Child Poverty in States Hit by Hurricane Katrina

What is the overall condition of New Orleans children? We know that by looking at the data, 39 percent of New Orleans children live in poverty – a full 17 percentage points higher than the US average. We also know that the wages of adult workers in a child’s family determine their poverty status. And, while most New Orleans parents are in the workforce, low-wage jobs are all too prevalent. Scientific research shows us that child poverty can lead to increased trauma in young people’s brains and now scholars assert that poverty may be the single greatest threat to children’s healthy brain development. Without healthy brain development, our kids risk lifelong difficulties in learning, memory, and self-regulation. Innovation is needed now to break the cycle of poverty that grips poor families.

2007

We are particularly grateful to all the people in Mississippi who shared their time and their experiences with us. We take their trust in us seriously, and hope that our project serves to amplify the voice of the displaced populations throughout the Gulf Coast, and speed their recovery.

2011

2007

Choices. The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resources Issues, 1991

hildren are almost twice as likely as other groups of Americans to be poor. Nearly 13 million American children-one in five children (and one in four preschoolers) are poor. Over 3 million of these live in rural America. Those numbers apply to 1989 (the last full growth year in the eco

Academic pediatrics, 2016

Day Care & Early Education, 2006

Hurricane Katrina exposed to the world the side of America that is often ignored or forgotten—the side of America where people live in poverty and struggle to meet their most basic needs. This article focuses primarily on children in Mississippi and highlights the effect that poverty has on children’s well-being at an early age and future academic success. It also provides evidence for the importance of funding high-quality pre-k programs and parental training to ensure they begin the process of preparing their children for success, not only in Mississippi but in the other states that are leaving their children behind. Finally, with the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind in 2007, recommendations are made for refocusing the premise of the law from accountability and high stakes testing to meeting the needs of all children so they can truly be successful in school.

The number of U.S. children living in poverty increased in 2007-continuing an upward trend dating back to 2000: In 2007, 13.3 million children were living in poverty, up from 11.6 million children in 2000. 2 The percentage of children living in families with incomes below the poverty line has increased from 16.2 percent in 2000 to 18.0 percent in 2007. 3 Thus, a large number of children-nearly one in five-are poor. a Child poverty merits attention because a substantial body of research links poverty with lower levels of child well-being. For a variety of reasons, when compared with children from more affluent families, poor children are more likely to have low academic achievement, to drop out of school, and to have health, behavioral, and emotional problems. These linkages are particularly strong for children whose families experience deep poverty, who are poor during early childhood, and who are trapped in poverty for a long time. This Research Brief draws on Census data for 2007 to present a statistical portrait of children in poverty in the United States, 4 updating similar briefs Child Trends produced in 1999 and 2002. The brief highlights research on the consequences of poverty for children and suggests program and policy approaches that hold promise for decreasing poverty among low-income children and their families.

Child Trends, 2009

The number of U.S. children living in poverty increased in 2007-continuing an upward trend dating back to 2000: In 2007, 13.3 million children were living in poverty, up from 11.6 million children in 2000. 2 The percentage of children living in families with incomes below the poverty line has increased from 16.2 percent in 2000 to 18.0 percent in 2007. 3 Thus, a large number of children-nearly one in five-are poor. a Child poverty merits attention because a substantial body of research links poverty with lower levels of child well-being. For a variety of reasons, when compared with children from more affluent families, poor children are more likely to have low academic achievement, to drop out of school, and to have health, behavioral, and emotional problems. These linkages are particularly strong for children whose families experience deep poverty, who are poor during early childhood, and who are trapped in poverty for a long time. This Research Brief draws on Census data for 2007 to present a statistical portrait of children in poverty in the United States, 4 updating similar briefs Child Trends produced in 1999 and 2002. The brief highlights research on the consequences of poverty for children and suggests program and policy approaches that hold promise for decreasing poverty among low-income children and their families.

2002

The percentage of children living in families with incomes below the poverty line has increased from 16.2 percent in 2000 to 18.0 percent in 2007. 3 Thus, a large number of children-nearly one in five-are poor. a Child poverty merits attention because a substantial body of research links poverty with lower levels of child well-being. For a variety of reasons, when compared with children from more affluent families, poor children are more likely to have low academic achievement, to drop out of school, and to have health, behavioral, and emotional problems. These linkages are particularly strong for children whose families experience deep poverty, who are poor during early childhood, and who are trapped in poverty for a long time. This Research Brief draws on Census data for 2007 to present a statistical portrait of children in poverty in the United States, 4 updating similar briefs Child Trends produced in 1999 and 2002. The brief highlights research on the consequences of poverty for children and suggests program and policy approaches that hold promise for decreasing poverty among low-income children and their families. TRENDS The overall child poverty rate rose significantly. • For children younger than 18, the poverty rate increased from 17.4 percent in 2006 to 18 percent in 2007, the highest rate since 1998. This 18 percent translates into 13.3 million children living in poverty in the United States in 2007, 5 an increase of 497,000 children between 2006 and 2007. 6 The percentage of children living in deep poverty had been declining at the turn of the century but is now on the rise. b • In 2007, 8 percent of children lived in deep or extreme poverty (below 50 percent of the poverty line). 7 The percentage of children living in extreme poverty was 9 percent in 1995 and had decreased to 7 percent by 2000. Since 2003, it has been 8 percent. 8 • Analyses suggest that children experiencing extreme poverty may be even worse off than their counterparts were in the mid-1990s because their families have become less likely to use the social programs for which they are eligible (such as food stamps and Medicaid). 9 a This brief reports on the U.S. official poverty line, which is the measure used in most research studies. Considerable discussion focuses on an improved measure of poverty, recommended a decade ago by the National Research Council. 10 b The 2007 Health and Human Services poverty guidelines list the poverty level at an annual income of $13,690 for a two-person household, $17,170 for a three-person household, and $34,570 for an eight-person household. The poverty line is drawn at slightly higher income levels for residents of Alaska and Hawaii. Child Trends is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research center that studies children at all stages of development. Our mission is to improve outcomes for children by providing research, data, and analysis to the people and institutions whose decisions and actions affect children. For additional information on Child Trends, including publications available to download, visit our Web site at www.childtrends.org. For the latest information on more than 100 key indicators of child and youth well-being, visit the Child Trends DataBank at www.childtrendsdatabank.org. For summaries of over 330 experimental evaluations of social interventions for children, visit www.childtrends.org/LINKS.