By JIM BARON

PAWTUCKET — The latest data purporting to quantify the quality of life for children in this economically up-against-it city show “encouraging trends in health and education,” the deputy director of Rhode Island Kids Count said Thursday.

In the jargon of today’s school report cards, Catherine Walsh says Pawtucket gets a “making progress/needs improvement” grade on an array of child-related topics.
“The infant mortality rate and lead poisoning rates are down significantly,” noted Elizabeth Burke Bryant, Kids Count executive director. “We are seeing gradual improvements in fourth grade reading scores and high school graduation rates.
“Nonetheless, some trends are going in the wrong direction,” she said. “The rate of births to girls ages 15-19 is the third-highest in the state, compromising the futures of Pawtucket teens and their children.
“The 2008 Rhode Island Kids Count Factbook shows both progress and areas that need improvement in the well-being of children and youth in Pawtucket,” Bryant said. “State investments in child care, Head Start, health care and education are critical components of any comprehensive strategy to improve outcomes for children and families. We must continue the progress that has been made in the health and education of Rhode Island children.”
The latest local statistics were presented Thursday to a group of parents, policymakers and community leaders at the Blackstone Valley Visitor Center theater by the Rhode Island Parent Information Network.
Of the 18,151 children living in Pawtucket in 2007, the document said, 25.3 percent (4,542) lived in poverty. In 2007, the poverty line was $16,705 a year for a family of three. Yet the cost of a two-bedroom apartment in Pawtucket is $1,096 a month, consuming more than three-quarters of the income of a family earning wages at the poverty level. 
According to the study, 42 percent of children in Pawtucket were living in single-parent households, compared with the state rate of 30 percent. Children living in single-parent families are at increased risk of living in poverty; they are also more likely to have low levels of social and emotional well-being, increased levels of depression and stress, and low academic achievement.
Some of the worst effects of poverty can be softened when families are involved in nutritional programs such as Food Stamps and the federal School Breakfast programs, the report said.
“Children who participate in these programs are less likely to experience hunger and are more likely to have better nutrition,” it said, “which is important to their healthy development and educational performance.”
The rate of income-eligible children participating in the Food Stamp program is 76 percent in Pawtucket, Kids Count found, compared to 74 percent statewide. Pawtucket offers the breakfast program to all children in public schools.
Students who eat breakfast have significantly higher math and reading scores, fewer absences, improved attentiveness and lower incidences of social and behavioral problems. An average of 1,610 (25 percent) low-income children in Pawtucket participated in the school breakfast program each day in October 2007, out of 6,506 who were eligible for free or reduced-price breakfast. The school breakfast program participation rate in Pawtucket is lower than the state rate of 29 percent.
Some educational statistics:
--- The rate of fourth graders reading at or above proficiency level increased from 48 percent in 2005 to 55 percent in 2007, but continued to be lower than the state as a whole (64 percent).
--- The rate of fourth graders who scored at or above proficiency in math increased from 42 percent in 2005 to 46 percent in 2007, but continued to be lower than the state as a whole (54 percent).
--- Forty-seven percent of eighth graders scored at or above proficiency in reading, and 36 percent scored at or above proficiency in math, compared to the statewide rates of 62 percent and 48 percent respectively.
--- Sixteen percent of Pawtucket students were enrolled in special education services in the 2006-07 school year, compared to 19 percent in the state as a whole
Walsh said that “when we start to see reading scores improving,” that means the community as a whole is chipping in to increase youngsters’ performance.
“Improving pre-kindergarten, Head Start and full-day kindergarten makes a huge difference in terms of proficiency in reading,” she said.
One ongoing concern, Walsh said, is that about 144 kids currently enrolled in Head Start don’t know if the program will still be in operation after state budget cuts are finalized. Of the 400 projected cuts in Head Start placements statewide, 200 of them will occur in Pawtucket, Central Falls and Providence, Walsh said.
Also, the report asserts, “Pawtucket continues to have the lowest rate of access to full-day kindergarten among the core cities. Research shows that children in full-day kindergarten benefit academically and are more likely to be ready for first grade than children in half-day kindergarten. Full-day kindergarten programs can be especially beneficial to poor and minority children and can contribute significantly to closing academic achievement gaps. In the 2006-07 school year, 26 percent of kindergarten children in Pawtucket were enrolled in full-day programs, compared to 84 percent of children in the core cities, 52 percent statewide and 69 percent nationally.”  
Among the areas where Pawtucket needs more work, the study shows, is teen pregnancy.
“Pawtucket has the third highest rate of births to teen girls ages 15-19,” the study’s authors stated. “Between 2002 and 2006, Pawtucket had a teen birth rate of 57.2 births per every 1,000 girls ages 15-19, significantly higher than the statewide rate of 30.4 births per 1,000 teen girls in that age group.”
In the five years between 2002 and 2006, there were 220 births to Pawtucket teens ages 15-17 and 430 births to Pawtucket teens ages 18-19. The rate of births to younger teens in Pawtucket is 32.3 per 1,000 girls ages 15-17, compared to 19.1 statewide. The majority of teen births in Pawtucket occur in older teens. There were 94.7 births per every 1,000 girls ages 18-19 in Pawtucket, compared to 43.2 statewide.
The report says Pawtucket “has progressed but still faces challenges in improving some indicators of health.
“The infant mortality rate in Pawtucket has decreased from 8.7 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1997-2001 to 6.6 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2002-2006. This is very close to the state infant mortality rate of 6.2.”
The percentage of Pawtucket children entering kindergarten having screened positive for lead poisoning decreased significantly from 20.7 percent in the class entering kindergarten in 1999 to 4.7 percent in the kindergarten class that will enter in 2009.