary," Thom Reilly, director of administrative services for Clark County, said.
But local officials who deal daily with some of the issues addressed in the survey refuted the picture the statistics paint.
Given Clark County's rapid population growth, the rise in juvenile violent crime hasn't gone up that much, Metro Police spokesman Steve Meriwether said.
"The arrest rate has actually gone down with the population increase," Meriwether said. "We are getting 4,000 people a month moving here. When you put a lot of people in an area, crime is going to go up."
Meriwether said Metro has instituted several policy changes to counter the population swell. Instead of simply arresting teenagers who break the law, the police department is trying to identify problem areas in a community -- maybe a drug house -- and attack that source.
With Metro's community-orientation policy, Meriwether said, officers walk their beats and get involved in neighborhood activities.
School Superintendent Brian Cram said he is very aware that Clark County has a problem with high dropout rates, but a robust economy encourages teens to quit school in favor of work, and permissive parents allow it.
"Businesses should not encourage students to drop out of school," Cram said. "Parents should demand that their children don't drop out. In a sense, our economy is responsible for the dropout rate because students can find jobs."
Cram, however, disputed the Kids Count report that Nevada's teenage dropout rates increased 8 percent from 1985 to 1995. And, he said, based on the school district's findings, the rate increased only 1/10 of 1 percent from 1996-97, when it was 11.7 percent, to 1997-98's 11.8 percent rate.
Cram said the school district is sponsoring several bills in the upcoming Legislature to help reduce dropout rates. One will seek funding for occupational education and another would cover tuition fees for summer school.
Nevada, Cram said, is one of the few states that requires students to pay for summer school. This discourages many students from participating, he said.
Cram also said the Kids Count dropout rates may be skewed because students who leave school and move to another state are counted as dropouts. Cram said another bill is seeking funding to pay for personnel to account for such students' attendance after they leave Nevada.
The lower infant mortality rate can be credited to an aggressive attitude taken by the state in the 1970s, said Dr. Bernard Feldman, acting chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Nevada School of Medicine.
Feldman said Sunrise Hospital in 1974 started a neonatal intensive-care unit that provided better care during the first 28 days of a premature baby's life. Funding was raised to purchase ventilators and hire doctors and nurses who specialized in neonatal medicine.
"When a baby was sick in the early 1970s, it was flown to Los Angeles or Salt Lake City," Feldman, who pioneered the neonatal unit, said. "The baby usually died on the way. It was Medicaid dollars that allowed the babies to get care."
Feldman also believes the state's increasing high school dropout rates have a lot to do with teen birth rates going up. The teens aren't getting birth-control education in schools or the home, he said. They are able to find jobs that pay well and think they are ready to have babies.
"There are other states where education is considered important," Feldman said. "This is a social problem that needs to be attacked on many levels."
Information for Nevada Kids Count was compiled by WE CAN Inc., a state nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing child abuse; the UNLV Center of Business and Economic Research; the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension; and the Nevada State Title IV-B Family Preservation and Support Committee.
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